- Photo
- —
- Name
- —
- Field
- Behavioral economics / design
- Year
- 2011
- Main topic
- Designing systems for biased, shortcut-using humans
- Key idea
- People rely on simple heuristics; good systems align with those heuristics instead of fighting them.
- Why it matters
- Great mental model for why “rational user” assumptions keep breaking your flows in the wild.
- Best for
- Choice architecture, dashboards, and anything with lots of options.
- Difficulty
- Medium — conceptual but not super mathy.
- My take
- This is the paper that made me stop designing for Ideal Me and start designing for Sleepy 11:30 p.m. Me.
- Reading tip
- Read with a specific product in mind; after each heuristic, jot how your UI currently trips over it.
TheLysts
