The Psychology Lesson You Should Have Taken Years Ago: Improve Your Creative and Design Skills with Hoa Loranger

Designers and creative directors may not directly associate psychology with the design and tech world, although it is actually one of the most important tools you can implement.   A proper understanding of the human psyche allows designers to properly understand users’ needs which allows us to create and design more usable products. While we have many user research tools at our disposal, the basic principles behind each method are based on psychology so it’s important to have a basic understanding of the topic.   After doing this job for a while, I fully believe that understanding human behavior is key to creating a successful design which is why I personally dedicate time to learning and understanding essential psychological principles.   One major tool I use to better understand the human psyche is this video by Hoa Loranger, the vice president at Nielsen Norman Group. She provides a general yet excellent explanation as to how important psychology is to user experience design and the creative process as a whole.   Hoa stresses the effects of this knowledge as it helps creative professionals anticipate user’s needs before designing an interface. Understanding human behavior leads to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that determine how people process information. This helps creative directors and designers know what users want, and how to give it to them.