Tags to Richness

Based on the neuroscience books I’ve read I’ve come up with a really easy way to explain to someone how the brain works.  Below the illustration I explain the nature of the three components of the brain: You, the Nag and your Body.

You

Your consciousness and personality.  The lump sum of your memory and experience that determines how you make decisions and who you are.

The Nag

The various parts of your biology that you can’t change but that push and pull you to make certain decisions.  The Nag tends to be very simple and straightforward in its needs.  The Nag’s needs tend to revolve around food, sex and survival.  The Nag cannot be reasoned with, only ignored and suppressed.

The Nag is hyper aware of what is outside your body and will scream and yell at you to get something it wants.  If you’ve ever driven by a McDonald’s with a three year old in the back seat you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Your Body

The machine that transports You and the Nag.  Your Body needs fuel and constant maintenance.  Eventually your Body will have too many miles and break down and die.

Ok, so here’s a really deep one for you about design and the brain. Design is simply the process of expending psychic energy to pay conscious attention to details normal humans have let their brains bury into their long term memories.  In other words, normal people simply aren’t paying attention to all the details that their senses are sensing.  The details still affect the normal person though, but their reactions to those details are on “automatic”.  Which just means they formed long term memories long ago on how to evaluate the details.  The details are still triggering reactions deep in their long term memory, and their long term associated memories of that detail dictate whether or not to send any responses to the working memory (the conscious) including emotional or non-emotional triggers.

In other words, designers have forced their brains to not go on automatic when it comes to certain details in their environment.  A good designer can use the details to trigger desired responses in normal people without the normal person being conscious of the process.  The normal person will just have a reaction or a triggered memory or emotion and not be able to explain exactly why.