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

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Why should we train our memories when computers can store almost anything for us?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Anthony Metivier, founder of the Magnetic Memory Method and author of The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being.

Anthony explains how memory training goes beyond memorizing facts or performing short-term tricks. They discuss memory palaces, location-based mnemonics, long-term retention, meditation, critical thinking, polymathic learning, and the relationship between knowledge and wisdom.

The conversation also considers what memory means in the age of artificial intelligence. Anthony argues that strengthening our attention, judgment, and ability to retain knowledge may become more important as we rely increasingly on digital tools.

If you want to improve your memory, deepen your learning, and develop a more capable mind, this episode offers a wider perspective on what memory training can accomplish.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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Accessibility should not be treated as a separate step added after a product has already been designed.

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Reginé M. Gilbert, author of Inclusive Design for a Digital World, professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and Chief Creative Officer at Gilbert Consulting Group.

Reginé explains how accessibility and user experience belong in the same design process. They discuss designing beyond the visual, working with people who have lived experience of disability, questioning assumptions about users, and introducing accessibility improvements one step at a time.

The conversation also explores the difference between compliance and genuine accessibility, the W5H method, accessible writing, low-bandwidth design, assistive and adaptive technology, and the importance of understanding the laws that affect digital products.

If you want to make accessibility a sustainable part of your team’s workflow, this episode offers practical ways to begin.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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Accessibility is not a final checklist. It is a shared responsibility that should shape a product from the beginning.

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with David Sloan, Chief Accessibility Officer at TPGi and co-author of What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility.

David explains how designers can look beyond visual considerations like color contrast and account for the different ways people perceive, navigate, and operate technology. They discuss assistive technology, screen readers, semantic HTML, linearization, disability language, and the difference between accessibility needs and medical diagnoses.

The conversation also explores why accessibility works best as a team effort. Designers, developers, product managers, writers, and testers all make decisions that can either create or remove barriers.

If you want to build more inclusive products—and make accessibility part of your everyday workflow—this conversation offers a practical place to begin.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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What makes a product feel not just usable, but desirable?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Marty Gage, co-author of User Experience Research: Discover What Customers Really Want, about how teams can move beyond guessing and uncover the experiences people actually desire.

Marty shares a practical framework for connecting emotional needs to product strategy: desired emotional states, benefits, features, and sensory cues. They discuss why great design is not just about making something easy to use, but about understanding how people want to feel, what value they want from an experience, and what details communicate that value.

The conversation explores useful, usable, and desirable design, the meaning behind cues like simplicity, familiarity, organization, and accessibility, and how methods like collaging and contextual inquiry can help teams translate customer insight into actionable design direction.

If you want to build products and services that connect with people, align teams, and reduce the risk of guessing wrong, this episode offers a clear way to think about user experience research as the foundation for better innovation.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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How many users do you actually need for a usability study?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Laura Faulkner about one of the most repeated ideas in UX research: that five users are enough. Laura explains why that rule of thumb can be useful in some situations, but dangerous when teams treat it like a law.

They discuss sample size, research risk, stakeholder alignment, and why the real question is not “How many users?” but “What decision are we trying to support, and what happens if we miss something important?”

Laura also shares practical advice on making research more influential inside organizations: sharing early and often, treating research as community property, helping stakeholders take ownership of findings, and building a point of view from human data rather than personal opinion.

The conversation also explores synthetic users and AI, including where AI can help researchers think through test plans and where teams still need fresh data from real people.

If you want to design better studies, communicate findings with more impact, and help research actually change product decisions, this episode gives you a grounded, human-centered way to think about evidence, risk, and influence.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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What does it actually mean to say a product is usable?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Phil Kortum about the System Usability Scale, or SUS: one of the most widely used tools for measuring usability. They discuss why this 10-item questionnaire has lasted for decades, what makes a usability metric trustworthy, and how researchers can use SUS scores to compare products, track improvement, and communicate usability in a shared language.

The conversation covers why a number is not automatically objective, how SUS differs from measures like Net Promoter Score, when the positive version of SUS may be better to use, and why usability researchers still need effectiveness and efficiency measures alongside subjective ratings.

They also explore Phil’s work on voting systems, where usability is not just about convenience but whether people can successfully cast a vote.

If you want to understand how to measure human experience with more rigor, this episode gives you a clearer way to think about usability, evidence, and the difference between a score that sounds scientific and a metric you can actually trust.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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How do you know whether a product idea is worth building before you spend months designing and developing it?

In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas Watkins talks with Jaime Levy, author of UX Strategy, about how designers, researchers, founders, and product leaders can move beyond opinion and make a stronger evidence-based case for what to build.

