This book represents an accessible, practical, and entertaining basis for how neuroscience and cognitive psychology inform experience design, with a modern context of research and technological advances. How we think and react has a direct impact on experience design, but often designers don't understand the "whys" behind their best practices, leaving them at risk for misusing or underutilizing those designs. Similarly, psychologists/neuroscientists don't understand the design decisions that their science is informing and how they might be leveraged further.

With a conversational and playful tone, this book begins by grounding readers in research and artificial intelligence without overwhelming them. That foundation then allows readers to expand their repertoire through chapters on design-relevant cognitive phenomena such as memory, learning, and perception. By delving into how our brains handle these processes and how our designs can effectively (or ineffectively) leverage them, the book takes readers on a journey that weaves academic learning with practical, real-world applications and examples.

With the widespread availability of generative AI tools, understanding the intersection of human cognition and design and how that knowledge can be used to build a bridge between the brain and the software has become even more critical. To this end, we maintain that by understanding the brain and human behavior more completely, designers will be able to effectively use AI as an accelerator for tactical projects and provide the context that is unique to the human ability to understand the "why".

What You Will Learn

Why design works (or doesn't)

What aspects of the human condition affect our interaction with designs

How to use storytelling to reduce noise

Who This Book is For

Product managers, software engineers and software designers