Archetypes
Universal, symbolic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconscious, used in design to create meaningful and resonant experiences. Useful for creating designs that tap into universal human experiences and emotions.
313 topics found for:
“user psychology”
Group Attribution Error
A cognitive bias where people attribute group behavior to the characteristics of the group members rather than the situation. Crucial for understanding team dynamics and avoiding misattribution in collaborative settings.
Contrast Effect
The enhancement or diminishment of perception, cognition, or related performance as a result of exposure to a stimulus of greater or lesser value in the same dimension. Useful for designing interfaces that leverage contrasting elements to guide user attention and behavior.
Executive Function
A set of cognitive processes that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control, crucial for planning, decision-making, and behavior regulation. Crucial for designing interfaces and experiences that support users' cognitive abilities.
Constancy
The perception of objects as unchanging despite changes in sensory input, such as changes in lighting, distance, or angle. Important for understanding user perception and designing stable visual experiences.
Common Region
A Gestalt principle where elements that are located within the same closed region are perceived as being grouped together. Essential for creating designs that are easily understood and visually organized.
Iconic Memory
A type of sensory memory that briefly holds visual information for a fraction of a second. Useful for understanding how users process visual information and designing interfaces accordingly.
Cognitive Theory
The study of mental processes such as perception, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. Important for designing interfaces that align with how users process information and make decisions.
Figure-Ground
A Gestalt principle that describes the visual relationship between a figure and its background, crucial for understanding visual perception. Important for designing clear and effective visual hierarchies in user interfaces.
Fast and Frugal Heuristics
Decision-making strategies that use simple heuristics to make quick, efficient, and satisfactory choices with limited information. Important for designing user experiences that support quick and efficient decision-making.
Longitudinal Study
A research method that involves repeated observations of the same variables over a period of time. Crucial for understanding changes and developments over time.
Neuroaesthetics
The study of how the brain perceives and responds to art and design, exploring the neural basis for aesthetic experiences. Important for understanding the neurological underpinnings of aesthetic preferences and enhancing design impact.
Naive Allocation
A heuristic where individuals evenly distribute resources across all options, regardless of their specific needs or potential. Useful for understanding and designing around simplistic decision-making strategies.
Intertemporal Choice
The study of how people make choices about what and how much to do at various points in time, often involving trade-offs between costs and benefits occurring at different times. Crucial for designing systems that account for delayed gratification and long-term planning.
Continued Influence Effect
The persistence of misinformation in memory and influence on reasoning, even after it has been corrected. Crucial for understanding and mitigating the impact of misinformation in design and communication.
Egocentric Bias
A cognitive bias where people rely too heavily on their own perspective and experiences when making decisions. Important for designers to recognize and mitigate their own perspectives influencing design decisions.
Serial Position Effect
A cognitive bias where people tend to remember the first and last items in a series better than those in the middle, impacting recall and memory. Crucial for designing information presentation to optimize user memory and recall.
Worse-Than-Average Effect
A cognitive bias where individuals underestimate their own abilities and performance relative to others, believing they are worse than average. Important for understanding self-perception biases among designers and designing systems that support accurate self-assessment.
Disinhibition
The reduction of restraint in behavior, often due to the absence of social cues, which can lead to impulsive actions and emotional outbursts. Important for understanding user behavior in online and anonymous contexts.
Prospect Theory
A behavioral economic theory that describes how people choose between probabilistic alternatives that involve risk, where the probabilities of outcomes are known. Crucial for understanding decision-making under risk and designing systems that align with user behavior.
Reward Substitution
A strategy where less immediate or tangible rewards are substituted with more immediate or tangible ones to encourage desired behaviors. Important for designing systems that leverage immediate incentives to promote long-term goals.
Experimenter Bias
A bias that occurs when researchers' expectations influence the outcome of a study. Crucial for designing research methods that ensure objectivity and reliability.
InfoVis
Information Visualization (InfoVis) is the study and practice of visual representations of abstract data to reinforce human cognition. Crucial for transforming complex data into intuitive visual formats, enabling faster insights and better decision-making.
Relativity
A principle often used in behavioral economics that suggests people evaluate options based on relative comparisons rather than absolute values. Important for understanding decision-making and designing choices that highlight beneficial comparisons.
Spacing Effect
A learning phenomenon where information is better retained when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed in a short period. Crucial for designing educational tools and content that optimize long-term retention.
Reciprocity
A social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action, fostering mutual benefit and cooperation. Important for designing user experiences and systems that encourage positive reciprocal interactions.
Behaviorism
A theoretical approach that focuses on observable behaviors and dismisses internal processes, emphasizing the role of environmental factors in shaping behavior. Foundational for understanding how external factors influence user behavior and for designing behavior-based interventions.
Diversification Bias
A cognitive bias where people prefer a greater variety of options when making simultaneous choices compared to sequential choices. Important for designers to consider user preferences for variety when designing choice architectures and product offerings.
Proportionality Bias
The tendency to believe that large or significant events must have large or significant causes. Important for understanding cognitive biases in decision-making and designing systems that present accurate causal relationships.
Take the Best Heuristic
A decision-making rule where individuals choose the option with the highest perceived value based on the first good reason that comes to mind, ignoring other information. Crucial for understanding and designing for quick decision-making processes.
