Human behavior origins that influence modern designs

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• through the millions of years of A/B testing called natural selection?

• we have to know industry standards and use them as a base for our solutions

• Using these well-established design patterns will give your users a faster learning curve.

• design inconsistencies require too much mental effort.

• It seems nature didn’t find much use seeing the full spectrum.

• Some researchers think that primal humans used to see ultraviolet light that suited better to a nocturnal lifestyle, but at some point we developed trichromatic vision, probably to better see fruits and berries against leaves. Others think the reason was to see red. For primal humans, blushing might have been a sign of “romantic intentions”. Thus seeing red could have helped to find a partner. Use this information for good :)

• Our reward systems evolved to reward us for doing beneficial things for yourself and the tribe. Understanding how it works is very important in walking the thin line between abusing users and creating an immersive experience.

• most drug addicts don’t experience pleasure after periodic use but they still have a strong desire to repeat that amazing first experience.

• Reward prediction theory says that dopamine is released when the outcome has a much greater reward than we expected.

• This usually can be done by small things: adding micro-animations to buttons, animated illustrations instead of boring text in popups, customized experience, and much more.

• a study conducted by Mark Lepper and Richard Nisbett showed that children who were promised a reward would lose interest in drawing after they would get a reward as opposed to groups who weren’t promised a prize.

• there is a hack and it’s called a variable reward.

• It appears the thrill of not knowing if you will get an award is more exciting than the reward itself.