Product Design Psychology

Connecting psychology and product design.

I started my career as a psychologist. When I moved into product design, I almost hid that background. Co-founding Bread & Pepper and Gibbon, growing the design team at Degreed, and working with startup founders changed that. Understanding how people think and behave became central to how I design simpler products.

Product Design Psychology brings those two worlds together. I wrote it to help designers understand the people using their products, the decisions they make themselves, and the teams around them. Forty chapters about making products more useful, more human, and less confusing.

Read the book

A blue Product Design Psychology book beside an open spread featuring the chapter Old Habits Beat Better Products

Psychology, put into practice

The book looks at design from four perspectives: the designer's mind, the design itself, the user's mind, and the organisation's mind. From our own biases to habits and team dynamics, each perspective reveals something that shapes the products we make.

Each chapter connects psychological research to everyday design decisions. Plain language, concrete examples, and illustrations make the ideas easier to understand and put to work. The aim is to help designers question their assumptions and make decisions with a better understanding of people.

Table of contents

40 chapters, from the assumptions we bring to our work to the way organisations shape what gets shipped.

The designer's mind

  1. 1. Nobody Thinks Like You

  2. 2. You Ruin Your Own Designs

  3. 3. Design for Your Ego

  4. 4. Your Mind Lies to You

  5. 5. Taste Isn't Talent

  6. 6. Creativity Isn't Magic

  7. 7. Deadlines Make You Dumb

  8. 8. Love at First Sketch

  9. 9. Your Knowledge Is the Problem

  10. 10. You Are Not Listening

Minding the design

  1. 11. Pass the Vibe Check First

  2. 12. Your Design Is Rigged

  3. 13. Stop Hiding What's Clickable

  4. 14. Intuitive Design Is a Lie

  5. 15. Your UI Is Exhausting

  6. 16. Stop Breaking the Pattern

  7. 17. Nobody Remembers Your UI

  8. 18. Design the Last Moment First

  9. 19. Fake Progress Is Real Motivation

  10. 20. Layout Speaks Before You Do

The user's mind

  1. 21. Users Don't Think in Tasks

  2. 22. Users Want Now, Not Later

  3. 23. Your Users Are Lying to You

  4. 24. Users React, Then Rationalize

  5. 25. Users Will Hate Your New Design

  6. 26. Your Design Doesn't Translate

  7. 27. Old Habits Beat Better Products

  8. 28. More Options Make Users Quit

  9. 29. Users Will Ignore You

  10. 30. Your Design Made Them Quit

The organisation's mind

  1. 31. You Ship What Your Boss Likes

  2. 32. Good Design Dies in Meetings

  3. 33. A Redesign Won't Save You

  4. 34. The Metric Is Not the User

  5. 35. The Roadmap Ate the User

  6. 36. Better Ship It Than Admit It

  7. 37. You Design the Same Mistakes

  8. 38. You Solved the Wrong Problem

  9. 39. Research as Alibi

  10. 40. Now You Know Too Much

40 illustrations, all drawn by hand.

I hand-drew 40 illustrations for the book, one for each chapter. They turn psychological ideas into familiar situations: falling in love with a first sketch, getting overwhelmed by choices, or trying to make the wrong solution fit. The drawings give the book a personal voice and make the ideas easier to remember.

A person looking at their reflection in a mirror Hand-drawn illustration for You Ruin Your Own Designs Hand-drawn illustration for Design for Your Ego Hand-drawn illustration for Your Mind Lies to You Hand-drawn illustration for Taste Isn't Talent Hand-drawn illustration for Creativity Isn't Magic Hand-drawn illustration for Deadlines Make You Dumb A designer with heart-shaped eyes falling in love with a sketch Hand-drawn illustration for Your Knowledge Is the Problem Hand-drawn illustration for You Are Not Listening Hand-drawn illustration for Pass the Vibe Check First Hand-drawn illustration for Your Design Is Rigged A confused person pushing against a door with no visible handle Hand-drawn illustration for Intuitive Design Is a Lie An exhausted person holding an equally exhausted phone Hand-drawn illustration for Stop Breaking the Pattern Hand-drawn illustration for Nobody Remembers Your UI Hand-drawn illustration for Design the Last Moment First Hand-drawn illustration for Fake Progress Is Real Motivation A brain sorting squares, triangles, and circles into groups Hand-drawn illustration for Users Don't Think in Tasks Hand-drawn illustration for Users Want Now, Not Later Hand-drawn illustration for Your Users Are Lying to You Hand-drawn illustration for Users React, Then Rationalize Hand-drawn illustration for Users Will Hate Your New Design A designer showing a tablet to someone who looks confused Hand-drawn illustration for Old Habits Beat Better Products A person overwhelmed by a choice between five doors Hand-drawn illustration for Users Will Ignore You Hand-drawn illustration for Your Design Made Them Quit A person in a sailor uniform saluting Hand-drawn illustration for Good Design Dies in Meetings Hand-drawn illustration for A Redesign Won't Save You Hand-drawn illustration for The Metric Is Not the User Hand-drawn illustration for The Roadmap Ate the User Hand-drawn illustration for Better Ship It Than Admit It Hand-drawn illustration for You Design the Same Mistakes A person trying to fit the wrong piece into a puzzle Hand-drawn illustration for Research as Alibi Hand-drawn illustration for Now You Know Too Much

Available in five languages.

Alongside the English original, you can read Product Design Psychology in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. Each cover links to that edition of the book.

Product
Design
Psychology

English

La psicología
del diseño
de productos

Spanish

产品
设计
心理学

Chinese

プロダクト
デザインの
心理学

Japanese

علم نفس
تصميم
المنتجات

Arabic