Jaime explains why strategy is not about magically predicting the future, but about systematically reducing risk. She discusses how storyboards can help teams test the business idea before getting lost in interface details, why most companies compete in “purple oceans,” and how UX can become a source of real differentiation.

The conversation also gets into AI: where it can speed up strategy work, where it can mislead us, and why human judgment, critical thinking, and customer understanding matter even more as tools become more powerful.

If you care about building products people actually want, this conversation will help you think more clearly about value propositions, mental models, product differentiation, and the role of UX strategy in a rapidly changing world.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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Season 2 of The Design Psychologist is here.

After exploring the foundations of psychology across human factors, UX, instructional design, service design, game design, and more in Season 1, this season takes the conversation even further.

We’re asking some honest—and sometimes difficult—questions about where design psychology is today, the challenges professionals are facing in their careers, and how we can use design to create a better future.

Throughout Season 2, we’ll explore topics including accessibility, data visualization, helper robots, Jobs to Be Done vs. classical human factors methods, tools for expanding the power of the mind, and the growing role of AI.

You’ll also hear conversations with fascinating guests, including an author behind one of the most controversial and influential articles in UX research and a YouTube creator and memory expert.

And there are a few surprises along the way.

If you’re interested in psychology, design, UX, human factors, emerging technology, or simply understanding how people interact with the world around them, Season 2 has plenty to explore.

Welcome back to The Design Psychologist.

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What happens when human-centered design is no longer enough?

Designers are trained to make things easier to use—but what if ease and elegance are no longer the point? What if the systems we need to change go far beyond screens and interfaces, touching global structures and collective futures?

Our guest, Don Norman, coined the term "Norman Door" to describe a door that gives the wrong signal about how to open it—pull vs. push—highlighting poor affordances and feedback in everyday objects.

This simple yet profound observation helped launch a new era of design awareness, making him one of the most influential voices in the psychology of design. His decades-long career has shaped the fields of human-computer interaction, design thinking, and usability. He is the author of the seminal book The Design of Everyday Things, and now, Design for a Better World, a work that challenges us to design for the full complexity of human and planetary needs.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• What makes some errors easy to catch and others dangerously hard to detect
• How decades of design decisions have shaped today’s global challenges
• What it means to shift from human-centered to humanity-centered design
• How co-design empowers communities over outside experts
• The surprising design lessons learned from nuclear accidents, faucets, and guinea pigs
• The role of failure in progress—and why we should embrace it

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Designing for ease is not enough—today’s challenges demand designing for systems and long-term impact.
• User-centered design can fall short when it fails to consider environmental, societal, and ethical dimensions.
• Human error is not always a failure of attention—it’s often a byproduct of bad design.
• To scale real change, we need dandelion models—spreading seeds of knowledge and training others to do the same.
• Participatory design ensures that communities are not passive recipients but active creators of their own solutions.
• The service economy offers a path toward sustainability—if companies rethink profit and longevity.

The future of design psychology isn’t about better buttons—it’s about understanding people so deeply that we can redesign society itself.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

Why does social proof work?

And, what are some practical tips on how to use it to create better designs?

In part one of these Social Proof episodes, we started with the foundations of social psychology. We looked at the history, key studies, and some helpful frameworks.

Now in part two, we’re picking up where we left off—at the five-point framework I mentioned at the end of Part One. This is where things get practical. We’ll connect the social psychology research with actual strategies for implementing social proof.

We’ll explore how social proof methods like testimonials, expert endorsements, and more, have an impact on our psychology, in particular, when we’re making buying decisions.

By the end, you’ll have a framework to decode social proof and a toolkit to apply it thoughtfully.

What You’ll Learn

• Five core psychological drivers— including our need to fit in, our fear of missing out, and so on
• How social proof methods like testimonials, expert endorsements, and more, have an impact on our psychology, in particular, when we’re making buying decisions.
• A framework to decode social proof and a toolkit to apply it thoughtfully.

Key Takeaways

• We relate to other humans, and shared experiences matter.
• We want to fit in—and social proof taps into that drive.
• We trust experts when making decisions under uncertainty.
• We’re motivated by FOMO (fear of missing out).
• Imagination helps us take action when we see others doing the same.

These drivers explain why social proof works. We respond to stories, signals, and shared experiences because they tap into how our minds are wired.

We also explored how to use social proof in design. Whether it’s testimonials, expert endorsements, client logos, or user-generated content, each method works best when it feels real, relevant, and respectful. The goal isn’t to trick users—it’s to guide them with clarity, trust, and connection.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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 profoundly influenced by the people around us, often without even realizing it.

