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Design can be an incredibly powerful tool when you understand how psychology influence’s people’s behavior.<\/p>\n
Science has proven that people respond differently to shapes, colors, patterns, and other design elements. Just like in marketing psychology<\/a>, you can use the psychology of design to create stronger designs.<\/p>\n The good news is that you don’t need a degree in psychology to leverage good design practices in your own business or when you’re creating designs for someone else. You can apply basic psychological principles<\/a> when formulating your next logo design<\/a>, website design, print design, or any other design project.<\/p>\n We took a close look at five psychological theories that can help you improve the effectiveness of the designs you use to market and grow your business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next time you walk up to a swinging door, take another, close look. What kind of door is it? How does it open? Do you think you should push or pull to open it?<\/p>\n The system your brain uses to figure out what to do is called a mental model<\/a>. It\u2019s the way you think something could work.<\/p>\n Your brain is continuously taking in information about the world and making sense of what it perceives. In the case of the door, our brain assesses many elements, including:<\/p>\n Once we have this information in mind, we apply our mental model of how doors should work based on what we\u2019ve learned to (hopefully correctly) try and open it.<\/p>\n Mental models are a powerful design tool because they leverage existing knowledge to help people make decisions about how to use something. Apple used mental models extensively when they introduced the iPhone in 2007. They relied on people\u2019s mental models of real objects like phone books, telephones, and clocks to make the iPhone\u2019s revolutionary interface more intuitive. It’s one reason why the early iPhone interfaces looked just like the non-digital objects they were seeking to replace. For example, the “phone book” had a visual look that reminded you of a phone book.<\/p>\n What happens when someone\u2019s mental model doesn\u2019t match how something ends up working? In the case of our door, we {BANG} push when we should have pulled or vice versa.\u00a0 There is a mental model mismatch between how we think something should work and how it actually works. This mismatch can be highly frustrating, and if your products or designs suffer from a mental model mismatch, it could mean the difference between an engaged customer and one who does business with your competitor.<\/p>\n Doors that frustrate expectations of how they should work are often called \u201cNorman doors.\u201d The Norman referenced here is seminal designer Don Norman, who wrote about doors, phones, and the design of everything things in his book called, appropriately enough, The Design of Everyday Things<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vox and the excellent design podcast 99% Invisible<\/a> looked at bad door design<\/a> in this entertaining video, which also features an interview with Don Norman:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.crowdspring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/27131638\/pexels-photo-79306.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMental Models<\/h2>\n
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