Applied Psychology of User Experience (PSY377)

The American Psychological Association named user experience (UX) as one of the 10 top trends in psychology for 2020 (DeAngelis, 2020). Some best practices for UX testing include conducting a pilot study, recruiting participants who resemble your target population, remaining as hands-off as possible during testing, analysing multiple sources of data, and debriefing participants after testing. These are all typical considerations for a psychological study. Similarly, the issues UX professionals are interested in (e.g., Why do people quit while signing up for an online service? What motivates frequent library visitors?) are regularly rooted in psychology. This course focuses on the role of psychology in shaping UX. Students will learn how to identify, examine, and apply specific psychological principles in UX.

• Psychological needs
• Emotion and Personality
• User personas
• Measuring for User Experiences
• User Interviews
• User journeys
• Perception and Gestalt principles
• Sensory, working, and long-term memory
• Learning and conditioning
• Decision making
• Deploying persuasive experiences
• Social influences of experiences

• Demonstrate the importance of psychology in determining UX
• Appraise key theoretical perspectives underlying UX
• Analyse the role of psychology in understanding UX
• Identify the underlying psychological forces driving specific user experiences
• Explain the theoretical underpinnings of specific user experience decisions
• Apply relevant psychological theories and concepts to improve specific user experiences