What is Emotional Design?

Emotional design is the concept of how to create designs that evoke emotions which result in positive user experiences.

Designers aim to reach users on three cognitive levels - visceral, behavioural and reflective - so users develop positive associations with products, brands etc.

“Everything has a personality: everything sends an emotional signal. Even where this was not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotions.” - Don Norman, UX Design Pioneer

How Does Emotional Design Accommodate Users Needs and Responses?

Designers should focus on user’s needs in their interactions with products or services. The functionality of a design should help users achieve their goals as efficiently and effectively as possible.

However, a designer must also be keenly aware of their user’s responses - which are naturally emotional.

• Positive experiences drive curiosity. They help motivate us to grow as individuals.
• Negative experiences help us prevent repeated mistakes.
• Not-so-positive experiences can sometimes be fun - the chilling thrill of a horror movie.
• People also have tempers - some get frustrated faster than others.

The fact is that the emotional design of a product or service affects its success.

Don Normans Three Levels of Design

Users have sophisticated thought processes going on most of the time. In the human mind there are numerous areas responsible for what we refer to as emotion, and collectively these regions comprise the emotional system.

So as a designer you must address three levels of cognitive responses when you design:

1. Visceral: The visceral level of design refers to the first impression of a design, both in terms of how the user perceives the product and how it makes the user feel.
2. Behavioural: The behavioural level refers to the experience of the product in use. We often think of this level when we think of user experience.