You Didn’t Have Time to Sit and Process

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A logo featuring a multicolored iris with a hidden image inside into it logo by Flavia²⁷⁶⁷ for Dan Harrison Design writer and professor (and ex-psychology student) Don Norman explains that there are two key takeaways from understanding the psychological effects of visuals. First, visuals are the dominant influence in how we make decisions. It all started with our evolutionary ancestors, who had to make split-second decisions as a matter of life or death. Back then, if you saw tiger stripes what they meant — you either ran immediately or that was the end of your hereditary line.

This led to a biological predisposition to visuals image manipulation service in making decisions. Split-second glances tell us more than time spent ruminating the logical pros and cons. That’s why something (or someone!) that seems good on paper can feel wrong in actuality, and vice-versa. For designers, the moral is that you should follow your heart over cold facts and figures of design. Take a page from Google’s book: their logo defies quite a few laws of geometrical symmetry, but the end result just feels more natural than the geometrically perfect one.
Image showing the geometrical discrepancies with the Google logo As the Google logo shows, geometrically perfect is not exactly perfect. Via CreativeBloq. Visuals go even deeper, though, to the point where they actually improve usability. A positive impression on a product or image puts the brain in a relaxed state—the user enjoys using or seeing it—while a negative impression has the opposite effect. That much may be obvious without a psychology degree, but here’s the kicker: a relaxed brain functions more efficiently.