Darren Hood’s Interaction Design & Cognitive Psychology Book Recommendations

by Darren Hood

Have you ever considered the overlap between the worlds of interaction design and psychology — specifically, cognitive psychology? I thought I’d share my short list of recommendations with the UX community-at-large.

NOTE: Engaging with psychology is a “journey” and not a sprint. In other words, one must deep dive with these topics in order to truly digest and apply the concept. One cannot graze over the topics or only review them from a surface perspective. This has become popular as more people learn about the connection between UX and psychology, but it is an inadvisable approach.

• Bottlenecks — Great insights on why some designs work and some don’t (from a psychological perspective).
• Designing Interactions — An old classic that includes lots of notes on cognitive psychology and interaction.
• Interaction Design — My first interaction design textbook from my collegiate days, lots of great info and direction.
• Hooked — A fantastic book that addresses elements of the mind as they pertain to interactivity.
• Designing With the Mind in Mind is a fantastic tome that provides several great psychological insights.
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a great work that helps shape our attention to motivational factors that should impact our designs. The introductory addresses on findings from experiments on extrinsic and intrinsic motivators are game changers.
• Flow offers similar insights, as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi focuses on achieving what he refers to as “optimal experience” with great depth. The principles and elements in the book can be applied to design efforts.
• I can’t create such a list without mentioning one of my all-time favorites, About Face. This book contains a wealth of insights on interaction design, though references to cognitive psychology are indirect.
• No UX + psychology list is complete without including the work of Susan Weinschenk, the writer of 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Her book Neuro Web Design also contains invaluable information and insights on the subjects at hand.
• I conclude this list of recommendations with a book that’s rapidly becoming one of my favorites, Thinking Fast and Slow. I like to describe the information in this book as infinitely expansive. It’s a MUST buy and a must read.

That’s it for my current cognitive psychology + interaction design book recommendations. I like to keep such lists succinct or the recommendations become daunting and counterproductive.

Enjoy (and don’t forget to “applaud” if you found this useful)!!!

About Darren

Darren Hood is a 28+ year UX practitioner with a broad professional footprint that spans several types of B2B and B2C operations. In addition to having served as a UX manager, individual contributor, and freelancer in the business world, Darren serves or has served as an adjunct professor for such institutions as Michigan State University, UCLA, Brandeis University, Lawrence Tech University, Kent State University, and Harrisburg University. He is also one of the authors featured in “97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know.” He also regularly speaks at conferences and mentors people around the world.

You can hear more from the Darren by checking out the KaizenUX Medium page, the KaizenUX YouTube channel, or listening to The World of UX with Darren Hood wherever podcasts are available.

Visit KaizenTees to check out my UX ≠ UI merch.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.