Neuro Design - Darren Bridger 

Would you like to have more interaction with your customers? Would you be able to identify what makes something beautiful in the eyes of society? Or, do you have problems with the visual identity of your products?

In this summary of the book "Neuro Design", the field of neuroscience applied to aesthetics and design, shows that our visual decoding of the world is linked to the influences of beauty standards that are built by our unconscious.

Neuro design proposes a disruptive aesthetic that is part of a new concept in terms of engagement with the public, due to the approach of these new techniques through standardized studies and the updating of old concepts.

Are you curious and want to know more details about these techniques? Continue with us and check the summary!

About the book "Neuro Design"

The work has 344 pages structured in 12 chapters with several illustrations and references from the neuromarketing world and was originally written in English with the title "Neuro Design: Neuromarketing Insights to Boost Engagement and Profitability" (2017), and later, translated into Portuguese (2018).

The book portrays how strategies in the marketing market can be made through design with the union of scientific data and modern software. In addition, the book is formed by the set of areas of neuromarketing that is psychology and design, being, therefore, a study of applied neuroscience.

About the author Darren Bridger

Darren Bridger is an international neuroscientist and is a reference in the application of psychological research techniques aimed at marketing. He has more than 15 years of experience with behavioral research and currently works at NeuroStrata with product development.

The author of "Neuro Design" has already been responsible for several projects, in several countries such as Russia, Japan, England, and Australia. In addition, he holds a master's degree from the University of London and is the co-founder of Neuroco and founder of the company CloudArmy.

To whom is this book indicated?

If you work with design, are a behavioral professional like a psychologist, neuroscientist, or work with the development of new products for the market, the book written by Darren Bridger will boost your sales by applying the techniques established by years of behavioral research by consumers.

This form of analysis of Neuromarketing can contribute to an integrated approach from design principles to final consumers. Therefore, the contribution to your work can be made by adopting the laws of aesthetics, with the choice of color palettes, sizes, and shapes that are the most desired and accepted by customers.

Main ideas of the book "Neuro Design"

The book "Neuro Design" brings ideas on how to be successful in advertisements, advertising pieces and various products, through some characteristics:

• Processing fluency: what message was passed on to the public;
• Impressions: what is the level of complexity to interpreting the message content;
• The visual highlight: where customers have more visual interest in the image;
• Non-conscious emotional catalysts: what are the emotions evoked by the image or text;
• Behavioral Economics: modeling and forecasting customer actions in relation to images and texts.

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Overview: What is Neuro design?

Image adapted from the book page 11

The first chapter of the book "Neuro Design" begins with the author Darren Bridger in a hypothetical situation, in which the application of software for the recognition of facial expressions would replace, in the near future, the traditional surveys of satisfaction of a product.

According to him, research on neuroscience over the years will be as improved or better than standardized research with the public through sample selection.

Metrics have changed, from now on, clicks and social interactions in real-time take decisive proportions on the future of a product or service. In this way, it can be said that we are being influenced all the time by world news and trends.

According to the book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", our brain is divided into two areas, System 1 tries to save time and automate everyday choices and System 2 that performs mental actions that require effort and is slower.

This unconscious choice is a psychological phenomenon called blindness of choice. Over time, when it is necessary to judge or take action, the knowledge gaps are completed with the information obtained and processed by our unconscious that are manipulated by several external factors such as the choice of design.

Soon, Bridger also talks about other tools presented such as eye-tracking, which are records that capture the path taken by our eyes when watching an ad, which aspects are most relevant and for how long we are watching that place specifically.

In addition, he also relates the abstract paintings to the forms of mathematical fractal identifications, where there is the symmetry provided by the drip painting structure. It is revealed that abstract art, in fact, repeats certain geometric patterns of nature that professionals and artists try to model.

According to the neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, there are some laws that provide the change of peak and supernormal stimuli, that is, the response that is demonstrated with different intensities that are able to highlight the differences in shapes, objects and images. Universal Laws of Art can be applied with:

1. Contrast creation;
2. Elaboration of visual puzzles;
3. Order and alignment of images;
4. Visual metaphors;
5. Escape from repetitions;
6. Symmetry technique application.

Overview: More fluid and intuitive designs

In the course of the book "Neuro Design", the author Darren Bridger traces a historical perspective of design that is represented by the word MAYA. This term in English refers to the development of campaigns that are conceptually advanced but are still accepted by the public without causing any great strangeness.

In addition to the disruptive aesthetics, visual enigmas and the flight of visual patterns, which the neuro design proposes, several possible modifications were presented through intelligent design in virtual advertising campaigns. Among them, the perceptual fluency deals with the visual part of the product and the conceptual part that deals with its meaning.

Finally, Bridger draws comparisons between complexity and informational content, relating them to the ideal type of image. There is also the exploration of concepts such as processing fluency, which is the quick understanding of the message and the effect of mere exposure, which is the frequency of exposure to the audience of certain content.

Similar, also in importance, the propositional density, which aims to provide a large amount of information in a simple way.

And, finally, the Kolmogorov Complexity, which is defined by the structural analysis of the image, and last but not least, the low complexity design, where the visual pattern of an image is intuitive for the consumer's reasoning.

Overview: First impressions

Darren explains in this chapter about the speed of emotional judgment of social media and media users. The speed with which information is processed and checked by users is increasing, requiring clarity and objectivity when passing the content.

In addition, it also explains the main catalysts that provoke the most varied reactions to the content produced, that is, the complexity of association between colors, the arrangement of objects, their cultural background, among others with the meanings of the main message, which is the ultimate goal of marketing.

Some descriptions are also made about the formation of a prejudice based on an image, such as the association of expertise with a man with a beard and a woman with glasses. However, it is known that these characteristics are relative, but commonly associated with intellectual professionals by media discourses.

