Part 1. Introducing the application of psychology to design

What is psychology? How can you apply psychology to design? What principles of psychology will you learn about in this book? Isn’t persuasion a bad word, or even a dark art? What does it look like to design without consideration of users’ psychology? I’ll answer each of these questions in part 1. You’ll learn what principles the book will cover, and why I chose these specific principles. I’ll discuss why you should read this book, and how you should read it. I’ll offer a comparison of a digital product designed without taking into account user psychology and one that was designed with user psychology in mind. I’ll explain the difference between the type of persuasion I promote and the commonly frowned upon dark pattern and bait-and-switch type of persuasion that people often think of when they hear the word persuasion. Finally, I’ll provide a cheat sheet to help you decide whether to read the book from cover to cover, or immediately go to the principles that are most relevant to your product.