UX myth-busting, with a side of psychology

Session type:

Tutorial

Presented by:

Jessica Cameron

Lloyds Banking Group

Session duration:

60 minutes

About the session

Psychology can teach us a great deal about how to craft more compelling, engaging and successful user experiences. But sometimes, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

In this session, I’ll look at a few pearls of UX wisdom that we have gained from popular psychology - and take time to consider the research behind them to see how well they hold up. This may change the way you think about what users (and their brains) really need.

Conference Themes: Beginner, Psychology

About the speaker(s)

Jessica Cameron

Jessica is an experienced Design Researcher whose areas of specialty include behavioural science, mixed methods, and inclusive research. She has been at Lloyds Banking Group since 2020.

Over the course of her career, Jessica has gotten to research topics as varied as:
• people’s superstitions around taking out life insurance
• how project managers use spreadsheets to plan projects – and plan their retirement
• exactly how much bagpipe music should feature on a tourism website

She loves that this job gives her the opportunity to become an expert in just about anything.

Before becoming a Design Researcher, Jessica completed a PhD in Social Psychology. Her thesis research looked at the situational factors that license people to behave unethically – and although she didn’t realise it at the time, prepared her well for taking on leadership roles.

Jessica lives in Edinburgh but is originally from New York City, so she loves to tell people what she thinks about everything. Hit her up if you want to workshop research ideas, or just need suggestions of where to go for dinner while you’re in town.