Mental Models for Designers
Perception, behaviour, and communication — models for UX, systems, and ethical design.
Curated models (20)
- General Thinking & Meta-Models
Map vs Territory
Alfred Korzybski
Models are not reality; confusing the two leads to systematic errors.
- Psychology & Behavior
Confirmation Bias
We seek evidence that confirms what we already believe and filter out what contradicts it.
- Psychology & Behavior
Availability Cascade
Timur Kuran / Cass Sunstein
In 1999, Timur Kuran and Cass Sunstein published a paper that explains half of what goes wrong in public discourse: "Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation." The concept is a...
- Psychology & Behavior
Anchoring
Kahneman & Tversky
First information encountered disproportionately shapes all subsequent judgements.
- Psychology & Behavior
Framing Effect
Tversky & Kahneman
How you frame the question determines the answer you get.
- Business & Strategy
Nudge Theory
Richard Thaler / Cass Sunstein
A nudge is any element of choice architecture that alters people's behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic...
- Systems & Complexity
Feedback Loops
Norbert Wiener / Jay Forrester
Outputs feed back as inputs, creating either amplifying or stabilizing dynamics.
- Natural Sciences
Activation Energy
Reactions do not start the instant ingredients touch. They need a minimum energy input — activation energy — to overcome the barrier between initial and final state. In chemistry,...
- Business & Strategy
Jobs to Be Done
Clayton Christensen
People hire products to accomplish specific functional, emotional, and social jobs.
- Psychology & Behavior
Loss Aversion
Kahneman & Tversky
Losses hurt roughly twice as much as equivalent gains feel good.
- Psychology & Behavior
Social Proof
Robert Cialdini
When uncertain, people copy what others are doing.
- Psychology & Behavior
Reciprocation Bias
Reciprocation Bias is the deep-seated compulsion to return favours, gifts, and concessions — even when the original gesture was uninvited, unwanted, or strategically calculated....
- Philosophy, Law & Politics
Ethos Pathos Logos
Aristotle
Persuasion runs on three rails: who you are, what they feel, and what you can prove. Aristotle distinguished ethos (character, credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (reason,...
- Business & Strategy
Option Fatigue
Option fatigue is the paralysis that sets in when a customer or decision-maker faces too many choices. More options don't mean more sales — past a threshold, they mean fewer. The...
- Systems & Complexity
Progressive Load
Progressive load is the principle of introducing complexity, demand, or change to a system gradually rather than all at once. Systems — biological, organisational, or mechanical —...
- Economics & Markets
Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Decision-makers must bear consequences to align incentives.
- Psychology & Behavior
Narrative Fallacy
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
We compress complex reality into clean stories, mistaking explanation for prediction.
- Military & Conflict
OODA Loop
John Boyd
Cycle through observe-orient-decide-act faster than competitors.
- General Thinking & Meta-Models
Goodhart's Law
Charles Goodhart
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
- General Thinking & Meta-Models
First Principles Thinking
Aristotle / Elon Musk
Strip a problem to its fundamental truths and reason up from there — the antidote to reasoning by analogy.
FAQ
- What mental models improve UX decisions?
- Framing, nudge theory, loss aversion, and option fatigue explain behaviour. Jobs to be done keeps design tied to outcomes, not features.
- How does map vs territory apply to design?
- Personas and analytics are maps — useful but incomplete. Validate with behaviour, not only stated preferences.