This episode kicks off a two-part deep dive into social proof, one of the most powerful concepts in social psychology. Over a century of research shows that humans are wired to pick up on social cues, and these cues quietly shape our behavior, decisions, and preferences.

In Part 1, you’ll learn:

• Why simply being around others can change how we perform.
• How reviews, testimonials, and follower counts tap directly into our social wiring.
• The fascinating story of a 19th-century psychology professor who first noticed how cyclists behaved differently when riding together.
• How social proof research has evolved from early experiments in social psychology to today’s social neuroscience.
• The key psychological principles that explain why social proof works.

This episode is about more than just marketing or design tricks—it’s about understanding the deep human need to notice, follow, and be influenced by others. By grasping the science, you’ll build a foundation for creating products, experiences, and messages that feel natural, trustworthy, and even irresistible.

What’s next:

In Part 2, we’ll move from theory to practice. You’ll get concrete methods and examples to put social proof to work in your own designs and projects.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 personas often fall short—and how alignment personas can change everything.

You'll learn how to cut through organizational chaos, align stakeholders, and get your team moving in the same direction. You'll also discover a fast, psychology-informed method to surface assumptions, prioritize goals, and build products that stay focused on what really matters.

Meet Our Guest: Tamara Adlin Tamara Adlin is a UX legend. She's the co-author of The Persona Lifecycle and The Essential Persona Lifecycle, played a key role in shaping Amazon's UX strategy, and now leads the charge with her new concept: alignment personas. Her work helps teams avoid derailment, align faster, and make smarter design decisions. She also hosts the podcast Corporate Underpants, tackling the organizational dynamics that show up in bad products.

What We Cover:

• Why personas started off strong—and where they went wrong
• What makes alignment personas radically different and more effective
• How executives act like "tornadoes" and what that means for your designs
• Why assumptions are more powerful than data—and what to do about it
• A five-step alignment process you can run in a single workshop
• Practical tools like the strategy wedge and purpose slide
• How to use design psychology on your own team to influence strategy

Key Takeaways:

• Most personas fail because they gather dust, get misused, or don’t align with actual business priorities.
• Executives often bring strong, unspoken assumptions. Unless you surface them, those assumptions will quietly shape everything your team builds.
• Data alone doesn’t change minds. But alignment personas help teams reveal what they believe—and align around it.
• You don’t need months of research. Just five conversations can expose misalignment, clarify direction, and build shared understanding.
• Design psychology isn’t just for users. It’s a powerful tool for navigating organizations, aligning teams, and protecting your product from chaos.

This episode is packed with real talk, powerful analogies (Greek gods and all), and methods you can use immediately. If you're ready to turn misalignment into momentum, this conversation with Tamara Adlin is your guide.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 to build more immersive, emotionally resonant experiences. Whether you're designing products, learning experiences, or interactive systems, the lessons from games can help you design for joy, focus, and transformation.

About Our Guest:
Jesse Schell is a legendary figure in game design. He’s designed games for Disney, pioneered virtual reality, built theme park attractions, created award-winning educational games, and teaches at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. His book, The Art of Game Design, is one of the most widely recommended texts in the field.

What You'll Hear:

• Why game designers focus on creating experiences, not just products
• The surprising power of introspection in understanding users
• How "toy-first" thinking leads to more meaningful play
• The science behind flow and how it keeps players engaged
• How to use emotional arcs and tension-release patterns in your designs
• Why gamification often fails—and what to do instead
• The psychology of challenge, curiosity, and fun
• What designers in other fields can borrow from games

Questions Explored:

• What is the difference between a toy and a game?
• How do we design for emotional resonance?
• Can introspection really be a reliable design method?
• What does it mean to balance choices and desires?
• Why is iteration crucial to creating fun?

Key Takeaways:

• Games are machines for generating experiences. That means the psychology of the player is central to every design decision.
• Designers must understand not just what people do—but why they feel, focus, and engage.
• Play is not trivial. It's one of the most powerful modes of learning and transformation.
• Flow, balance, and emotional arcs aren't just game design tools—they're experience design tools.

To make things more engaging, don’t just "gamify"—design for meaningful engagement.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 matter for product and experience design?
• How do familiarity and novelty interact to shape user adoption?
• Why did products like the iPad feel revolutionary and intuitive to use?
• When should you release a big innovation versus gradually introducing features?
• How psychological barriers like loss aversion affect how people receive new ideas.
• How designers can pace innovation to keep users comfortable and engaged.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The MAYA Principle stands for "Most Advanced Yet Acceptable"—a formula for balancing innovation with usability.
• People adopt new ideas more readily when they resemble something they already understand.
• Successful products often anchor new concepts in familiar mental models (e.g., Uber reimagined the taxi).
• Understand your audience: tech-savvy users tolerate faster change than general users.
• Manage the speed of innovation—disruptive or incremental—based on what your users can handle.
• Incorporate user feedback early and often to gauge readiness and reduce risk.
• Frame change as a gain, not a loss, to overcome psychological resistance like loss aversion.
• Design psychology empowers us to bridge users into the future—delighting without alienating them.

