Archive for the ‘Psychology’ Category
The amount of information a human being consumed in the 18th century in his whole life is the same as a week worth of information in a regular newspaper. This bizarre fact let me to the question if people did in fact adapted themselves to an ever growing information overload in our modern society. Adaptation […]
Filed under: Psychology, School | 11 Comments
Feedback in Everyday Life
The simplest designs are often the most cleverest, this is definitely the case with the Eko Stoplight from designer Damjan Stankovic. Designer Damjan Stanković came up with a concept where a timer is added to stoplights. Stanković promotes this stoplight as an eco solution in the following ways: If you’ve got the amount of time […]
Filed under: Design, Interaction, Psychology | 15 Comments
When we make decisions we think we’re in control, making rational choices. But are we? Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, has some interesting examples of irrational decision making. We are always looking at the things around us in relation to others. We don’t just compare things but we actually compare things […]
Filed under: Marketing, Psychology | 17 Comments
Apparently, the ‘close doors’ button on most lifts does not actually work. It is there mostly to give passengers the illusion of control. We press it but the lift control mechanisms decide when the doors should actually shut according to their pre-programmed cycles. Human brains are finely tuned belief engines. Millions of years of evolution […]
Filed under: Design, Interaction, Psychology | 35 Comments
The Psychology of Waiting
In a recent paper by Donald Norman about the psychology of waiting lines Norman discusses the experience people have while waiting in line. How can designers make this experience better? The paper made me think of this classic story about a building where tenants were complaining about long elevator waiting times. In a multistoried office […]
Filed under: Design, Psychology | 6 Comments
The Psychology of Casino’s
Anyone who has been to Las Vegas will know that casinos are fascinating places. According to Kati St Clair, a business psychologist, the aim is to induce a trance-like state in gamblers. Casinos make you feel intimate, enclosed, euphoric; you’re in a suggestible state in which you want to stay where you are, continuing to […]
Filed under: Marketing, Psychology | 58 Comments
The curse of knowledge
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, tells the story about making stories stick. One of the subject they discuss is the curse of knowlegde. Elizabeth Newton, a psychologist, conducted an experiment on the curse of knowledge while working on her doctorate at Stanford in 1990. She gave one set of people, […]
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Reading without vowels?
Wierdest news item I have seen in while in a dutch newspaper called “de pers”. They removed lots of vowels to make to title fit in the space instead of using a smaller fonttype. Intresting experiment because most people still can read the title perfectly fine. Barack Obama zoekt vicepresident (Barack Obama searches vicepresident)
Filed under: Psychology | Leave a Comment
The Subconscious Brain: Sound
Just as scents can subconsciously influence you, sounds can do the same. They effect your mood as no other sense can. In a study published in the journal of Consumer Research, R. Millman demonstrated that de pace of music playing in the background affected service, spending and traffic flow in stores and restaurants. The slower […]
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The Subconscious Brain: Scents
How scents can influence you. A local police department from the Netherlands is starting a remarkable scent-experiment in which they can relax aggressive-inmates with the use of a special odor. Through the ventilation system they spread a barely noticeable orange flavor mixed with a neutralizing scent FM. The effects where astonishing, the inmates where calmer, […]
Filed under: Marketing, Psychology, School | 12 Comments
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