Design for How People Think: Using Brain Science to Build Better Products

238 Pages·2019·16.58 MB·English

by  John Whalen

Design for How
People Think
Using Brain Science to Build
Better Products
John Whalen, PhD

Praise for Design for How People Think
“This book takes John’s years of research and practice and turns
them into an accessible, practical, and enjoyable read with a playful
sense of humor. Regardless of the role you play on your team, the Six
Minds framework and discovery techniques will help you unlock key
insights about your customers and propel your product’s success.”
HEATHER WINKLE,
MANAGING VICE PRESIDENT OF DESIGN AT CAPITAL ONE
“Design for How People Think reads just like a conversation with
John—clear, engaging, and always quick to the point. This is a
terrific book for people new to UX research or who work with UX
and want to better understand its role in the product design process.
Even long-time practitioners will find the Six Minds framework new
and useful and the summary of key concepts, a helpful refresh. Lots
of great examples and concrete, practical advice.”
LAURA CUOZZO GUARNOTTA,
USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH LEAD AT GOOGLE
“The design industry is changing quickly, and with AI and ML, new
tools will replace design asset delivery once crafted with a keyboard
and mouse. We have the tools to synthesize research now, but
Design for How People Think helps you to understand how to
synthesize for design of the future, focusing deeply on how customers
think, not on how they use our products.”
JASON WISHARD,
DIRECTOR, DESIGN PRACTICE MANAGEMENT, AT CAPITAL ONE,
CONSUMER BANK DESIGN
“The demand for world-class customer experiences is increasing daily.
Unfortunately, with new technologies like AR and AI, the rules of customer
experience have changed. John’s book provides a way forward to understand
how the brain processes these technologies, drawing a scientific road map of
how to deliver customer experiences that work.”
JASON PAPPAS,
INNOVATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LEADER, AT EATON
Design for How People
Think
Using Brain Science to Build Better
Products
John Whalen, PhD
Beijing Boston Farnham Sebastopol Tokyo
DESIGN FOR HOW PEOPLE THINK
by John Whalen, PhD
Copyright © 2019 John Whalen. All rights reserved.
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April 2019: First Edition
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2019-03-20 First Release
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978-1-491-98545-8
[GP]
[ contents ]
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
PART I RETHINKING “THE” EXPERIENCE
Chapter 1 The Six Minds of Experience ...........................3
Vision, Attention, and Automaticity ....................4
Wayfinding .............................................4
Language ...............................................4
Memory .................................................5
Decision Making .......................................5
Emotion ................................................6
The Six Minds ..........................................6
Activity .................................................7
Chapter 2 In the Blink of an Eye: Vision, Attention, and
Automaticity ............................................9
From Representations to Experiences ..................9
Unconscious Behaviors: Caught You Looking .........12
Visual Popout ..........................................14
Oops, You Missed That! ...............................15
Our Visual System Creates Clarity When There
Is None ................................................16
Ceci N’est Pas une Pipe: Learning What
Someone Understands Something to Be, Not
What Might Actually Be There ........................16
Further Reading .......................................17
v
Chapter 3 Wayfinding: Where Am I? .............................19
The Ant in the Desert: Computing Euclidean Space ..19
Locating Yourself in Physical and Virtual Space ......21
Where Can I Go? How Will I Get There? .............22
Testing Interfaces to Reveal Metaphors for Interaction 25
Thinking to the Future: Is There a “Where” in a
Voice Interface? .......................................28
Further Reading .......................................29
Chapter 4 Memory/Semantics ....................................31
Abstracting Away the Detail ...........................31
Stereotypes of Services ................................36
The Value of Understanding Mental Models ..........38
Acknowledging the Diversity of Types of Mental
Models .................................................39
Riddle Answer Key! ...................................39
Further Reading .......................................40
Chapter 5 Language: I Told You So ...............................41
Wait, Didn’t We Just Cover This? .....................41
The Language of the Mind ............................42
“What We’ve Got Here Is Failure to Communicate”. . .44
Revealing Words .......................................44
I’m Listening ..........................................46
Chapter 6 Decision Making and Problem Solving: Enter
Consciousness, Stage Left .............................47
What Is My Problem (Definition)? .....................48
How Might Problems Be Framed Differently? ........49
Finding the Yellow Brick Road to Problem Resolution 52
When You Get Stuck En Route: Subgoals .............52
Further Reading .......................................53
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vi    CONTENTS
Chapter 7 Emotion: Logical Decision Making Meets Its Match ..55
Too Much Information Jamming Up My Brain!
Too Much Information Driving Me Insane! ...........56
Spock, I Am Not .......................................57
Competing for Conscious Attention ...................58
Getting to Deep Desires, Goals, and Fears ............59
Further Reading .......................................60
PART II EXPOSING SECRETS
Chapter 8 User Research: Contextual Interviews .................63
Why Choose a Contextual Interview? .................63
Empathy Research: Understanding What the
User Really Needs .....................................65
Recommended Approach for Contextual
Interviews and Their Analysis .........................70
Common Questions ...................................74
From Data to Insights .................................75
Exercise ................................................78
Concrete Recommendations ...........................81
Further Reading .......................................81
Chapter 9 Vision: Are You Looking at Me? .......................83
Where Are Their Eyes? Eye-Tracking Can Tell
You Some Things, But Not Everything ................84
Quick, Get a Heat Map… ..............................88
Go with the Flow ......................................89
Real-World Examples ..................................91
Concrete Recommendations ...........................94
Chapter 10 Language: Did They Just Say That? ....................95
Recording Interviews ..................................96
Prepping Raw Data: But, But, But… ...................96
Reading Between the Lines: Sophistication ...........96
Real-World Examples ..................................98
Concrete Recommendations ..........................102
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CONTENTS    vii
Chapter 11 Wayfinding: How Do You Get There? ................103
Where Do Users Think They Are? ...................104
How Do They Think They Can Get from Place
A to Place B? .........................................105
What Are Those Expectations Based On? ............106
Real-World Examples .................................107
Case Study: Distracted Movie-Watching ..............109
Concrete Recommendations .........................110
Chapter 12 Memory: Expectations and Filling in Gaps ...........111
Meanings in the Mind ................................112
Putting It All Together ...............................113
Real-World Examples .................................114
What You Might Discover ............................117
Concrete Recommendations .........................119
Chapter 13 Decision Making: Following the Breadcrumbs .......121
What Am I Doing? Goals and Journeys ..............122
Gimme Some of That! Just-in-Time Needs ...........122
Chart Me a Course: The Decision-Making Journey ..124
Real-World Examples .................................124
Concrete Recommendations .........................127
Chapter 14 Emotion: The Unspoken Reality ......................129
Live a Little (Finding Reality, Essence) ...............130
Analyzing Dreams (Goals, Life Stages, Fears) ........131
Getting the Zeitgeist (Person versus Persona-
Specific) ..............................................133
A Crime of Passion (In the Moment) .................135
Real-World Examples .................................136
Concrete Recommendations .........................138
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viii    CONTENTS