5 Psychological Secrets Every Innovator Should Know

The book is called 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People. It's written by Susan M. Weinschenk, a psychologist with a 30-year career in the industry, who, according to her bio, "likes to read research. Lots and lots of research." What makes Susan so special isn't just that she's a psychologist—it's that she's a psychologist who also likes design. This is really great for us because she takes all of that research and translates it into little nuggets of information about behavior that can improve the way we design and innovate.

Here are 5 psychologist secrets that every innovator needs to understand in order to be successful (including the answer to my cookbook mystery).

Why Psychology Matters for App Design

Understanding human psychology isn't optional for designers and innovators—it's foundational. The principles that make cookbooks frustrating or video games addictive apply directly to every app, website, and digital product we create. When you're building apps with modern tools like Adalo, these psychological insights become even more actionable because you can rapidly prototype and test different approaches. Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The five secrets below aren't just academic theories. They're practical frameworks that explain why users abandon apps, why some products create fierce loyalty, and why feedback from customers often leads us astray. Let's dive in.

#1: Cognitive Load

When we're designing a product or a service, we're always trying to make it as easy as possible. As part of this process, we don't want there to be too many steps. The more steps, the harder it is. This is why if you've ever gotten feedback on a website or app, people are always saying "there are too many clicks!" On the surface, this sounds like totally valid feedback. By reducing the number of clicks you reduce the number of steps and thus make it easier.

But according to psychology, this isn't exactly true. Gasp!

The reason is that there are actually three different types of mental loads at play here:

• Cognitive loads – recalling and processing current and previous information
• Visual loads – taking in and processing all of the visual information
• Motor loads – moving and taking actions as part of the process

What's interesting is that these loads aren't equal. Cognitive loads are by far the most challenging; it's a lot harder to recall things than it is to process the visuals or move around. Further research has also shown that visual loads are more difficult than motor loads. This means that just focusing on the number of actions—like total clicks—isn't the best way to track how difficult something is to do. It might actually be easier to visually process the information if we have more clicks.

TurboTax: A Masterclass in Cognitive Load Reduction

A great example of this is TurboTax. If you've ever used them to fill out your taxes, you know what I'm talking about. They guide you through the process step by step, click by click, with lots and lots of pages. If you are just trying to minimize the number of clicks, then listing every question on one giant page is probably the best option, but in reality that would feel really overwhelming.

By moving you through the process, TurboTax can start simple and focus you on one small chunk of information at a time, thus reducing cognitive load. This same principle applies when building apps. Tools like Adalo let you create multi-screen flows that present one chunk of information at a time, minimizing the mental effort required from your users while keeping the experience intuitive.

#2: Level Up

So we just got done talking about how important it is to make our innovations as easy to use as possible. No brainer, right? Well, that's not exactly the case. Think about video games for a second. Game designers work tirelessly to do the exact opposite. They want it to be challenging. And we love it! So much so that we spent $24.5 Billion on video games in 2016.

So why do we love things that are difficult?

The Psychology of Effort Justification

This has to do with what psychologist Leon Festinger discovered in 1957. He realized that people feel discomfort when they hold two contradictory ideas in their mind. This discomfort causes them to change one of the ideas to maintain an internal consistency. So if you did something challenging, but that task was not worth the effort, that would create a contradiction in your mind.

This contradiction causes us internal discomfort and, in order to resolve the contradiction, we decide that the task must have actually been worth the effort we put into it after all. What this means to us innovators is that if we want people to love our products we should build in progressive challenges for them. Just like the best video games, things should start easy and then slowly advance to the next level. Eventually, it will seem really difficult but our users will be even more hooked.

When building apps, you can design experiences that start simple and gradually increase in complexity to keep users engaged and invested. Flexible database features allow you to build leveling systems, unlock content progressively, and create rewarding user journeys that leverage the psychology of accomplishment.

#3: It's Not All About You

We've all been bored or tired and felt our minds start to drift off a little. Perhaps it even happened while reading that last sentence. But how much does this happen? 5% of the time? 10%? 20%?

As it turns out, most people think the answer is around 10% but in actuality, the human mind wanders an average of 47% of the time for most tasks, and for some tasks like driving a car on an open road it's up to 70% of the time!

Designing for Distracted Users

This is a big deal. When we're designing our latest innovation, we tend to assume we'll have our users' full attention. This is far from the case, however, especially today in a world full of notifications (I'm sure you've gotten a few just reading this article). We have to come to terms with the fact that our users will, at most, only be giving us half of their brain power.

