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What happens when human-centered design is no longer enough?

Designers are trained to make things easier to use—but what if ease and elegance are no longer the point? What if the systems we need to change go far beyond screens and interfaces, touching global structures and collective futures?

Our guest, Don Norman, coined the term "Norman Door" to describe a door that gives the wrong signal about how to open it—pull vs. push—highlighting poor affordances and feedback in everyday objects.

This simple yet profound observation helped launch a new era of design awareness, making him one of the most influential voices in the psychology of design. His decades-long career has shaped the fields of human-computer interaction, design thinking, and usability. He is the author of the seminal book The Design of Everyday Things, and now, Design for a Better World, a work that challenges us to design for the full complexity of human and planetary needs.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

• What makes some errors easy to catch and others dangerously hard to detect
• How decades of design decisions have shaped today’s global challenges
• What it means to shift from human-centered to humanity-centered design
• How co-design empowers communities over outside experts
• The surprising design lessons learned from nuclear accidents, faucets, and guinea pigs
• The role of failure in progress—and why we should embrace it
  
  

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Designing for ease is not enough—today’s challenges demand designing for systems and long-term impact.
• User-centered design can fall short when it fails to consider environmental, societal, and ethical dimensions.
• Human error is not always a failure of attention—it’s often a byproduct of bad design.
• To scale real change, we need dandelion models—spreading seeds of knowledge and training others to do the same.
• Participatory design ensures that communities are not passive recipients but active creators of their own solutions.
• The service economy offers a path toward sustainability—if companies rethink profit and longevity.

The future of design psychology isn’t about better buttons—it’s about understanding people so deeply that we can redesign society itself.

thedesignpsychologist.substack.com is the podcast newsletter. Get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

Why does social proof work?

And, what are some practical tips on how to use it to create better designs?

In part one of these Social Proof episodes, we started with the foundations of social psychology. We looked at the history, key studies, and some helpful frameworks.

Now in part two, we’re picking up where we left off—at the five-point framework I mentioned at the end of Part One. This is where things get practical. We’ll connect the social psychology research with actual strategies for implementing social proof.

We’ll explore how social proof methods like testimonials, expert endorsements, and more, have an impact on our psychology, in particular, when we’re making buying decisions.

By the end, you’ll have a framework to decode social proof and a toolkit to apply it thoughtfully.

What You’ll Learn

• Five core psychological drivers— including our need to fit in, our fear of missing out, and so on
• How social proof methods like testimonials, expert endorsements, and more, have an impact on our psychology, in particular, when we’re making buying decisions.
• A framework to decode social proof and a toolkit to apply it thoughtfully.

Key Takeaways

• We relate to other humans, and shared experiences matter.
• We want to fit in—and social proof taps into that drive.
• We trust experts when making decisions under uncertainty.
• We’re motivated by FOMO (fear of missing out).
• Imagination helps us take action when we see others doing the same.

These drivers explain why social proof works. We respond to stories, signals, and shared experiences because they tap into how our minds are wired.

We also explored how to use social proof in design. Whether it’s testimonials, expert endorsements, client logos, or user-generated content, each method works best when it feels real, relevant, and respectful. The goal isn’t to trick users—it’s to guide them with clarity, trust, and connection.

thedesignpsychologist.substack.com is the podcast newsletter. Get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.

Have you ever been in a crowd where no one clapped until one brave soul started the applause? Or walked past two restaurants—one bustling with a line out the door, the other nearly empty—and felt pulled toward the busy one?

These small, everyday moments reveal something big: we are profoundly influenced by the people around us, often without even realizing it.

This episode kicks off a two-part deep dive into social proof, one of the most powerful concepts in social psychology. Over a century of research shows that humans are wired to pick up on social cues, and these cues quietly shape our behavior, decisions, and preferences.

In Part 1, you’ll learn:

• Why simply being around others can change how we perform.
• How reviews, testimonials, and follower counts tap directly into our social wiring.
• The fascinating story of a 19th-century psychology professor who first noticed how cyclists behaved differently when riding together.
• How social proof research has evolved from early experiments in social psychology to today’s social neuroscience.
• The key psychological principles that explain why social proof works.

This episode is about more than just marketing or design tricks—it’s about understanding the deep human need to notice, follow, and be influenced by others. By grasping the science, you’ll build a foundation for creating products, experiences, and messages that feel natural, trustworthy, and even irresistible.

What’s next:

In Part 2, we’ll move from theory to practice. You’ll get concrete methods and examples to put social proof to work in your own designs and projects.

thedesignpsychologist.substack.com is the podcast newsletter. Get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn.