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You need more than luck to design and sell popular products.<\/p>\n
After all, most successful products help to solve a problem for people who use those products.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, great design is about understanding people and their pain points.<\/p>\n
Products get inside the heads of consumers in surprising ways, and product designers have taken advantage of this<\/a> for decades.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s a mop you use to clean your floor or a digital experience that is as ephemeral as it is engaging, psychological cues are everywhere.<\/p>\n Companies like Swiffer, Amazon<\/a>, and Ford use psychology to make their products better and more attractive to consumers because visual design directly influences consumers’ perception<\/a> of brand quality and value.<\/p>\n You can do the same.<\/p>\n The creation of the Swiffer broom and mop system came out of extensive use of design psychology and user needs.How can you compete with large, multinational corporations with huge budgets and design teams?<\/p>\n It all starts with marketing psychology<\/a> – understanding how people think.<\/p>\n By understanding the emotions, human behaviors, and people’s motivations, you can significantly impact the success of the products you design and sell.<\/p>\n The crowdspring team (over 220,000 graphic and product designers) has helped the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even big Brands design products<\/a> for many different industries. We\u2019ve worked with the likes of LG, Barilla, Philips and the world\u2019s best agencies to design innovative products and product packaging<\/a>, for a tiny fraction of the cost those companies and agencies would otherwise pay (not to mention a fraction of the time such design would normally take).<\/p>\n Here’s what we’ve learned along the way, to help you design great products: if you understand the science of how people process information, make decisions and take action, you can create more effective (and more successful) products.<\/p>\n The good news is that you don\u2019t have to have a degree in psychology to apply brain-based design principles into your products.<\/p>\n As we move through the world, our brains are inundated with information. We constantly try to make sense of the world and respond in kind.<\/p>\n Although you probably think that you\u2019re in control of your actions, it\u2019s often input that arrives on a subconscious level that pushes us along<\/a>.<\/p>\n Modern psychology has shown that a lot of our decisions actually originate in our \u201cold brain;\u201d the part of our brain that kept us alive and honed our instincts to recognize what was dangerous, what was safe, and what was desired.<\/p>\n Many people call this our “lizard” brain.<\/p>\n We bring all of our past experiences and memories with us as we go through our day, and products should take this into account.<\/p>\n We learn to expect things to be a certain way.<\/p>\n We uncover things that tickle the reward and pleasure centers of our brain and go back for more.<\/p>\n And we often want a product to be so well-designed and in touch with our needs that we actually forget we\u2019re using it.<\/p>\n This is one reason why many consider Amazon’s Echo (Alexa) to be the best smart speaker in the market (compared to Google Home and other competitors).<\/p>\n Get to know how people think, what makes them feel, and what hopes and fears they have.<\/p>\n Design is ultimately about making choices, and good design subtly (or not so subtly) guides people to the \u201cright\u201d choice; that is, the choice we want them to take.<\/p>\n Remember the last time you developed a \u201cgut feeling\u201d about something or someone? Or the time when you fell in love with a product and weren\u2019t quite sure why?<\/p>\n These are all thanks to visceral reactions: reactions that come\u00a0from our instincts rather than our intellect.<\/p>\n Visceral reactions:<\/p>\n We form opinions quickly and rarely change those opinions. For example, as we wrote in Why Good Design Is More Important Than Ever for Your Business<\/a>:<\/p>\n People have a\u00a0very short attention span<\/a>. In fact, according to a\u00a0Princeton University study<\/a>, snap judgments count. The study found after seeing a face for only 1\/10th of a second people formed opinions about that person. Judgments were made on attractiveness, likeability, and trustworthiness, and prolonged exposure to that face just reinforced the initial impression.<\/p>\n The same goes for websites.\u00a0Three studies found<\/a>\u00a0that a mere 50 milliseconds were all people needed to form an opinion about a website.\u00a0Google performed similar testing<\/a>\u00a0and found an even slimmer margin: a speedy 17 to 50 milliseconds were all people needed to decide how they felt about a website.<\/p>\n The results show that both visual complexity and prototypicality play crucial roles in the process of forming an aesthetic judgment. It happens within incredibly short time frames between 17 and 50 milliseconds. By comparison, the average blink of an eye takes 100 to 400 milliseconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are many things that contribute to visceral reactions.