Women, fire and dangerous things

Recently I have had to put some serious thinking behind how large numbers of users can most successfully be encouraged to progress through an interface. Using some research I have carried out I am going to write a series of blog posts on the psychology of design.

One of the major influences on the way we experience the world is language. The world of language is divided into categories, it is this categorization that helps us to forge links between stuff. Professor George Lakoff shows that this categorization can vary amongst the languages of the world, for example there is an Aboriginal tribe that place Women, Fire and dangerous things all under one category i.e they all share similar characteristics, some of which I’m sure we have all experienced.

A couple of guys called Roger Brown and Brent Berlin discovered that it is most common for stuff to be categorized at the genus level, so with trees for example, Oak, Maple, Ash etc. So if there is one central naming level that humans seem to prefer when communicating to one another then these basic principles I believe can be applied to design.

If this level of understanding is common to all language then it is the base point to design from. Certain naming conventions could be adhered to in order to maximize user understanding and therefore usability.

Think of easier to understand navigation buttons, more relevant page copy, links with meaning. If effort is made, wherever possible, to use the genus level to name then it should in theory make a site more usable by attaching those names to a more fundamental and relevant part of the language everyone uses.

I will be blogging more about these ideas in future so stay tuned.