How might designers better understand users?

All actions are solutions to our problems. Our problems are the conscious of what we think and feel. And, we believe what the deceiving unconscious interprets to us. Why does this matter? After the adaptation of Freuds theory into the American society, we are starting to understand the cause and effect of psychology.

And to understand the cause and effect, we must be aware of modern design principles coined by Don Norman, who intersected cognitive science with design to create a 'User Experience.' In which, the two complete ideas offer our starting point.

How are we consuming information for design?

If we are incorporating modern design principles into the market, how are we learning them? I desk researched the most popular design contents from websites, influencers, and courses.

Out of many great collections of resources, I specifically analyzed the work of Jon Yablonski's Laws of UX. The work presents collection of psychology principles with unique visuals that are completed with intuitive click-through experience.

In simple words, it pops.

This shows a trend in attention, cognitive loads, and visual congruency; which was also spotted in different references.

Jon Yablonski's Laws of UX website

Simplicity defines deeper understanding

As we modernized throughout time, our knowledge is rooted for more deeper level of basic understandings. While my exploration of inspiration in the local book stores, I've noticed a similar patterns in vintage psychology books.

This idea held the meaning of abstraction in basic forms where we are understanding less of what we tend to already know. Which reflected the BauHaus ideals adapting to the modern psychology principles.

Dieter Rams stated that "Form follows functions." Our main function was to make people understand complex principle easier. We wanted to make sure we achieve the idea of easing the understanding of complex ideas.

Collection of vintage psychology books

If we overload cognitive loads, our brain will refresh

I wanted to achieve one simple experiment to be done. Are we able to imply a design which refreshes our brain from overloaded cognition?

To reduce time, I asked GPT-4o to gain insights on how the color red can impact our brain. To my surprise, if we are able to make a stopping point for microbreaks, our brains will have the opportunity to refresh our brain.

If we align the content value of the website with red colored design, we will be able to help users take microbreaks before fully engaging the website.

A conversation with GPT-4o to explore ideas

Sketching out ideas, priorities, and systems

With the ideas presented above, we ideated wireframes, requirements, priorities, and systems to explore.

For a challenge, I promised myself several requirements:

1. 1. Everything should be coded.
2. 2. Systemize everything we can.
3. 3. Explore at least 5 times.

Wireframe

Competitive Analysis

Product Thinking

Experience Mapping

CMS is limiting our creativity.

As a project without a developer, I had to discover various of ways to develop my idea. I installed a Sanity.io CMS in Next.js to discover new learning opportunities. After, I asked several designers about their feedbacks.

Learnings:
Using CMS fastened the development to scale for future updates. However, the number of content and the viewing experience lacked exmemplifying each principles.

Feedbacks:
The idea is valuable, interesting, and modern. However, it's still difficult to understand how to utilize.

Opportunity:
Then, what if we build a visual system that enhances the user experience? What if we generate a concept to maximize engagement? Adding fun into learning?

Initial low-fidelity prototype

Retention is everything

Upon pre-launch, I realized one mistake. I didn't think about how to market the product. We decided to launch and market the product. We plan to install data collecting 3rd-party programs such as hotjar and Google Analytics to uncover our value towards our users.

Collecting retention data plan