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 touchpoints.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

- The role of community contributions in redefining service design.

- Examples of service design addressing real-world challenges, like improving grocery store experiences.

- Integrating digital transformation for cohesive customer interactions.

- Strategies to bridge organizational silos for better engagement.

- The importance of prototyping and feedback in the iterative design process.

- Adapting service design methodologies to navigate a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) landscape.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 learn how to shape experiences that stand out in people’s minds, leading to better outcomes and more impactful design.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• Why do we forget most of what we live through?
• What is the peak-end rule, and how does it influence memory?
• Why do people sometimes prefer longer discomfort over shorter pain?
• Should designers focus on the peaks and endings of an experience instead of the whole journey?
• Which types of experiences are a poor fit for the peak-end rule?
• How do memory and actual experience compare when it comes to decision-making?
• What are the two different selves described in happiness research, and how do they shape our reactions?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The peak-end rule suggests we remember the most intense moment and the ending of an experience. Most of the rest fades from memory.
• Designers cannot control every moment, but they can influence how an experience is remembered.
• This principle is especially helpful when designing uncomfortable or tedious processes. A well-placed positive moment or thoughtful ending can shift how the whole experience is recalled.
• Duration neglect means people do not remember how long something lasted, only how it felt at key moments.
• The remembering self often outweighs the experiencing self when people decide whether to repeat an experience.
• Linear experiences like onboarding flows or customer service calls are ideal candidates for applying the peak-end rule. More complex or non-linear experiences, such as websites or productivity apps, may require different strategies.

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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 than four decades as Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales. His research has reshaped classrooms, training programs, and learning technologies worldwide.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• Why learners often absorb less when they start by solving problems—and what to do instead
• The expertise‑reversal effect: why novices and experts need opposite instructional treatments
• How to recognize when learners look active but aren’t actually learning
• The modality, split‑attention, and redundancy effects—and how they guide interface and content design

Practical ways to balance intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load so learners stay challenged without being overwhelmed

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

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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 that matter.
We explore why interruptions strengthen memory, and how designers can translate that insight into progress indicators, cliffhangers, and gentle nudges that drive completion.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• What exactly is the Zeigarnik effect, and how did a Soviet psychologist discover it?
• Why do incomplete or interrupted tasks stay fresher in memory than those we’ve finished?
• How can we use progress bars, checklists, and multi‑step flows to leverage this effect?
• Where do cliffhangers shine in learning experiences and content design?
• When does the tension of “unfinished” backfire — and how can we avoid creating frustration?
• Practical tips for highlighting next steps, surfacing partially completed work, and prompting return visits.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Incomplete tasks create cognitive tension that keeps the goal top‑of‑mind until it’s resolved.
• Surface that tension: show users where they left off, how close they are to done, or what’s still missing.
• Use visual progress cues (percentages, steps, checkmarks) to make completion feel imminent and achievable.
• Strategic interruptions — like well‑placed cliffhangers or mid‑flow saves — can boost later recall and re‑engagement.
• Balance is key: too much friction or ambiguity can turn motivating tension into annoyance.

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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 products that lead to measurable behavior change.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Why does information alone rarely shift behavior?

What alternative ingredients turn knowledge into action?

How do motivation, context, and habit interact?

What is the elephant–rider model, and how does it reframe design?

Which practical tactics help learners “walk new paths” instead of retreading old ones?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Behavior change is not the same as knowledge transfer—information is necessary but never sufficient.

Design for the elephant (emotions and habits) as well as the rider (rational mind).

Reduce friction and increase repetition so the desired action is easier than the default.

Shape context—alter environments so the right choice is the obvious choice.

Layer motivation and support with rewards, social proof, and timely prompts.

If today’s conversation helped you think more deeply about your work, I’d love it if you left a quick rating or review on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast listening app. It helps more thoughtful designers discover the show—and keeps these meaningful insights coming your way. Just a star rating or a sentence or two makes a big difference. Thanks for listening!

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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 mistakenly apply memory principles to visual design when they should be focusing on attention
• The difference between designing for memory and designing for attention

Whether you're designing a pitch, a product tour, or just organizing content, understanding the serial position effect helps you make your message stick where it matters most.

Go to https://thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.