The Design Psychologist | Psychology for UX, Product, Service, Instructional, Interior, and Game Designers
by Thomas Watkins
Is this your podcast?Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 13 chart positions in 13 markets.
By chart position
- 🇨🇦CA · Design#5930K to 100K
- 🇬🇧GB · Design#8830K to 100K
- 🇩🇪DE · Design#1745K to 30K
- 🇮🇳IN · Design#5030K to 100K
- 🇿🇦ZA · Design#3210K to 30K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
63K to 216K🎙 Weekly cadence·27 episodes·Last published 5mo ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
126K to 432K🇨🇦23%🇬🇧23%🇮🇳23%+10 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
38K to 130K
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
—
Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
Recent episodes
Season 1 Finale: Design for a Better World (w/ Don Norman)
Jan 5, 2026
1h 08m 15s
The Power of Social Proof (Part 2): 18 Methods Across 5 Psychological Drivers
Dec 1, 2025
30m 11s
The Power of Social Proof (Part 1)
Nov 3, 2025
25m 56s
Align Before Design: The Psychology of Strategic Alignment (with Tamara Adlin)
Oct 6, 2025
1h 02m 01s
Why Games Work: Emotional Arcs, Flow States, and Meaningful Play (with Jesse Schell)
Sep 29, 2025
58m 54s
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/5/26 | Season 1 Finale: Design for a Better World (w/ Don Norman) | Go to thedesignpsychologist.substack.com to get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn. 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 "Norm... | 1h 08m 15s | ||||||
| 12/1/25 | The Power of Social Proof (Part 2): 18 Methods Across 5 Psychological Drivers | 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-poi... | 30m 11s | ||||||
| 11/3/25 | The Power of Social Proof (Part 1) | 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 ... | 25m 56s | ||||||
| 10/6/25 | Align Before Design: The Psychology of Strategic Alignment (with Tamara Adlin) | Get episode summaries right in your inbox so you can easily reference, save, and apply what you learn: thedesignpsychologist.substack.com Why do so many user personas fail in practice, and what can we do about it? Have you ever worked on a team where everyone had a different idea of who the user was? Or watched a beautifully crafted persona become ignored or misused? You're not alone. In this episode, we explore why traditional personas often fall short—and how alignment personas can ch... | 1h 02m 01s | ||||||
| 9/29/25 | Why Games Work: Emotional Arcs, Flow States, and Meaningful Play (with Jesse Schell) | Why are games so deeply engaging? What psychological principles make game design such a powerful tool for shaping attention, emotion, and learning? Game design is not a niche skill. It's one of the most refined disciplines we have for designing attention, emotion, and motivation. If you're designing anything for people, game design can sharpen your craft. This episode reveals how the craft of game design can teach us to build more immersive, emotionally resonant experiences. Whether yo... | 58m 54s | ||||||
| 9/22/25 | Advance Without Alienating: How MAYA Drives Adoption | What is the sweet spot between new and familiar, and how do you design for it? Create products that feel groundbreaking and instantly intuitive by applying the psychology of the MAYA Principle. By unpacking how humans respond to familiarity and novelty, you’ll gain practical guidance for designing experiences that spark excitement without overwhelming users. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE What is the MAYA Principle, and why does it matter for product and experience design?How do familiarity an... | 16m 26s | ||||||
| 9/15/25 | Frontstage, Backstage: How Service Design Really Works (with Marc Stickdorn) | What’s the real impact of service design on customer experiences? In this episode of The Design Psychologist, host Thomas talks with service design expert Marc Stickdorn, PhD, author of "This is Service Design Doing," about the evolution and holistic nature of service design. They discuss the importance of community involvement and collaboration in shaping effective strategies and enhancing user interactions across various touchpoints. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: - The r... | 59m 03s | ||||||
| 9/8/25 | The Peak-End Rule in Design: What We Take Away | What shapes the memory of an experience, and how can designers use that insight to create better, more human-centered products? Design more memorable and emotionally resonant experiences by understanding how people actually remember what they go through. It turns out we do not remember experiences by their length, but by their intensity and how they end. By uncovering the psychological principle known as the peak-end rule, you will learn how to shape experiences that stand out in people’s min... | 17m 33s | ||||||
| 9/1/25 | Less Load, More Learning: First Principles of Cognitive Load Theory (with John Sweller) | What’s the best way to choose how you’ll teach something so it actually sticks? Design your next lesson so learners don’t just follow along—they understand, remember, and apply their new skills. By grounding your instruction in Cognitive Load Theory, you’ll gain a practical compass for sequencing content, trimming unnecessary load, and accelerating real mastery. Our guest, Dr. John Sweller, pioneered Cognitive Load Theory during more than four decades as Professor of Educational Psychology at... | 1h 04m 03s | ||||||
