We dove into "Laws of UX" to integrate psychology into our UX design at EchoUser. The book was a goldmine, offering key psychological laws and real-world examples. Our team meetings turned into rich discussions that led to actionable insights. The cherry on top? Brainstorming a digital cheat sheet for long-term application.
The Research Team at EchoUser recently read "Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services" as part of our first book club series. The book, written by Jon Yablonski, explores the application of psychological principles in user experience, demonstrating how practitioners can utilize psychology to create more effective digital products and services. It shares theoretical explanations and practical examples, helping readers integrate cognitive and emotional considerations into their design decisions to ultimately create better experiences.
The book is structured around a set of key principles or "laws" derived from "the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital products." Each chapter is dedicated to one specific law, like Hick's, Fitts's, or the Von Restorff Effect. These laws are presented clearly and accompanied by real-world examples and case studies that illustrate how they can be applied practically. The book's organization allows readers to dive into specific psychological concepts and their relevance to design, making it akin to a reference book. Our researchers appreciated the citations and the accompanied website which helped with deepening our understanding and provided sources for continued learning.
Why Chloe chose this book:
I chose this book for our team to read as I think it’s important for UX professionals to be aware of and reinforce human psychological principles and knowledge that underpin our work and the UX field.
The book club discussions really elevated our understanding and practical use of these laws within our UX research team. To keep track of our notes and as a primer for discussions, we had a roaming notes document. We noted our reactions, provided examples from our own experience, and shared our key takeaways there.
Each week we got together and dug into a law, sharing stories from our own projects or general lived experiences. This back-and-forth helped us see where we could weave these insights into our research methods and suggestions. Plus, brainstorming during the discussions sparked fresh insights into how the implications of the laws might impact our research and how we could incorporate our learnings, translating to better research.
We’ve been brainstorming some innovative ways to make the insights stick around for the long haul. One concept was to develop a digital cheat sheet, summarizing each law, complete with examples from our discussions and tips for implementation. These would serve as handy reminders during projects, helping us seamlessly weave in psychological aspects that underpin UX.
Chloe’s final thoughts:
I thought this book did a nice job of distilling important principles into something digestible while also providing references to the papers and journal articles that the laws are based on. One observation (I won’t call it criticism as I understand why the author didn’t do this): the examples and case studies illustrating the laws were often consumer-based and somewhat trivial. They did the job of helping us as readers concretely connect the laws to our work, however, I often felt myself wanting more complex examples. What we did instead was try to focus our discussions of the laws on more complex situations, exploring or debating what we would consider.
"Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services" offers a compelling framework that merges psychology with design, yielding a comprehensive approach to user experience. The book's strength is bridging the gap between psychology and design, offering practical guidance on incorporating psychological insights into the design process. Hopefully, this will enable our team to anticipate user needs, reduce friction, and ultimately help create more impactful and engaging experiences.
Published on September 7, 2023
