100 things…
This is one of the first books I bought for my UX library. I wish I had read this years ago to aid my graphic designs – so informative and substantive. The points are broken down into nice bitesized chunks so its satisfying to read – you can progress through the book quite quickly and it’s all backed up with scientific study.
I bought the first edition (2011) without really thinking (it was a good price secondhand!), so the examples are a little out-of-date. There’s a third edition published in 2020 which in hindsight would have been better.
Since reading this I have noticed the observations she makes reiterated by other authors (and maybe she’s reiterating others too!) And once read you really start to notice why certain approaches to design have become so popular eg: gamification and the fact that people are motivated by goals or the use of reward cards (I do love a free coffee!)
(A while ago I joined a webinar hosted by the Interaction Design Foundation where Susan (and her son Guthrie) talked about Human Biases which proved fascinating too!)
The book is divided into sections:
How people see
How people read
How people remember
How people think
How people focus their attention
What motivates people
People are social animals
How people feel
People make mistakes
How people decide
I think I should keep re-reading my notes on this book - especially just before one starts a design process (I’ll get the second edition too at some point).
Book summary from Geoff Mazeroff