| 8/25/25 | Designing with Tension: What the Zeigarnik Effect Reveals About Memory and Momentum | Have you ever noticed how an unfinished task — or a cliffhanger at the end of a show — keeps tugging at your attention? How can the Zeigarnik effect’s lingering cognitive tension help us design products, services, and experiences that people actually come back to and complete? When you learn to harness the motivational pull of “unfinished business,” you can turn mundane flows into engaging journeys and guide users toward the outcomes that matter. We explore why interruptions strengthen ... | 10m 03s | ||||||
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| 8/18/25 | Closing the Knowing-Doing Gap: Designing for Real Behavior Change (with Julie Dirksen) | Why is it so hard to change behavior—even when people already know exactly what to do? Design your next learning experience so people don’t just understand what to do— they actually do it. By uncovering the psychology behind the knowing–doing gap, you’ll gain practical tools to move your audience from passive understanding to sustained action. Our guest, Julie Dirksen, has spent two decades helping organizations design training and products that lead to measurable behavior change. WHA... | 1h 11m 58s | ||||||
| 8/11/25 | Order Matters—But Not the Way You Think: How Serial Position Gets Misused | In this episode, we uncover how the order in which information is presented affects what users remember—and what they forget. From the “primacy effect” that gives early items a cognitive boost, to the “recency effect” that gives the last ones staying power, you'll learn how sequence can make or break a design. We explore: Why we remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle onesWhy many designers mistakenly apply memory principles to visual design when they should be focu... | 19m 26s | ||||||
| 8/4/25 | From Vibes to Variables: How We’re Measuring the Unmeasurable in UX (with Bill Albert) | Why is it so hard to know whether people want to use what we design—not just whether they can? Design research can (and should) go far beyond basic task success. Our guest Bill Albert joins us to show how to expand our measurement toolbox. By learning to measure desirability, emotion, and true engagement, we unlock clearer insights, align teams faster, and invest only in ideas that will actually resonate. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE Usability vs. desirability — why the distinction mat... | 55m 14s | ||||||
| 7/28/25 | The Shape of Choice: What Hick’s Law Really Reveals About Decision Time | What happens when your design asks users to make too many choices? In this solo episode, we explore a deceptively simple principle with massive implications for user experience: Hick’s Law. This law explains why more options mean more decision time—and why that’s not always a good thing. From cluttered navigation to bloated dropdowns, we’ll break down how cognitive overload quietly slows users down. You'll learn when reducing choices helps, when it hurts, and how to use psychological insights... | 19m 03s | ||||||
| 7/21/25 | How to Visualize the Invisible: Metaphors, Models, and Meaning (with Stephen P. Anderson) | Explaining an abstract idea can feel easy—until you put pen to paper. In this episode, our host sits down with Stephen P. Anderson to unpack the craft of turning complex concepts into clear, memorable visuals. Together they dig into the challenges of sketching an org chart, mapping a process, or nailing a scientific metaphor—and ask what really separates a helpful illustration from a confusing one. You’ll hear them explore: Why visualizing a concept (not just data) often stalls on... | 1h 01m 45s | ||||||
| 7/14/25 | How Well Do Our Words Reflect Our Inside World? A psychological perspective on the limits of self-report, introspection, and understanding the human mind | How much can you trust what users tell you? In this solo episode, we dive into one of the most slippery yet essential tools in UX research: self-reporting. From interviews to surveys, self-reports are everywhere—but they come with hidden psychological traps. We explore: Why self-reported data can be both useful and misleadingThe psychological reasons people often misrepresent their own behaviorWhen to trust what users say—and when to dig deeperThe subtle difference between described and obser... | 17m 13s | ||||||
| 7/7/25 | Disruptive by Design: Uncovering Game-Changing Insights (with Larry Marine) | Ever wonder how certain products feel inevitable the moment they appear—rearranging entire markets overnight? In this episode of The Design Psychologist, Thomas sits down with UX pioneer Larry Marine to unpack the mechanics of truly disruptive research—the kind that yields insights so fundamental they can’t be unseen. Most teams unknowingly skip a handful of critical research steps, blinding themselves to the knowledge that changes everything. Larry shows us how treating users, tasks, and ent... | 1h 02m 00s | ||||||
