How Users Get Hyper-Engaged or Discouraged

Human Tendencies, as observed in Montessori education, are innate impulses driving human behavior and development. These tendencies guide individuals in interacting with their environment, fostering learning and growth. Some key Human Tendencies include:

• Curiosity & Exploration: Innate desire to understand and engage with the surrounding environment, driving active learning and discovery.
• Movement & Abstraction: Utilizing movement to explore and comprehend abstract concepts, linking physical actions with cognitive understanding.
• Order & Orientation: Inherent inclination towards organizing surroundings and seeking order, facilitating predictability and comfort in one's environment.
• Imitation & Repetition: Natural tendency to learn by observing and mimicking others, leading to skill development through repetition and practice.
• Exactness: Inherent drive to examine objects and concepts with precision, fostering attention to detail and mastery in learning and tasks.

Takuma Kakehi

Inclusive design: tips from Montessori’s human tendencies

According to Statista, an average of 6,140 apps were released in Play Store everyday in the first quarter of 2018. Yet, 77% of users never…·

Gestalt principles, such as proximity and similarity, explain our tendency to organize sensory input into meaningful patterns. Proximity suggests that closeness indicates relatedness, while similarity groups elements with shared attributes. Closure fills in gaps to perceive complete shapes, and continuity favors smooth transitions. Derived from Gestalt psychology, these principles explain how humans perceive visual stimuli as unified wholes. In design, they aid in creating organized, clear, and visually appealing interfaces, guiding layout, composition, and hierarchy to optimize user experiences and communication.

Takuma Kakehi

Intuitively scheduling international meetings — a 4-hour UX challenge

I was asked to challenge a design exercise, and I had four hours to complete it. I loved it. I love structuring design processes within…

Principle of Least Astonishment (POLA) is a design principle focusing on aligning closely with users' expectations, minimizing unexpected behaviors. It emphasizes creating intuitive interactions that reduce confusion and enhance usability. In software and product design, adhering to POLA involves using familiar patterns, icons, and terminology to ensure that actions produce expected outcomes, ultimately improving user satisfaction and reducing cognitive load.

Takuma Kakehi

What could United have done better? — my catastrophic flight that got canceled after 13.5h of delay

Two weeks ago, I needed to be in San Francisco for a meeting I was invited to. My flight was supposed to arrive at 3pm the day before the…

Personification in design, like giving machines human-like attributes, taps into user psychology by fostering emotional connections and managing expectations. It can evoke empathy, enhance user engagement, and mitigate dissatisfaction. For example, Pepper the robot and weather bot Poncho use personification to make interactions more relatable and enjoyable, bridging the gap between humans and technology.

Takuma Kakehi

The power of familiarity in Design: skeuomorphic triggers and personified machines

In 2007, right after Steve Jobs first revealed the iPhone in a presentation focusing on Apple’s intent to reinvent the phone, Jobs opened…

The Uncanny Valley is a theory suggesting that as robots or CGI characters become more human-like, people's emotional response becomes increasingly positive until it reaches a point where too much human resemblance triggers feelings of unease or revulsion. This dip in likability is known as the Uncanny Valley.

Takuma Kakehi

Discovery of the Uncanny Valley

In The Power of Familiarity in Design: Skeuomorphic Triggers and Personified Machines, I explored and concluded how introducing familiar…