10 psychology techniques to drive behaviour

I want to share this really good article about what motivates human behavior, in a marketing context.

Helpful for designers in particular, and marketing in general.

There are some very good thoughts in that article.

All too often graphic designers (new designers, especially) get too caught up in aesthetics while failing to realize that the job is more about audience engagement and persuasion.

Absolutely. I think design schools don’t do as well as they should in emphasizing the audience.

This is communication design. It’s what I think schools should be teaching more than graphic design. When I went to art school, graphic design was a subcategory of communication design. Many of the people who go to school for graphic design would be more interested in illustration, copywriting, marketing, broadcast, journalism, video production, animation, photography, interactivity, or programming.

Those who truly specialize in graphic design are communication designers who stick to composition, typography, page layout, logo design, psychology of colors, motion design, and interface design as their primary means of communicating. They will insist on knowing the client’s chosen brand and message before thinking about graphics. And they would rather work with copywriters, creative directors, and marketers than try to be all of that in one person.

When I went to school, the graphic design program was part of the fine arts college, so there was this heavy emphasis spilling over from painting, printmaking, sculpture, etc… It seemed like an odd fit at the time, and seems an even worse fit looking back on it. When I headed back to graduate school, I ended up spending a lot of time taking communication classes in that part of the univesity just so I could get a better appreciation of design coming from that perspective.

Is there a line between visual communication and graphic design?

Seems like the definitions are not clear any more.

Also, graphic design lately seems to be foaming over into web development. My schooling included Dreamweaver and Wordpress, and many of today’s graphic design job postings include html and css, with some calling for designer/developer.

Not really. The term visual communication was an attempt to expand the scope of graphic design and make it sound less subjective. Whomever promoted it in academia must have been ignorant of the even broader term “communication design.”

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you. Good article.

Need explain that 3rd tip (keep it concise) to our customers lol.