The Role Of Psychology In Designing The Products
Before understanding the significance of psychological aspects while creating the product's design, let us initially dive into the concept of Design.
The essence of Design!
Design, a mere six-lettered word but has a deep ocean of meaning, importance, relevance, usage, and role. Indeed, it is one of the most noteworthy characteristics to pay attention to while building your product.
In simple words, designing is an ongoing activity undertaken to construct a product. The verb 'to design' refers to strategize the ways of curating a commodity. Naturally, it is not a narrower conceptualized topic; but a way broader concept. The designing attributes are used at various horizons, such as website designs, product designs, construction designs, jewelry designs, academic content designs, and the list goes on and on. Honestly, it is penetrated in major walks of our lives.
Design is not just the outward appearance of the product. It is not all about good looks and fancy things. It has a much deeper perception. So, designing is making the user interface of the product more interactive and engaged, compatible, and seamless.
As food without salt is impossible,
As cars without petrol are not working, similarly...
A product without design is unsellable!
An Important point to note is that design should be curated, keeping the consumer in mind. Designing is a user-centric activity. Thus, the users are the lungs of your designing work.
The various elements of designing are as follow:-
Form
Every product has a unique form. It can be of the two-dimensional form as a map of any country or three-dimensional form as in an online AR game.
Shape
Designs can be in so many shapes, such as triangular, rectangular, spherical, oval, or octangular. Shapes have a fixed boundary.
Line
A line is a series of points drawn continuously. The lines can be horizontal, vertical, curved, wavy, diagonal, and so on.
Texture
The texture is something that you feel by touching. A straightforward example of texture is: cotton has a smooth texture, while jute has a rough texture.
Colour
It is something that gives life to product and design. A simple example is that the television in the older days appeared so dull as it comprised only black and white.
Let us now understand how psychology is related to product designing.
Psychology refers to the study of the human mind and behavior. Psychological concepts such as perceptions, cognition, and behavior are researched well by the designers while crafting the product designs. After all, the commodities and products are designed for the end-users: the consumer, i.e., human.
Design can also be interpreted as another form of communication. If the user's psychology is not kept in mind while making the design, it will not be effective at all. As we earlier discussed, users are the hearts of product design. So, understanding how consumers will react to a particular stimulus is so significant. The designers plan the process of designing in such a way that will give more satisfaction to the users.
The different principles of design psychology:
Principle 1: The theory of Gestalt
The term 'Gestalt' is a German word that means to unify wholly. The Gestalt principles are the laws of human perceptions that describe how humans tend to group similar elements, find some trends and simplify complex figures while perceiving any object.
Using the Gestalt principles, the designs are created to make them appear more unified and complete. It improves the usability and user experience of the product designs.
The various Gestalt principles are as follows:
Continuation
Similarity
Closure
Symmetry
Order
Proximity
Figure
Principle 2: Von Restorff Effect
The Von Restorff effect is named after his renowned scientist Hedwig Von Restorff. It is popularly known as the isolation effect. In this theory, it is predicted that when there are multiple similar products, the odd or differentiated one has more chances to get sold. The designer accordingly highlights his signature design in the product.
Principle 3: Mental models
A mental model is how people would have interpreted a particular outcome. It can also be referred to as human's general perception. As such, mental models mold human perception. These mental models provide the designers the deep insights into user's thought processes for how something might work for them.
The designers can interpret those assumptions of the users and then design the product accordingly.
Principle 4: Visceral Reactions
The visceral reactions are nothing but your gut feelings. If we see something great, pretty stuff, it is evident that we will feel good. So the designers should create visually appealing designs to maximize the users' interactions.
For instance, if the engagement and clicks on your websites are low, use this principle, make the initial pages more lucrative and then see the results.
Principle 5: Psychology of Colour
The colors play a huge role in a human's subconscious mind. The perceptions while viewing color differs as per gender, age, culture, etc.
Let us see what different colors signify?
Red: Love, Affection.
Yellow: Content, Happy, Positive.
Blue: Calmness, Safe, Secure
Green: Freshness, Appealing.
Black: Stylish, Formal, Sophisticated.
Violet: Creative, Opulent, Imaginative.
The best example to understand this principle, brands such as Maggi, Mac Donald uses yellow color in designing their logos as yellow color evokes subtleness and content feelings in the people.
Principle 6: Psychology of Shapes
The shapes too have much relevancy while designing the product. Our subconscious mind has a way of interpreting the messages evoked from the said shape.
Let us see what different shapes interpret?
Circles, Spherical, Ovals: remits a positive feeling
Squares, Triangle: shows how strong the brand or product is.
Lines: The lines can be horizontal or vertical. Studies have shown that horizontal lines envisage equality, tranquillity, peaceful message. Vertical lines envisage strength or aggression.
Thus, psychology impacts the design of the product immensely.
Designers need to pay crucial attention to these principles of psychology to create user-centric designs.
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