About Arisht Jain

Founder of BreakGround. Author of Design Alchemy: Understand Your User & Build Great Solutions. Writes here about UX, user onboarding, activation, and the psychology that decides whether products earn use.

Connect on LinkedIn

Portrait of Arisht Jain

The work

Arisht's work sits at the intersection of design thinking and human psychology — what the book frames as design alchemy. The premise: that the products people return to are the ones whose makers understood how attention, memory, emotion, and habit actually shape decisions, not just how interfaces are supposed to look.

That premise is also the editorial direction of the BreakGround Learn Centre. The articles published there treat onboarding, activation, and retention not as growth-marketing problems but as design problems with a psychological core — empathy as a method, not a slogan.

He founded BreakGround to apply that thinking at the platform layer: contextual flows, in-product guidance, and behavioural feedback loops that work because they were built for how users actually think, rather than how product teams wished they did.

Design Alchemy

Understand Your User & Build Great Solutions

By Arisht Jain

Kindle eBook · 2023

<p><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Design-Alchemy-Understand-Build-Solutions-ebook/dp/B0CBQGHRN4">Available on Amazon</a></p>

Design Alchemy is a working manual on the intersection of design thinking and human psychology — the argument that the products people return to are the ones whose makers understood how attention, memory, emotion, and habit actually shape decisions, not just how interfaces are supposed to look.

The book moves through cognitive load and decision heuristics, emotional and persuasive design, prototyping and iterative testing, behaviour change, collaboration, and ethics in design. Each chapter pairs the underlying psychology with practical tools and real-world examples — Apple, Airbnb, Fitbit, RecycleBank, the design of social-media platforms. It's written for designers, PMs, founders, and anyone whose work depends on building something people don't bounce off.

Inside the book

Introduction to Design Thinking and Human Psychology
The Fundamentals of Design Thinking
The Role of Human Psychology in Design Thinking
Design Thinking for User Research and Insights
Design Thinking and Iterative Prototyping
Design Thinking for Collaboration and Teamwork
Design Thinking and Behavior Change
Design Thinking for Social Impact
Design Thinking and Emotional Well-being

A few pages

Chapter 1 · Design Thinking Unveiled

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that emphasizes empathy, collaboration, and iteration. It has gained immense popularity across various domains, from product design to business strategy. By following a systematic process and adopting a user-centric mindset, design thinking enables us to uncover unmet needs and create solutions that truly resonate with people.

It not only helps in creating great products but also great processes within organizations and for oneself. Design thinking provides a way of thinking along with tools to approach any problem.

Chapter 1 · Empathy: The Key to Understanding Users

Empathy lies at the heart of design thinking. By putting ourselves in the shoes of users, we gain valuable insights into their desires, challenges, and aspirations. Through interviews, observations, and other research methods, we can uncover hidden needs and design solutions that address them. When Apple introduced the iPod, they empathized with music lovers who struggled with carrying and organizing their vast music collections, leading to the development of a portable and user-friendly device.

Designers engage in research methods such as interviews, surveys, observations, and ethnographic studies to gain insight into users' experiences, behaviors, and needs. They build personas — fictional characters that represent different user groups — to develop a deeper understanding of the target audience. And they create empathy maps that visually capture users' thoughts, feelings, actions, and aspirations, serving as a tool to uncover underlying motivations.

Chapter 1 · Humor Break

Design thinking and psychology walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “What can I get you?” Design thinking says, “I'd like to understand the customer's desires and preferences before placing an order.” Psychology adds, “And I'll have a double shot of cognitive biases, please!”

Chapter 3 · Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive Load Theory proposes that individuals have a limited working memory capacity, which can only process a finite amount of information at any given time. This working memory capacity is crucial for processing and manipulating information, making connections, and transferring knowledge to long-term memory. The theory suggests that learning is influenced by the cognitive load imposed on working memory during the learning process.

By understanding Cognitive Load Theory and its implications, designers can design experiences that maximize outcomes by appropriately managing cognitive load. This theory highlights the importance of presenting information in a manner that aligns with the limitations of working memory, ultimately facilitating effective learning and knowledge acquisition.

Chapter 5 · The Power of Prototyping

Iterative prototyping allows designers to gather early feedback and validate design concepts with users. By creating low-fidelity prototypes quickly and testing them with users, designers can gain insights into what works and what needs improvement. This feedback loop helps in identifying design flaws, usability issues, and areas for refinement early in the design process, saving time and resources in the long run.

Iterative prototyping also helps in mitigating the risk associated with design decisions. By testing and validating design concepts early and frequently, designers can uncover potential pitfalls, usability issues, or mismatches with user expectations. This early detection of problems allows for course correction and minimizes the risk of investing resources into a flawed or unsuccessful design.

Chapter 7 · The Fogg Model

The Fogg Model, developed by Dr. BJ Fogg, is a behavior change model that explains how human behavior is influenced by three core factors: motivation, ability, and triggers. The model helps designers and practitioners understand the key elements required to facilitate behavior change and design interventions that effectively drive desired actions.

Motivation refers to the level of desire or willingness an individual has to perform a particular behavior — sensation, anticipation, belonging, identity, rewards, punishment. Ability is the perceived capability to perform the behavior, shaped by time, money, physical and mental effort, social deviance, and routine. And triggers are the cues that prompt action — sparks for the under-motivated, facilitators for the under-skilled, and signals for those already ready to act.