This means making it absolutely clear to our users where they are in the experience, and emphasize the most important information like crazy. Since research shows minds wander up to 47% of the time, design your app with clear navigation and emphasized key information. Create prominent calls-to-action, progress indicators, and consistent layouts that help users quickly re-orient themselves and understand where they are in your app experience.

If you want a fun way to test to see if your design works when people aren't paying attention you can always hire this guy.

#4: Unreliable Memory

In a study by Loftus and Palmer, 100 students were asked to watch a one minute video of a car peacefully driving through the countryside only to end up crashing in the final four seconds. After the video, 50 students were asked to guess how fast the cars were going when they "smashed" into each other. The other 50 students weren't asked anything.

A week later, Loftus and Palmer followed up with them and asked if they had seen any broken glass after the accident—when there wasn't any in the video. Of the students that were not immediately questioned afterward, 12% said they saw glass (wrong!). And of the 50 students that were questioned about the cars "smashing into each other" 32% said they saw glass (wrong again!!).

What This Means for Customer Feedback

So… what does this mean for us? Well, the idea that our memories aren't actually that good has the biggest implications for customer feedback. We tend to put feedback from our customers on a pedestal. If one of them talks about a bad experience they had with a particular portion of our product, the easiest thing to do is take their word as gospel.

As we now know though, what they say might not actually be exactly what happened. This means we have to be a little skeptical of feedback; especially when we're conducting an interview. The words we use can alter their memories—just like how the word "smashed" altered the students' memories. We should choose our questions wisely, trust what they say, and then try to get more data to verify the truth.

Since user memory can be unreliable, combine in-app analytics with direct feedback to get accurate insights. Integrate feedback forms, track user behavior through your database, and iterate quickly on designs—helping you verify what users actually do versus what they remember doing.

#5: Logic, Emotions, and Instincts

Hungry? I know I am after adding that picture of an amazing looking waffle to this article. Why's that? Well, after many generations of human evolution and then many more generations of studying those evolutions, we've come to a point where humans have developed what some psychologists refer to as three types of brains: the new, the mid, and the old.

• The new-brain is the logical one
• The mid-brain is the emotional one
• The old-brain is the one that made you hungry—it's interested in your survival

The old-brain is the reason why we naturally pay attention to food, faces, loud noises, sex, danger, and movement.

Designing for All Three Brains

So when we're designing new things, what should we do with these three brains (aside from putting sexy pictures of food all over the place)? The first thing we should do is remember that our innovations aren't good enough if we just solve our users' problem. Just solving the problem would be good enough for the logical new-brain, but that doesn't appease the other two.

For the mid-brain, we have to make sure that our products connect with people on an emotional level. This means designing our products with a personality that aligns with our brand to elicit emotions.

Finally, we have to make sure our designs work with our old-brain. You can think about the old-brain as one of our ancient ancestors. It's constantly on the lookout for danger (things that are new, out of place, or moving). And as soon as it finds something suspicious, it's going to alert the other brains.

Motion Provides Meaning

Material Design, Google's design framework, is a perfect example of how to use this to our advantage. One of the core tenants of Material Design is that "motion provides meaning." This concept allows you to beautifully guide the user through the process by using movement to signal a change of context to the old-brain.

[Via Giphy] Motion moves your attention to the next screen while hinting at the action you might want to take.

Applying Psychology to Modern App Building

Ada, Adalo's AI builder, lets you describe what you want and generates your app. Magic Start creates complete app foundations from a description, while Magic Add adds features through natural language.

These psychological principles become even more powerful when you can rapidly implement and test them. Adalo, an AI-assisted platform for building native iOS and Android apps, makes this iteration cycle remarkably fast. With features like Magic Start, you can generate complete app foundations from a simple description—what used to take days of planning happens in minutes.

Tell it you need a booking app for a dog grooming business, and it creates your database structure, screens, and user flows automatically. From there, Magic Add lets you add features by describing what you want in natural language. This speed means you can test different cognitive load approaches, experiment with progressive challenge systems, and iterate based on actual user behavior rather than unreliable memory-based feedback.

The platform's modular infrastructure scales to serve apps with millions of monthly active users, with no upper ceiling. Unlike app wrappers that hit speed constraints under load, Adalo's purpose-built architecture maintains performance at scale. Over 3 million apps have been created on the platform, with the visual builder being described "as easy as PowerPoint."

Cookbook Mystery Solved

Looking back on these 5 psychological secrets, it's clear how even talented cookbook designers might forget to take these concepts into account.

