The Importance of Understanding Your Audience

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As a designer, you can do a great service by really understanding that audience and getting in their heads. There are lots of things that, well, we know we're not the users, but it's important to stay current on what's changing because it's changing so much. John: What is the essence of a person? What is they thinking about a situation? How are they representing the information? What are the words they're using? That decision they think they should be making, even if it's not.

Dr. John Whalen teaches us what it means to design for how people think. He reveals the powerful principals behind what he calls the six minds of user experience, and explains how anybody can harness them to build better products (no doctorate degree required!). He reminds us that it takes serious research to reveal the deep insights that genuinely make our products successful for the user and the business. He also encourages us to understand that no one is more qualified than anyone else in solving unique problems.

Psychology and UX (5:04)
Six Minds of Experience (8:48)
Impact of Psychology (10:54)
Acronym Cheat Sheet (16:03)
Three Phone Numbers (17:08)
Dark Psychology (25:21)
Designing for Delight (31:24)
Contextual Inquiries (42:50)
Upside-Down Design (49:37)
Design Superpower (56:09)
Design Kryptonite (57:04)
UX Superhero Name (58:43)
Habit of Success (59:05)
Recommended Book (1:08:02)
Best Advice (1:10:38)

Check out the detailed show notes including mentioned links, transcript and Eli Jorgensen’s astonishing superhero artwork at userdefenders.com/067

This episode is brought to you by UC Irvine’s executive master’s program for Human-Computer Interaction and Design. As a user experience professional, UCI’s hybrid program will allow you to maintain your job while pursuing the master’s degree that will propel your career forward. Visit userdefenders.com/uci to learn more.

This episode is also brought to you by Porkbun. Head to userdefenders.com/porkbun now and use coupon code DEFENDERS on the checkout page to get literally a free year of a .design domain name.