| 6/30/25 | The Why Behind Sample Size: How Many People Do You Really Need to Test With? | How many participants do you need to test in order to make valid research claims? In this episode, we dive deep into the science and psychology behind sample sizes in user testing. Whether you're working with five users or five hundred, the number you choose can shape the story your research tells—and how credible your findings appear to stakeholders. Why sample size is one of the most misunderstood elements in product researchThe psychological impact of “too few” vs. “just enough” users in h... | 25m 01s | ||||||
| 6/23/25 | How to Decode Conversation: A Paradigm Shift in Qualitative Insight and Human Understanding (with Indi Young) | In this episode of The Design Psychologist, we dive deep into the world of qualitative research and human-centered design with legendary UX thinker Indi Young. If you've ever felt like your user interviews only skim the surface—or if you've relied too heavily on personas—you might be missing the most powerful insights. Indi joins us to explore how deep, non-judgmental listening can revolutionize your understanding of users and, ultimately, your design outcomes. Together, we tackle... | 1h 02m 31s | ||||||
| 6/16/25 | Why It Feels Right: Affordance and the Mind’s Hidden Expectations | Why do some products feel natural the moment you touch them—while others are baffling from the start? In this episode, we explore the psychology of affordances—those subtle cues that tell us what to do next, without saying a word. From door handles to digital apps, we break down how great design speaks directly to human intuition. You’ll learn: The psychological principles that make interfaces feel “just right” What Don Norman meant by affordances, signifiers, and anti-affordances H... | 11m 27s | ||||||
| 6/9/25 | Designing for Risk: What Aviation and AR Reveal about Attention, Disaster, and Human Factors (with Chris Wickens) | In this episode, Thomas interviews Dr. Chris Wickens, a pioneer in cognitive engineering and human factors, and they discuss how designers can reduce errors and enhance decision-making when lives are on the line. They delve into the high-stakes world of design psychology for critical environments—think operating rooms, airplane cockpits, and military control systems. Together, they explore the real science of attention, what causes overload and confusion in high-pressure moments, and ho... | 1h 01m 46s | ||||||
| 6/3/25 | How to Find the Next Big Idea: Deductive vs. Inductive Thinking in Product Research | How do you figure out what features to build into your design? How do you get those magical insights that actually improve your product—versus just shifting things around? In this episode, we unpack one key distinction that helps design psychologists and UX researchers choose the right method at the right time: inductive vs. deductive research. Imagine you have two different ideas for how to design an app for restaurant waitstaff. You think of adding some possible features, like a picture-ba... | 14m 20s | ||||||
| 5/28/25 | The Six Minds of UX: A Design Checklist You Didn't Know You Needed (with John Whalen) | This episode is an absolute masterclass in human-centered design, featuring Dr. John Whalen—cognitive scientist, seasoned UX expert, and author of Design for How People Think. John introduces us to his powerful framework, The Six Minds of UX, which breaks down the complexity of user experience into six distinct cognitive lenses. Whether you’re designing a website, app, service, or physical product, these six minds offer a foolproof checklist to make sure you’re not leaving any critical piece ... | 1h 01m 37s | ||||||
| 5/28/25 | Color Psychology in Design: What the Science Really Says | What does the color of your brand really say about your business? Is there truth behind the popular color psychology charts? In this episode, we cut through the noise and explore the actual science behind color psychology—what it tells us, what it doesn't, and what that means for your branding decisions. We’ll explore: Why some color associations (like “blue = trust”) persist—and whether they hold up under scrutinyThe surprising cultural roots behind color meanings (hint: pink wasn’t always f... | 26m 14s | ||||||
| 5/28/25 | Psychology Principles Every Designer Should Master (with Susan Weinschenk) | Today on The Design Psychologist, we're diving deep into the intersection of psychology and design with none other than Susan Weinschenk, PhD—the person you’ll literally find next to the term “design psychologist” in the dictionary. Susan is a pioneer in applying behavioral science to UX and product design, and the author of essential books like How to Get People to Do Stuff and 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. In this conversation, we explore Susan's journey ... | 57m 46s | ||||||
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Chart Positions
13 placements across 13 markets.
Chart Positions
13 placements across 13 markets.