Perceptual Lens
From Design with Intent Toolkit
Perceptual design patterns for influencing behaviour
The Perceptual Lens combines ideas from product semantics, semiotics, ecological psychology and Gestalt psychology about how users perceive patterns and meanings as they interact with the systems around them, and puts them into forms which invite the designer to think about how they might influence people's behaviour. Most are predominantly visual, but they need not be: sounds, smells, textures and so on can all be used, individually or in combination.
These techniques are often applied by interaction designers in the course of doing a job without necessarily considering how they can influence user behaviour.
Click on each of the cards below to go to a dedicated page about it (which will be expanded in due course).
(A)symmetry | Colour associations | Contrast | Fake affordances | Implied sequences | Metaphors | Mimicry & mirroring | Mood | Nakedness | Perceived affordances | Possibility trees | Prominence | Proximity & grouping | Seductive atmospherics | Similarity | Transparency | Watermarking
- Download the Perceptual Lens cards 4.6 MB PDF | (A3 workshop sheet)
Eight lenses on influencing behaviour through design
Survey
If you've used the cards and found them useful (or not), it would really be appreciated if you could have a go at a quick 5-minute survey. Every 40 respondents, there'll be a mini-prize draw for a book on interaction design, UX, architecture, or similar. The 39th respondent's just finished!