<\/p>\n For example, science has shown that we are disposed to think that things we find beautiful are better, or easier to use. In an earlier article<\/a>, we explained why this happens:<\/p>\n Often when consumers are faced with a decision between things with similar features or benefits, they go with the one that they either recognize or that has a more pleasing design. Smashing Magazine\u2019s\u00a0Steven Bradley explained it well<\/a>:<\/p>\n Human beings have an attractiveness bias; we perceive beautiful things as being better, regardless of whether they actually are better. All else being equal, we prefer beautiful things, and we believe beautiful things function better. As in nature, function can follow form.<\/p>\n A List Apart\u2019s\u00a0Stephen Anderson demonstrates this attractiveness bias<\/a>\u00a0well with a simple button example:<\/p>\n (Image credit:\u00a0A List Apart<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cognitively speaking, both of these are obviously buttons. Neither button is \u2018wrong\u2019 as in our previous example. However, research into attention, persuasion, choice, happiness, learning, and other similar topics suggests that the more attractive button is likely to be more usable by most people.<\/p>\n Use well-established design principles<\/a>\u00a0when creating brand assets, websites, or anything else that your customers see. Creating attractive experiences will go a long way to help your business stand out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The result is that identical products (such as bottled water) are not seen as identical by customers.<\/p>\n What is it about identical products with different product packaging<\/a> that attracts or repels us?<\/p>\n When it comes to bottled water, nearly everyone sells a commodity product. But, the shape of the bottle, the color of the label, and other small factors make us think that some bottled water products are better than others.<\/p>\n That certain je ne sais pas <\/i>that draws us to a product often originates as part of a visceral reaction.<\/p>\n Studies have shown that nearly two-thirds of consumers have purchased a product they had never even heard of<\/a> because of how it looks – and the visceral reaction it prompts.<\/p>\n There are many different elements that contribute to visceral reactions. Key ones include color, shape, and imagery.<\/p>\n As we wrote previously<\/a>,<\/p>\n In a widely-cited study called \u201cThe Impact of Color on Marketing<\/a>,\u201d research found that people make a subconscious judgment about products within the first 90 seconds of seeing it. The majority of these people evaluate these products on color alone: almost 85% of consumers cite color as the main reason they buy a certain product, and 80% of people believe color increases brand recognition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some common color associations are:<\/p>\n Research has found<\/a> that deferring to consumer\u2019s feelings about color appropriateness in relation to your product is more important than the individual color choice itself.<\/p>\n That means that choosing a color that people positively link to your product is more important than the color itself at face value – you\u2019ll want to think twice about choosing black for a child\u2019s toy, for example, simply because it\u2019s your favorite color.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Lysol product line is a good example of using many different shapes to differentiate each product.<\/p><\/div>\n In fact, color plays a very important role not just in products, but also in your company’s brand identity<\/a>. From your company’s logo<\/a> to your business cards, website, and marketing materials – your prospects and clients are constantly evaluating your brand.<\/p>\n As with color, people associate different shapes with a variety of emotions and other qualities.<\/p>\n Our subconscious makes associations between specific characteristics and certain shapes, which makes it important to choose the perfect shape\/association for your product.<\/p>\n Valerie Folkes, in \u201cThe Effect of Package Shape on Consumers\u2019 Judgement of Product Volume: Attention as a Mental Contaminant<\/a>\u201d, found that unusual shapes cause consumers to estimate the quality of the product as higher than the actual value.<\/p>\n Now you know why expensive perfume is nearly always packaged in exotically shaped bottles.<\/p>\n A good example of how interesting shape choice can influence customer decisions is the Toblerone candies. The triangle shape of the Toblerone bar<\/a> is dramatically different than other more traditional chocolate bars, and so customers are increasingly drawn to it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.crowdspring.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/27131347\/15139538755_f29a027365_b.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHere are 8 proven, powerful ways you can incorporate psychology to increase engagement and design better products.<\/h2>\n
Getting to know you<\/h3>\n
Visceral reactions<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nColor<\/h3>\n
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Shape<\/h3>\n
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