Human emotions and behavior can be understood by examining three processing levels: visceral (instinctive reaction), behavioral (learned…

Product and game designers often neglect the physical spaces where users interact with their products. The same app feels different in a…

Three factors that make an entertainment experience interesting: Inherent Interest (natural appeal), Poetry of Presentation (aesthetic…

How does design help users achieve their goals? Examine your design using the framework of the Seven Stages of the Action Cycle: Goal, Plan…

Distributed cognition theory shows how our thinking naturally extends into our external tools, environments, and interactions. This…

There is a core quality that serves as the fundamental indicator of life and spirit in a person, town, building, or nature. This quality is…

Building wonderful products with great care and love is a way of expressing our deep appreciation to the rest of our human species. Book…

Four verbs that define game design in popular strategy games: Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate. Article: 4X 4X (abbreviation of…

Six components of a Classic Game Model: Rules, Variable and measurable outcomes, Values on those outcomes, Player effort, Player attachment…

Best definition of Game: A problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude. Alternative: A rule-based formal system with a…

The CCAF Instructional Design Model: Engaging and meaningful learning experience requires Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback (CCAF…

Six elements of simplicity to make a habit easier to form: Time, Money, Physical Effort, Brain Cycles, Social Deviance, and Non-routine…

User habits develop when products consistently guide users through triggers, actions, variable rewards, and investments. This four-step hook…

Position is the most powerful visual variable in graphics because it leverages our innate spatial reasoning, making complex data instantly…

Bloom's Taxonomy: Our learning objectives can be classified as a hierarchy of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create…

To achieve learning goals, we should identify and address not just knowledge gaps but also skills, motivation, habits, environment, and…

Zero-One-Infinity Rule: When designing software systems, the only reasonable numerical limits are zero, one, and infinity. Article: Zero One…

All buildings are predictions, and all predictions are wrong. Architectural design should create adaptable spaces rather than attempting to…

The Cathedral Effect: Higher ceilings can make us more creative by triggering feelings of freedom and encouraging people to see broader…

Approach technical problems with psychological solutions: Elevator mirrors reduce perceived waiting time by distracting passengers. Article…

Four reasons people post things: sound smart, be funny, look hot, look rich. Tweet: Nikita Bier on X To make people share your product…

Our working memory has a limited capacity for task-related information. To perform complex tasks, we should offload some mental load onto an…

The XY problem: Avoid focusing on the attempted solution rather than the actual problem. People don't want a faster horse. They want to get…

Algorithms and heuristics are two sides of the same coin in product development, with algorithms providing objective measurements and…

A/B testing cannot substitute for taste in creating appealing products. Relying solely on A/B testing is abdicating your responsibility to…

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Book: Creative Selection During a 2003 interview with The New…

People aren't buying your product for the molecules. They're buying it for the way it makes them feel. The subjective experience matters…

What makes a design good? Examine it using the Discoverability and Understanding Framework. Book: The Design of Everyday Things Two of the…

Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and…

Rather than program an AI with what we want it to know, create ones capable of learning and have users teach them. Experience is the best…

Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating because so much creation is discovery. We discover nothing if we cannot see…

The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity. Video: “No creative person I know has ever asked for a brainstorming session…

If all we have is structure, we won't have magic. What we also need is unintentionality, like a mistake. Unintentionality is the real secret…

Why are "Keep Watching" sections always hidden at the very bottom of the streaming apps? Misalignment of incentives between company and user…

Fitts’s Law: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target in UI/UX. Article: Fitts's Law: The…

Can we create a social media platform that predates curiosity instead of emotion? Thoughts This is a question asked by a guest in the course…

Consider how your product makes customers "feel" instead of what it functionally does for them. Podcast: Superhuman Part II - Designing…

Extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation. Focus on Game Design, not Gamification. Podcast: Superhuman Part II - Designing…