50 things every product designer needs to know about people

1. People value a product more highly when it is physically in front of them.
2. People think others are more easily influenced than they are themselves.
3. When people are uncertain they let others decide what to do.
4. People are swayed by a dominant personality.
5. Group decision-making is often wrong.
6. Mood influences the decision-making process.
7. People care more about time than they care about money.
8. People think choice is equal to control.
9. People want more choices and information than they can process.
10. The unconscious knows first.
11. People make most decisions unconsciously.
12. People will always make mistakes there is no fail-safe product.
13. People make errors when they are under stress.
14. People use look and feel as their first indicator of trust.
15. The more difficult it is to achieve something the more people like it.
16. People feel more positive before and after an event than during it.
17. People are programmed to enjoy surprises.
18. People are motivated as they get closer to a goal.
19. Unpredictability keeps people searching.
20. People are more motivated by intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards.
21. People are inherently lazy.
22. people will look for shortcuts only if shortcuts are easy.
23. Forming a habit takes a long time and requires small steps
24. People are more motivated to compete when there are fewer competitors.
25. Sustained attention lasts about 10 minutes.
26. For people to pay attention to something they must first perceive it.
27. People filter information.
28. Well, practiced skills don't require conscious attention.
29. Culture affects how people think.
30. People learn best from examples.
31. People process information best in story form.
32. The more uncertain people are, the more they defend their ideas.
33. People process information better in small chunks
34. The mind is always wandering 30% of the time.
35. People only remember 4 items at once.
36. It is easier to recognize information than recall it.
37. People reconstruct memories each time they remember them.
38. Font size matters.
39. Reading a computer screen is harder than reading paper.
40. People read faster with a longer line length but they prefer a shorter line length.
41. Pattern recognition helps people identify letters in different fonts.
42. It is not often true that capital letters are hard to read.
43. The meanings of color vary by culture.
44. 9% of men and 1.5% of women are color blind
45. Red and Blue together are hard on the eyes.
46. People believe that things that are close together belong together.
47. People identify objects by recognizing patterns.
48. People scan screens based on past experience and expectations.
49. What people see is often not what the brain gets.
50. People make predictable types of mistakes when using a product/service.

courtesy of 100 things every designer needs to know about people by

SUSAN. M. WEINSCHENK, Ph.D.