Review: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Work is making me do a book report... A BOOK REPORT!

Okay... by "making me" I mean I volunteered to speak about something I liked at this week's Instructional Design lunch & learn, and now we have to write about what we talked about. I reviewed a book, therefore I'm writing a book report.

Admittedly, it sounds way more amusing the way I initially put it.

Anyway, since I'm writing up this book report for work I figured I may as well share it here too.

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Title: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
Author: Susan Weinschenk

What's it about?

Never before have you read a title more accurate. It's exactly what it says it is: 100 facts about people (and specifically their minds) that designers, or anyone really, should know.

What's so great about it?

This isn't just a collection of facts based on someone's gut feeling: every point is based on scientific research. This book talks about topics like how people make mistakes, focus their attention, remember, and are motivated, all in layman's terms. It then tells you how you can use these facts to your advantage when designing anything.

So it's brain science in easy to digest nuggets that will help you design your learning/websites/textbooks/apps/whatever in ways that are more effective. Plus, it identifies its sources, so you can check the science for yourself.

What's going to drive me nuts about it?

Because it covers so many individual topics, trying to read this thing cover to cover will give you brain overload. I'd usually make it though about 5-10 topics in a sitting and then have to stop, put the book down, and process. And I say this as someone who's usually happy to read constantly for hours. It's good, but it'll likely be a slow read.

Anything else?

The colour scheme of the book is ridiculously pleasing (what, these things matter to me!).

I'm too lazy to Google the book. Where can I buy it?

*sigh* Here you go:

• Canada
• US
• UK