UXD Principles and Concepts - Week 4 - Reflective Journaling

One of the things that stuck with me in this week's readings came from the Designing With The Mind In Mind book by Jeff Johnson. Namely the section having to do with the "three brains" that humans have evolved to exist with -- which he calls 1) the old brain; 2) the midbrain; and 3) the new brain. I was vaguely familiar with this concept prior to reading about it here, but it was interesting to learn how these 3 differently-evolved areas of the human brain manifest themselves into what Johnson then calls the "two minds," which he entitles as "System One," comprising the activities of the "old brain" and the "midbrain," and "System Two," primarily run by the "new brain." 

The fact that we consciously exist and think in the front of our minds with the "System Two" new brain gives us the idea that this front-of-mind genius, basically who we consider our conscious identity/self ("me"), is the mind that is in control. But actually, we just think that because it's the mind with all the words that we hear ourselves thinking. While the "System Two" new brain is good at solving problems and thinking things through and figuring things out, it turns out that it is also significantly slower and less agile than the "System One" reptilian old- and mid-brains. The old- and midbrains have been with us much longer, evolutionarily speaking, and are tied to the things we need to have going for us in order to survive -- reflexes, speed, quick recognition of visual input, etc. But these attributes also help us with our daily activities whether we realize it or not. 

As far as UX design goes, the bottom line seems to be that we want to try to appeal most to the "System One" mind in users -- because that way, it makes users need to use their conscious, "System Two" new brain much less, which would only slow users down and make their usage of our designs seem much more difficult to them, since we'd be forcing them to have to "think" consciously, instead of just reacting by reflex and gut feeling. Our old- and mid-brains may not think in words slow enough for us to recognize, but their fleet-footed agility in reacting to things we have to deal with every day but don't want to have to actually consciously think about keeps us going and keeps us moving much more efficiently than we would otherwise.