The Design Psychologist | Psychology for UX, Product, Service, Instructional, Interior, and Game Designers

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Have you ever been in a crowd where no one clapped until one brave soul started the applause? Or walked past two restaurants—one bustling with a line out the door, the other nearly empty—and felt pulled toward the busy one?

These small, everyday moments reveal something big: we are profou...

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Why do so many user personas fail in practice, and what can we do about it?

Have you ever worked on a team where everyone had a different idea of who the user was? Or watched a beautifully crafted persona become ignored or misused? You're not alone. In this episode, we explore why traditional...

Why are games so deeply engaging? What psychological principles make game design such a powerful tool for shaping attention, emotion, and learning?

Game design is not a niche skill. It's one of the most refined disciplines we have for designing attention, emotion, and motivation. If you're designing anything for people, game design can sharpen your craft.

 This episode reveals how the craft of game design can teach us ...

What is the sweet spot between new and familiar, and how do you design for it?

Create products that feel groundbreaking and instantly intuitive by applying the psychology of the MAYA Principle.

By unpacking how humans respond to familiarity and novelty, you’ll gain practical guidance for designing experiences that spark excitement without overwhelming users.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• What is the MAYA Principle, and why does it ...

What’s the real impact of service design on customer experiences?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, host Thomas talks with service design expert Marc Stickdorn, PhD, author of "This is Service Design Doing," about the evolution and holistic nature of service design. 

They discuss the importance of community involvement and collaboration in shaping effective strategies and enhancing user interactions across various...

What shapes the memory of an experience, and how can designers use that insight to create better, more human-centered products?

Design more memorable and emotionally resonant experiences by understanding how people actually remember what they go through. It turns out we do not remember experiences by their length, but by their intensity and how they end.

By uncovering the psychological principle known as the peak-end rule, you will l...

What’s the best way to choose how you’ll teach something so it actually sticks?

Design your next lesson so learners don’t just follow along—they understand, remember, and apply their new skills.

By grounding your instruction in Cognitive Load Theory, you’ll gain a practical compass for sequencing content, trimming unnecessary load, and accelerating real mastery.

Our guest, Dr. John Sweller, pioneered Cognitive Load Theory during more ...

Have you ever noticed how an unfinished task — or a cliffhanger at the end of a show — keeps tugging at your attention?

How can the Zeigarnik effect’s lingering cognitive tension help us design products, services, and experiences that people actually come back to and complete?

When you learn to harness the motivational pull of “unfinished business,” you can turn mundane flows into engaging journeys and guide users toward the outcomes...

Why is it so hard to change behavior—even when people already know exactly what to do?

Design your next learning experience so people don’t just understand what to do— they actually do it.

By uncovering the psychology behind the knowing–doing gap, you’ll gain practical tools to move your audience from passive understanding to sustained action.

Our guest, Julie Dirksen, has spent two decades helping organizations design training and pr...

In this episode, we uncover how the order in which information is presented affects what users remember—and what they forget. From the “primacy effect” that gives early items a cognitive boost, to the “recency effect” that gives the last ones staying power, you'll learn how sequence can make or break a design.

We explore:

• Why we remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle ones
• Why many designers mistake...

Why is it so hard to know whether people want to use what we design—not just whether they can?

Design research can (and should) go far beyond basic task success. Our guest Bill Albert joins us to show how to expand our measurement toolbox.

By learning to measure desirability, emotion, and true engagement, we unlock clearer insights, align teams faster, and invest only in ideas that will actually resonate.

WHAT WE C...

What happens when your design asks users to make too many choices? In this solo episode, we explore a deceptively simple principle with massive implications for user experience: Hick’s Law.

This law explains why more options mean more decision time—and why that’s not always a good thing.

From cluttered navigation to bloated dropdowns, we’ll break down how cognitive overload quietly slows users down. You'll learn when reducing ch...

Explaining an abstract idea can feel easy—until you put pen to paper. In this episode, our host sits down with Stephen P. Anderson to unpack the craft of turning complex concepts into clear, memorable visuals. Together they dig into the challenges of sketching an org chart, mapping a process, or nailing a scientific metaphor—and ask what really separates a helpful illustration from a confusing one. 

You’ll hear them explore: 

• Why...

How much can you trust what users tell you?

In this solo episode, we dive into one of the most slippery yet essential tools in UX research: self-reporting. From interviews to surveys, self-reports are everywhere—but they come with hidden psychological traps.

We explore:

• Why self-reported data can be both useful and misleading
• The psychological reasons people often misrepresent their own behavior
• When to trust what users say—and when...

Ever wonder how certain products feel inevitable the moment they appear—rearranging entire markets overnight? In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas sits down with UX pioneer Larry Marine to unpack the mechanics of truly disruptive research—the kind that yields insights so fundamental they can’t be unseen.

Most teams unknowingly skip a handful of critical research steps, blinding themselves to the knowledge that changes ...

How many participants do you need to test in order to make valid research claims? In this episode, we dive deep into the science and psychology behind sample sizes in user testing. Whether you're working with five users or five hundred, the number you choose can shape the story your research tells—and how credible your findings appear to stakeholders.

• Why sample size is one of the most misunderstood elements in product rese...

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, we dive deep into the world of qualitative research and human-centered design with legendary UX thinker Indi Young. 

If you've ever felt like your user interviews only skim the surface—or if you've relied too heavily on personas—you might be missing the most powerful insights. Indi joins us to explore how deep, non-judgmental listening can revolutionize your understanding of user...

Why do some products feel natural the moment you touch them—while others are baffling from the start? 

In this episode, we explore the psychology of affordances—those subtle cues that tell us what to do next, without saying a word. From door handles to digital apps, we break down how great design speaks directly to human intuition.

You’ll learn:

• The psychological principles that make interfaces feel “just right”
  
  
  
• What...

In this episode, Thomas interviews Dr. Chris Wickens, a pioneer in cognitive engineering and human factors, and they discuss how designers can reduce errors and enhance decision-making when lives are on the line. They delve into the high-stakes world of design psychology for critical environments—think operating rooms, airplane cockpits, and military control systems. 

Together, they explore the real science of attention, what causes...