1. Cognitive load ignored: Cookbooks mainly focus on the visual design and completely forget about the cognitive load. This is most obvious when they list the ingredients first but then don't tell you the exact quantity you need during the step by step instructions. It's really hard to remember that the right quantity is 1.25 Tbsp of paprika 30 minutes after I've started preparing my dish.
2. No progressive difficulty: Most cookbooks aren't organized in a way that goes from easiest to most difficult. Instead, they're listed by type of dish. This means I might accidentally pick a really difficult one the first time I try the book.
3. Wandering minds: When I'm cooking, my brain is wandering all over the place. This makes it tough to remember where on the page I need to look next.
4. Unreliable feedback: Because our memory stinks, it's really difficult for us to pinpoint exactly what made the cooking process difficult. Oftentimes when asked, people will think back and blame themselves. Cookbook designers should be watching people cook with their books more often.
5. Old-brain distraction: And finally, my old-brain can't help but look at the sexy pictures in the book and think about the amazing food that's about to go in my stomach, so I get lost with what to do next.

Mystery Solved. Huzzah!

Key Takeaways

• Cognitive load matters more than click count—break complex tasks into focused screens that minimize mental effort
• Progressive challenges create loyalty—design experiences that start simple and gradually increase complexity
• Design for distraction—users give you half their attention at best, so make navigation and key information crystal clear
• Verify feedback with data—memory is unreliable, so combine user interviews with behavioral analytics

Understanding human psychology is critical to the success of design and innovation. And yet, it's a subject that doesn't get much attention. These 5 secrets are just the start. There's more we all need to learn about what makes people tick. After all, the more we know about the people we're trying to help, the more powerful our innovations will be.

FAQ

Why choose Adalo over other app building solutions?

Adalo is an AI-powered app builder that creates true native iOS and Android apps. Unlike web wrappers, it compiles to native code and publishes directly to both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store from a single codebase—the hardest part of launching an app handled automatically. With unlimited database records on paid plans and no usage-based charges, you won't face surprise bills as your app grows.

What's the fastest way to build and publish an app to the App Store?

Adalo's drag-and-drop interface and AI-assisted building let you go from idea to published app in days rather than months. Magic Start generates complete app foundations from a simple description, and the platform handles the complex App Store submission process so you can focus on your app's features and user experience.

Can I easily apply psychology-based design principles to my app?

Yes. Adalo's visual builder lets you reduce cognitive load by breaking complex processes into simple, step-by-step screens, implement progressive challenges with database-driven leveling systems, and use motion and visual hierarchy to guide users intuitively through your app experience.

How can I reduce cognitive load in my app design?

Break complex tasks into smaller, focused screens—just like TurboTax guides users step by step. With Adalo, you can easily create multi-screen flows that present one chunk of information at a time, minimizing the mental effort required from your users while keeping the experience intuitive and engaging.

How do I keep users engaged when their attention wanders?

Since research shows minds wander up to 47% of the time, design your app with clear navigation and emphasized key information. Adalo's visual builder lets you create prominent calls-to-action, progress indicators, and consistent layouts that help users quickly re-orient themselves.

Can I add progressive challenges to my app like video games do?

Absolutely. You can design experiences that start simple and gradually increase in complexity. Adalo's flexible components and database features allow you to build leveling systems, unlock content progressively, and create rewarding user journeys that leverage the psychology of accomplishment.

How can I gather reliable user feedback on my app?

Since user memory can be unreliable, combine in-app analytics with direct feedback. Adalo allows you to integrate feedback forms, track user behavior through your database, and iterate quickly on designs—helping you verify what users actually do versus what they remember doing.

How much does it cost to build a psychology-optimized app?

Adalo's web and true-native mobile builder starts at $36/month with unlimited usage and app store publishing. Unlike competitors that charge based on database records or usage, Adalo's paid plans include unlimited database records and no usage-based charges, so you can iterate on your designs without worrying about costs.

Do I need coding experience to implement these design principles?

No coding required. Adalo's visual builder has been described as "easy as PowerPoint," and the AI features Builder will enable prompt-based app creation and editing. Over 3 million apps have been created on the platform by users of all technical backgrounds.

Will my app scale as users grow?

Yes. Adalo's modular infrastructure scales to serve apps with millions of monthly active users, with no upper ceiling. The Adalo 3.0 infrastructure overhaul in late 2025 made apps 3-4x faster, and the purpose-built architecture maintains performance at scale—unlike app wrappers that hit constraints under load.