Design Psychology: 10 Essential Experimental Principles

Design Psychology: 10 Essential Experimental Principles

By understanding the workings of the human brain, designers can learn to leverage human perception to trigger behavioural change.

We can use the basic principles of psychology to make more informed design decisions, ensuring our designs are not only appealing but effective.

Today, we’ll review the ten most critical psychological principles to keep in mind during every step of the design process.

1. Von Restorff effect

Also known as the isolation effect, the von Restorff effect predicts that when presented with multiple objects, we are likely to remember the one that is different.

The opposite is also true: objects that stand out less are less likely to be remembered.

The takeaway?

We should make critical elements and essential information visually distinct by varying size, colour, position, and shape.

The pricing page from Dropbox Business is a prime example of how the von Restorff effect can be used to influence consumer behaviour.

They’ve made their Advanced plan (the one they want us to buy, for whatever reason) visually distinct from their Standard and Enterprise plans.

Without this visual contrast, the viewer would be faced with a screen full of text, with no clear direction on where to look first.

With this visual contrast, they are more likely to look at and remember the Advanced plan.

2. Dual-coding theory

The dual-coding theory, created by Allan Paivio in 1971, suggests that presenting information both verbally and non-verbally makes it easier to remember.

The idea behind this theory is that verbal information is processed by a different cognitive system than non-verbal information, and presenting information to both systems helps viewers create accurate mental models of that information.