The closer you look, the less you see…
Heyaa,
Assume you see this large blank advertising board outside your window.
You see it again the next day; blank. Third day... still nothing. Fourth; nothing. Fifth; nothing yet.
It's 10 days now, and that red nothingness still catches your eyes. Not that you're paying attention, but you take a glance.
15 days, and not a change (except the fading colour). It isn’t distracting you anymore, though.
On day 21... A yellow circle appears.
Your eyes start to seek the board again. You're curious what it could be.
The cycle restarts. You look at it each day trying to find something more. You check it regularly. You’re filtering, interpreting, searching for meaning.
That's what advertisers need... Your attention! And use it against you.
And that's what I needed today.
Now that you’re here, let me tell you something about psychology.
Knowledge of even the basic psychology gives you more control over your audience, over clients, over customers, over vendors, over your suppliers... (over mom?)
And I had this epiphany while I was reading The Design of Everyday Things (DOET) in November, last month yeah.
“Creative work depends on such observations and interpretations. It depends on the understanding of human psychology.”
And if you're a content creator, you're a psychologist (kind of)... You have to be.
Wikipedia defines Psychologist as "a professional who studies normal and abnormal mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior by experimenting with, and observing, interpreting, and recording how individuals relate to one another and to their environments."
Now, I started reading DOET to know about the Psychology of Design... Design Thinking as they say. I needed insights in relation to Graphic Design, but as I shuffled through the pages, it turned out to be much more useful.
OK, now here's something from the book (not exact quote):
"The technologies will change, the products will change, but the fundamental needs of users remain the same. Therefore, the design fundamentals will still be valid."
The entire book talks about the use of psychology in product designing. But the above quote applies to every other "fundamentals."
For example, be it article writing, cold emailing or (professional) tweeting, the fundamental rule is the same: Attract and engage.
In its most basic form, a content should:
solve the problem it was created for
be readable and understandable
provide a positive and enjoyable experience
That’s what your aim with your content should be. And that’s why you need to understand and play with human psychology.
Do you need more convincing?
Even branding involves psychology.
Yup. Branding is you, sharing stories. It’s much more than that actually. (Check Branding on a Shoestring newsletters in the archive)
People love stories. And when they know your real self, they trust you more. Your stories shape everyone’s subconscious, to make them believe what you want them to believe. You're etching an image of your professional self. (Because the closer they look, the less they see…)
And to create impactful stories, you'll need to understand humans.
Want to begin somewhere?
Start with The Design of Everyday Things. I will recommend it to those who make products (digital or real), manage products, market products, ship products, sell products, buy products, use products... In short, EVERYONE.
DOET has many examples of how psychology is used in the designs of daily use products (but we seldom pay attention) to make our life easy.
You'll start appreciating designs, if not anything else.
And that was all for today.
PS... here's a story about creating stories - Yo! Slow Down! - written by Jay Acunzo.
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