Design psychology: what it is, how it is used, and how it can influence us

Brand logos and the way their services and products are advertised are not designed without following a pattern at all. Its visual presentation, in addition to being artistic, has an intention: to attract attention and convince the user that they need it.

Design psychology is a field closely related to marketing and that is behind the success that a company can have when it comes to promoting its products. It is the art of, through shapes, colors and style, evoking feelings in the audience to whom it is addressed so that they consider consuming a good or service.

Next we are going to delve into this not so well known branch of psychology and how it is behind of some subtle but very important changes that certain companies have had in recent years years.

• Related article: "Environmental Psychology: definition, applications and approaches"

What is the psychology of design?

The name of design psychology does not have much mystery, since it comes to say what it is: psychology applied to the field of design. But,

What relationship can there be between psychology and the design of brands and objects? Really a lot, and in fact you could say that the psychology of design has been enormously involved in taking important decisions such as choosing what a brand's cover letter is going to be, that is, its own logo.

The psychology of design starts from a reality that is undoubted: all the objects with which we interact, even through the visual, evoke sensations and perceptions. Colors, shapes, typeface, object size, and symmetry are influencing aspects. enormously in how we feel, something that is nothing new and that the world of fine arts has it very Sure.

Translating the power of visual beauty to the world of commercial and marketing, retailers and companies find a powerful ally in design psychology. Knowing how to make a logo, design an object or promote one of your services in your advertising can exploit the sentimentality of the audience to convince them that they have a need. A good design can generate feelings, and those feelings are what make someone have the need to buy something that, objectively, they did not need.

Application of this branch

Although the psychology of design does not have to be applied exclusively to the field of marketing, it is clear that it intervenes in this field in a very significant way. It could be said that this branch is behind actions such as multimedia creation, illustration, graphic interface design, infographics, the production of brand art and its identity, among many others more. We not only talk about the design of the product, but also how it is promoted. Everything influences the decision-making of the potential buyer, and therefore what is presented should encourage him to decide to buy in the end.

Other fields in which we could find the psychology of design are, for example, architecture. The design of the house can influence how cold or warm it can be perceived by its visitors, something which must be considered based on the climate of the place itself and the functionality that such edifice. Building a museum is not the same as building a block of flats, since the former must have a design that calls for attention to make it visited, innovative but solemn, while the houses should evoke homelike warmth and safety.

The list of examples in which the psychology of design is taken into account is very long, being able to go from the design of books, squares, cars, airports and practically everything that we can think of that has a functionality for the public. What we can comment more clearly are some of the phenomena that this branch takes into account, many of them characteristic of Gestalt theory since, like that branch, in the psychology of design I know follows the idea that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

1. Proximity

Objects placed close to each other are seen as a group.

2. Similarity

Similar objects are perceived as an object or that are part of the same category.

3. Closing

A figure that is perceived as a whole even when the object is not completely closed.

4. Continuity

When moving from one object to another naturally.

5. Figure background

The figure is detached from the surrounding background.

6. Colors

Both naturally and culturally acquired, colors are linked to a specific register of emotions. In a western context the yellow or gold color is related to prestige, wealth and happiness, the red with danger or impulsiveness, white with purity, blue and green with health and nature. The list is as long as you want to make it.

• You may be interested in: "Gestalt theory: fundamental laws and principles"

When less is more

We have already mentioned on a couple of occasions that the psychology of design is very involved in the design of brand logos and now we are going to understand what is happening in this world. Have you noticed? Many companies have decided to change their cover letters and it is something that has not exactly gone unnoticed, since even the media have echoed it.

IKEA, Correos España, Warner Bros, Twitch, PBS, American Express, Facebook, Google, Microsoft... and many more companies have in common that their logos have become simpler, minimalist and concise. Why? What is the interest in simplifying it? Design psychology brings us the answer, an explanation that cannot be understood without contextualizing the phenomenon.

In the past, when a brand decided to rebrand it made a comprehensive change, introducing a redesign both in its style and in the shape and colors of its logo. This is not difficult to verify, since it is enough to put in the search engine of our search engine "evolution" and choose any brand so that we get a Darwinian evolution type sequence of how its Logo. After years and years adding flourishes and garish details to their logos, brands have decided, almost at the same time, to go the opposite direction: less is more.

This change in trend, this idea as ironically simple as it is to remove instead of put is something that most of us human beings do not usually conceive and in fact research carried out by Gabrielle Adams' group has explored it scientifically and they have explained what they found in their Article People systematically overlook subtractive changes (People systematically overlook subtractive changes.)

The researchers presented their experimental subjects with a screen in which there was a grid with different shapes made from green squares. These figures were asymmetric and the task was to make them symmetrical as they wanted by changing the places 9 of the squares. Most of the subjects, far from eliminating the squares that made the figure asymmetrical, preferred to change places first. squares rather than eliminating them, despite the fact that this second option was the one that would have led them to satisfy the homework.

It is curious how brands have taken a long time to opt for this decision, a decision that has made them gain a lot of repercussion once again by becoming news for simplification. Y not only affects the logo itself, but also has chosen to use simpler fonts, without serif, functional and with straighter lines.

It must be said that the motivation behind many of these changes is directly related to the virtual world. Many brands are changing the design of their logos to make them more adjustable to all types of media, both on and offline, making them legible and recognizable whether you are looking at the brand on a tablet or if you find that same logo on a piece of paper.

Whatever the change, it is clear that the motivation is to get the customer's attention, make you better remember the company logo and easily recognize it anywhere. The shape, colors, typography and size make an impression, an impression that is accompanied by emotions that guide us when using a service. Of course, the psychology of design is a field that, although little known, he does know very well what the consumer's mind is like.

Bibliographic references:

• Adams, G.S., Converse, B.A., Hales, A.H. et al (2021) People systematically overlook subtractive changes. Nature 592, 258–261 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03380-y
• Carbon, C. (2019). Psychology of Design. Design Science, 5, E26. doi: 10.1017 / dsj.2019.25