One way to judge design is how it makes you feel: 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 include:

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.

Joe Leech

Books