Repetition Blindness
A phenomenon where people fail to recognize a repeated item in a visual sequence, impacting information processing and perception. Important for understanding visual perception and designing interfaces that avoid repetitive confusion.
Bizarreness Effect
A cognitive bias where bizarre or unusual information is better remembered than common information. Useful for designers to create memorable and engaging user experiences by incorporating unique elements.
Similar To Me Bias
A cognitive bias where individuals favor others who are perceived to be similar to themselves, affecting judgments and decision-making. Crucial for understanding biases in team dynamics and decision-making processes among designers.
Zero-Risk Bias
A cognitive bias where people prefer the option that seems to eliminate risk entirely, even if another option offers a greater overall benefit. Important for understanding decision-making and designing risk communication for users.
Behavioral Insights
Practical applications of behavioral science to understand and influence human behavior in various contexts. Crucial for applying scientific insights to design and improve user experiences and outcomes.
COM-B Model
Capability, Opportunity, Motivation (COM...) is a framework for understanding Behavior (àB). Important for designing interventions that effectively change user behavior.
Lag Effect
A phenomenon where learning is improved when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed together. Crucial for designing educational and training programs that enhance long-term retention.
Decoy Pricing
A strategy where an additional, less attractive option is introduced to make other pricing options look more appealing, often steering customers towards a particular choice. Important for guiding user decisions and increasing the perceived value of targeted pricing tiers.
Between Subjects Design
An experimental design where different groups of participants are exposed to different conditions, allowing for comparison between groups. Important for understanding and applying different experimental designs in user research.
Social Learning Theory
A theory that suggests people learn behaviors, skills, and attitudes through observing and imitating others, as well as through direct experiences. Crucial for understanding how users acquire new behaviors and designing educational or training programs.
Belief Bias
The tendency to judge the strength of arguments based on the believability of their conclusions rather than the logical strength of the arguments. Important for understanding cognitive biases that affect decision-making and user perceptions.
Social Desirability Bias
The tendency for individuals to present themselves in a favorable light by overreporting good behavior and underreporting bad behavior in surveys or research. Crucial for designing research methods that mitigate biases and obtain accurate data.
Paradox of Value
An economic theory that explains why some necessities, such as water, are less expensive than non-essentials, like diamonds, despite their greater utility. Useful for understanding consumer behavior and designing pricing strategies.
Reciprocal Altruism
A behavior in which an individual provides a benefit to another with the expectation that the favor will be returned in the future, fostering mutual cooperation and long-term relationships. Important for building trust, cooperation, and mutually beneficial relationships in various social and professional contexts.
Commitment Device
A technique or tool used to lock oneself into following through on a commitment, often by adding a cost to failing to do so. Useful for designing interventions that help users stick to their goals and commitments.
Behavioral Audit
A systematic evaluation of behaviors within an organization or process to identify areas for improvement and ensure alignment with goals. Crucial for understanding and improving user behaviors and organizational processes.
Association Fallacy
A logical fallacy in which it is assumed that qualities of one thing are inherently qualities of another, due to an irrelevant association. Important for avoiding incorrect associations in user research and data interpretation.
Crowding Out Effect
The phenomenon where external incentives diminish intrinsic motivation, leading to reduced performance or engagement. Important for designing motivational strategies that do not undermine intrinsic motivation.
Modality Effect
The phenomenon where people remember information better when it is presented through multiple sensory modalities rather than a single modality. Crucial for enhancing memory retention and understanding through multimodal presentations.
Emotional Intelligence
The ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others. Essential for designing empathetic user experiences and effective team collaboration.
Depth of Processing
A theory suggesting that information processed at a deeper, more meaningful level is better remembered than information processed at a shallow level. Crucial for designing educational and informational content that enhances retention and understanding.
Choice-Supportive Bias
The tendency to attribute positive qualities to one's own choices and downplay the negatives, enhancing post-decision satisfaction. Useful for understanding user satisfaction and designing experiences that reinforce positive decision outcomes.
Affinity Bias
The tendency to favor people who are similar to oneself in terms of background, beliefs, or interests. Important for recognizing and mitigating bias in user research and team dynamics.
Probability Matching
A decision-making strategy where individuals allocate resources proportionally to the probability of an outcome occurring, rather than optimizing the most likely outcome. Important for understanding decision-making behaviors and designing systems that guide better resource allocation.
Deep Processing
A cognitive approach that involves meaningful analysis of information, leading to better understanding and retention. Crucial for designing educational and informational content that promotes deep engagement and learning.
Cognitive Load Theory
A theory that explains how the amount of mental effort required to process information can impact user experience and task performance. Important for designing user interfaces that minimize unnecessary cognitive effort, enhancing usability and user satisfaction.
Secondary Reinforcer
A stimulus that gains reinforcing properties through association with a primary reinforcer, such as money or tokens, which are associated with basic needs. Essential for understanding complex behavior reinforcement strategies and designing effective reward systems.
Common Fate
A Gestalt principle stating that elements moving in the same direction are perceived as a group or a single entity. Crucial for creating visual designs that effectively convey movement and relationships.
Visual Depiction Effect
A phenomenon where people better understand and remember information when it is presented visually. Crucial for designing effective and engaging visual content.
Chunking
A cognitive process that groups information into manageable units, making it easier to remember and process. Important for designing user interfaces that enhance usability and information retention.