100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter)

Break text up into chunks. Use bullets, short paragraphs, and pictures.

People from different geographical regions and cultures respond differently to photos and Web site designs. In East Asia people notice and remember the background and context more than people in the West do.

People who are not good at delaying gratification will be more suggestible to images and messages of scarcity (for example, “only three left in stock” or “only available till the end of the month”).

Pairing cues such as sounds with the arrival of information motivates people to seek more.

Put more space between items that don’t go together and less space between items that do. This sounds like common sense, but many Web page layouts ignore this idea.

Use concrete terms and icons. They will be easier to remember.

When designing color coding, consider colors that work for everyone, for example, varying shades of brown and yellow. Avoid red, green, and blue.

If you want people to recognize an object (for example, an icon), use a simple geometric drawing of the object. This will make it easier to recognize the underlying geons, and thus make the object easier and faster to recognize.

Avoid blue or green text on a red background, and red or green text on a blue background.

Giving small bits of information and then providing a way for people to get more information results in more information-seeking behavior.