A Pocket Guide to Psychology for designers

by Joe Leech

One way to judge design is how it makes you emotion is key. In this book, Joe Leech will show you how psychological theory can be applied to design. It won’t demand you read every single research study. In fact, it contains very little in the way of theory. What it will show you are the benefits of taking a psychological approach, as well as how to find and apply relevant ideas, and advocate your design decisions based on sound psychological reasoning, making your designs - and the way you talk about them - better.

Who should read this book?

This book is for web, digital and UX designers. It'll show you how to apply psychology to make your designs more effective and how to use psychology to better advocate design decisions.

Topics

PART 1: HOW UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY CAN MAKE YOU A BETTER DESIGNER

What psychology brings to design and how we can use it to improve our designs and make us better at what we do.

PART 2: THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGY

An overview of the major types of psychology and how useful they are at informing design.

PART 3: FINDING AND USING PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

How to solve a problem using psychology and where to find papers and studies to inform our designs.

PART 4: ADVOCATING DESIGN USING PSYCHOLOGY

How to use psychology to talk about the benefits of our designs, and how to to test and improve on our designs.

PART 5: TAKING YOUR PSYCHOLOGY STUDIES FURTHER

An overview of university programmes and online courses to learn psychology theory appropriate to design and designers, as well as further links, reading and resources.

Genres: Design, Psychology

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Davor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish it, found it a bit boring. The book is written in a very solid manner, however the subject it covers is far from interesting. I'd even say the title of the book is misleading - it should say "Psychological research for designers" which in reality it is. Had it been titled like that, I'm pretty sure I would ignore it. Given the book's title, I've expected it to offer practical advice. Instead, the book offers advice on how to do research.

[Jason]

This book has very little practical knowledge that you can put to use immediately, but it did get me thinking about using psychology to inform design. It contains quite a few references to interesting resources as well as suggestions to help get you started. It's worth the 20 minutes it takes to burn through it.

[Mariusz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is _very_ basic. Could possibly be a blog post, but I guess that doesn't sell that well. If you're looking for a place to get started with psychology and a list of references to other, more serious books, it's a good choice. Except that, look for something more serious from the get go.

[Ignas · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the most boring books I have read and found it useless. Even if it is a short read - do not waste time.

[Clare Bowyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a bargain! I saw a talk from Joe Leech and he mentioned his cheap and useful book so I bought it straight away and so glad I did! It's a really insightful guide to psychology for designers, it provides a lot of useful links to other reading materials and websites to learn even more about the psychological theories or design problems you're facing, I have a few on the way now! I have already been back to this a few times to look up some references for work.

[Alessandro Muraro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it very boring and lacking interesting (to me at least) examples and scenarios, I can't make much of it beside (if I try hard not to be bored) learn about psychology. Not design though, at least not for me.

[Ale Muñoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it you know *nothing* about psychology. But if you've done your homework, and have read a bit, there are far better books to read.

[Vishwaraj · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's more like a compendium of resources of what to read for various psychology-related studies in the past for your use case. To be honest, the author did digress from the main topic several times when he started to explain how to read a research paper or how to do a google search.

I was able to clear one doubt related to psychological theories. I used to think some of our design perceptions are "because" of a theory. The author appropriately says that after all its just a probability that a theory would fit for a user and in the end it's his own brain which has to perceive a design.

I already knew about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Hawthorne's work, but Myers Briggs's work was something new for me. Since the book just names past works leapfrogs to various topics, it leaves many open questions like why the author has even mentioned a work.

[Camila Cirico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se você está procurando algo pra começar a ler sobre Psicologia e UX, eu recomendo ler Psychology For Designers por Joe Leech. Ele sai da mesmice e introduz muito bem sobre as psicologias para designers, derruba alguns mitos da ciência psicológica e te dá alguns insights e caminhos práticos para se aventurar nessa ciência. Não encontrará nada sobre psicologia da gestalt, psicologia das cores, história da tipografia ou arquitetura da informação. A parada é outra. Leiam.

[Camello · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good starting point for designers who are interested in applying psychology to their work. Lots of references and further readings. If you are looking for something more in depth, maybe not for you.

[PD Storage]

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[Julio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

Great book for those who are trying to understand ux design from a psychological point of view. Highly recommend it!

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A list of resources with the basics of psychology -plus a bit on how to do (academic) research.

[Sahvanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good introduction on psychology for designers that don't have a psychology background or are interested in expanding in that area.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really Useful for Designers

This book is more about why to use psychology and encouraging people to go back to school to study it than how to use psychology in effective designs. Very disappointing.

[Geronimo Garcia Sgrita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t entirely what I expected

The book is a good opener for anyone trying to learn about HCI and psychology in design, but doesn’t delve too deep in the subject. It offers an example of how HCI helps making informed decisions and points the reader to some sources of information. If you have no experience on the field whatsoever it’s a good starting point. For me the glass felt half empty

[Katy Watkins]

Great resource for any designer looking to get more into psychology. Also, Readmill is lying, it's short but not 5 minutes short.

[Justin Schüler · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting sneak peak into psychology and it's relevance for designers, including some "how to" stuff. Worth reading.

[James Stewart]

Effectively a bibliography

[kthesoundadventuress · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice light intro into the field of psychology with ample resources listed to give designers a good place to start researching for practical application.

[Mounir Abbas]

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