Overview: Multisensory and emotional design

In this part of the book "Neuro Design", the author elucidates the importance of unconscious choices between the elements, how people connect colors to letters and this unique, but structurally similar perception of people who are color blind and people with normal vision.

It also addresses the various symbolisms to the present day, such as emojis, the transformation of cinema with anthropological design and aesthetics linked to Japanese products such as kawaiis and exotic personalities, curves and shapes of brands, such as the yellow "M" Mc Donalds.

Overview: Visual highlight and persuasion maps

Colors, size and patterns are the most relevant aspects of the product for its commercial differentiation within marketing. As seen in the previous chapters, prototyping and visual prominence contribute to make certain elements stand out or overshadow others.

With more in-depth studies on human capacity, it can be concluded that colors are not visually the same for everyone, and the human being has a distinct version of any image, that is, without mentioning also the capacity for individual interpretation of each person.

Marketing should try to achieve multisensory integration based on synesthesia with the shapes and colors adopted in a project, using for example curvy shapes instead of pointed shapes. Therefore, the cognition incorporated into this process is part of an approach that targets the viewer's feelings and preferences.

Overview: Behavioral economics and design for virtual screens

Behavioral Economics is an economic study on the choices of individuals, based on System 1 discussed above.

This approach is relative, as the uncertainties in people's choices are indeterminate and have several origins, unlike System 2, which are made rationally and consciously through experiences and data.

Therefore, this lack of harmony between our thoughts and the solutions we adopt, is sometimes not enough to have a relevant degree of confidence with the data obtained.

In short, Darren Bridger gives tips on how design can influence the ability to capture and absorb information. Therefore, the records that our brain makes can and should be mapped for better results.

Have you noticed the ads at the beginning of YouTube videos to subscribe to the channel? According to the book "Neuro Design", the data show that the information, when given at the beginning of the narratives, is more likely to be remembered as important. Therefore, viewers tend to subscribe more with the ad at the beginning of the video.

Another last tip, is the caution with the dimensions of the screens of computers, cell phones and tablets, the adjustments of brightness and the already denoted preference between the image quality in the horizontal to the vertical that give more comfort to the users and consequently generate more sales of the electronics.

Another tip is made by choosing more simple and identifiable sources, in addition to the centralization of images and the perception of observation trends, which is from left to right, they promise to guarantee a greater effect on the consumer.

At the end of these tips, he presents a case study on the importance of this information for the Netflix interface that promotes the following tips to make your content more attractive:

• Images with three people or less on the covers of films and series;
• Complex facial emotions to generate more empathy with the viewer;
• Evidence the villain of the show who proved to be more effective than the main character;

Overview: Viral and slide design for presentations

This part of the "Neuro Design" work talks about the preparation of slides for presentations and how to deal with the current events of the Internet, memes, which are funny images and with archetypes that are shared several times.

Some common points of content to go viral are:

• Artificial;
• Cartoonized;
• Funny;
• Of animals;
• Dynamic.

Some content that tends to be less relevant to the internet are:

• Serene;
• Quiet;
• Tired out;
• Of objects;
• Depressed.

It can be concluded, then, that the content and its disposition is an extremely important factor. An example that portrays this well is the case study presented on NASA's Columbia spacecraft, which due to the poor preparation of the slides, there was confusion with the assessment of the degree of danger that resulted in the death of the 7 crew members when they re-entered. in the land.

Overview: The future of neurodesign

The new era of simulations and designers is increasingly improving the techniques of persuasion with customers, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) that will be increasingly present during shopping and dynamic immersions in advertisements and in the formation of new consumer standards.

Author Darren Bridger believes that electronic screens will be responsible for simpler, more effective and profitable projects, as new users increase and with them, technological advances. In addition to automation and ease of purchasing processes, there will also be an improvement in digital marketing.

What do others authors say about it?

In the book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", by author Daniel Kahneman, there are explanations similar to the way our minds process information. Similarly, quick decision-making, as in the first impressions chapter of the book "Neuro Design", is associated with System 1 and the critical reasoning of System 2 together with the choices of thoughts that influence our decisions as final customers of a product or service.

The work, "The Sales Acceleration Formula", by the North American author Mark Roberge, demonstrates that data-based applications are more effective in sales processes. This direction promotes a more dynamic sales perspective and, with that, an action plan for marketing managers and entrepreneurs. Also, to establish goals to be achieved by a sales team in less time and in the methodology of hiring employees.

Finally, with the reading of the book "Gatilhos Mentais", by the author and copywriter Gustavo Ferreira, it can be noticed that persuasive writing directly influences the choice to buy a product, due to the secondary emotions provoked. Also explained in this work, the creation of a credibility profile helps in the customer's purchase decision process and the new means of communication to achieve these objectives.

You should also pay attention to the convergence of thoughts between these authors and the author Darren Bridger, as an example the creation of a channel of doubts about your product, maintenance of a profile with relevant information and appropriate coordination. But, it also means that it is necessary to meet the needs of the market, but also be innovative!

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

The techniques described in the work are easy to be adopted on multiple platforms, however objectively being specific to each audience and each media in which it will be broadcast. Here are some tips:

• If you are a designer, you can apply the law of isolation to your projects! With the identification of a difficult element, use it separately, preferably in a neutral environment, away from other objects that obscure and obfuscate it.
• You can group different objects together so that you can unite them and make them more symmetrical and pleasant for consumers.
• You can make a strategy of engagement with the public through the principle of hide and seek, tracing a visual puzzle to make it more interesting for the observers.
• Use alignment to your advantage! Use angles and perspectives of balance and harmony in a design campaign. In addition, symmetry can be your ally with a minimalist design!

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