The importance of understanding how people think is huge when you realize that you are designing for said people. If you cannot understand how they think and read you cannot design in a way that gets your message across. This chapter covers many mental processes that can be utilized to effectively create a design piece.
As we have previously learned, people tend to process small bits of information at a time rather than large bits of info. Mental processing can be seen in loads that have varying amounts of cognitive (memory), motor (action), and visual (seeing) skills. Fitts Law discusses that there is a relationship between speed, accuracy and distance. As a designer, it is important to evaluate loads of processing and take into consideration that sometimes more "clicks" is better because it requires less cognitive and more motor skill (which is easier for the user). It's also important to keep in mind that people have wandering minds so it's important to give hyperlinks to make your way around a page. It's also good to get people's attention with the use of storytelling because it makes the information understandable, interesting, and memorable.
Cognitive Dissonance Denial focuses on the fact that as a being we are somewhat stuck in our opinions. The less we know about something, the less likely we will pay attention to someone convincing us of it's ability to be better at something. The book uses the example of an avid iPhone user being shown a new Android yet not really paying attention because they already like their phone and don't care if the person says the Android is better (I definitely have personal experience with this one).
Mental models and conceptual models are very important to understand as a designer. They relate to usability and UX. Mental models are a thought process and opinion of how someone might expect something to work, while the conceptual model is how the interface actually works. It's also important to keep in mind that people understand and learn best from examples such as photos and videos of a process (imagine downloading a new app and the first time you use it you see a tutorial of what each section is with fake examples).
There were definitely a lot more take-aways in this chapter than we have seen thus far. I think it's important to remember that people tend to create organization for themselves if you haven't presented it, that people are affected and see things differently depending on their culture, time is relative and it's always helpful to show process indicators and to break up steps to create ease and functionality.
DEFINITIONS
Goal-gradient Effect- states that you are more motivated to complete a goal as you near the end. A behavioral trait that was studied using rats in a maze. Research found that the rats would run faster the closer to the end (food) goal.
Operant Conditioning- a type of behavioral modification where a specific behavior is increased or decreased through the use of positive or negative feedback. When training a dog you are told to praise good behavior, thus increasing the likelihood that the dog will preform the behavior again to receive your positive feedback.
Dopamine- an organic chemical found in the brain and outside the nervous system. Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain to send signals to other cells. In the brain, it helps function with reward, motivation, cognition, etc.
CHAPTER ANALYSIS
This chapter has been the most informative in my opinion thus far. I definitely felt that there was a lot of repeat, and that could come from the fact that it shares many points with the "Don't Make Me Think" book.
I agreed with many points that the chapter made. I found the storytelling bit to be interesting and eye-opening. I can think of many different examples where I've seen or read storytelling and thus become engrossed in something. I also felt that storytelling tied into the part about the flow state in the chapter. It is an interesting concept to attempt to create a flow state for a user. I try to imagine a time where I am "in the zone" and I'm engrossed and focusing my attention. The book suggests to give people control over their actions, break difficult stages into chunks so that the user feels like the goal is challenging yet achievable, give consistent feedback, and minimize distractions. I think that when trying to create a flow state it is immensely important to keep in mind the wandering mind points.
My favorite part of this chapter was the part that talked about ways of being creative. While I felt like it was slightly out of place (because I struggle to imagine a situation where you need to design to induce creativity) I really found the types of creativity interesting. Deliberate and cognitive creativity requires previous knowledge of a subject. It is basically the act of putting together existing information in a new way. Deliberate and emotional creativity requires quiet time. These are described as "A-ha!" moments that deal with feelings and emotions. Spontaneous and cognitive creativity require the user to stop and walk away from the problem. I feel like this is most prominent in school (I can hear Sigrid or Scott saying to take time away from a project and revisit it later with a fresh mind). Basically the conscious brain stops working on a problem and the unconscious brain has time to solve the problem. I remember when I was coding my website I came up with this strange problem that a certain piece wasn't showing. I searched my code and wracked my brain for hours but couldn't figure out why. I left to go to a meeting at work. On the drive back home I suddenly realized my problem since I had given myself time away. I simply forgot to close a tag. Finally, there is spontaneous and emotional creativity which cannot be designed for. It's an artistic moment of epiphany or like a religious experience.
I really appreciated the section about the importance of time. It immediately made me think of an online shopping cart and how the sections are broken up. First you enter your log in. Next, if you do not have one you create one. It typically starts with name and email. Then you move on to mailing information. Finally purchase info. These sections are broken up in a way that takes about the same amount of time per page, and allows the user to feel a break and an accomplishment before moving on. If you simply have all of these steps on one page a user might not feel they have time to complete everything.
(side note: Scott, I could use a lot more dopamine for motivation for these blog posts)
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