Design for the Mind ― Seven Psychological Principles of Persuasive Design

The days of purely aesthetic design are long gone. Today’s web designers are driven by pertinent questions like these: How will I win the battle of the short attention span? How do I put visitors at ease and provide the information they're consciously (and unconsciously) expecting? How will the design of my site encourage users to engage, browse, or buy? There’s a body of tested psychological principles that can transform digital designs by anticipating and benefiting from how human beings react to stimuli. This scientific approach to the decision making process, attitudes to risk and reward, group influence, and more are a treasure trove ready to be applied to the field of website design.

Design for the Mind teaches web designers and developers how to create sites and applications that appeal to our innate natural responses as humans. The book introduces the most immediately relevant and applicable psychological concepts, breaks down each theory into easily-digested principles, then shows how they can be used to create powerful designs. The idea is not to produce a use-by-rote set of patterns for digital persuasion, but to deepen the understanding of why people react in the way they do to design features and approaches. After reading the book, readers should be equipped to make their work more psychologically friendly, engaging, and persuasive.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

Victor Yocco is a researcher and strategist at Intuitive Company, a user focused design and development firm located in Philadelphia, PA. Victor frequently publishes and speaks on UX research and design. He received his PhD from The Ohio State University, where his research focused on psychology and communication.