designing for emotion - coworking discussion
Post on 18-Sep-2014
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Inspired by AarrTRANSCRIPT
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Firecat First Friday coworking & brownbag topic delivered by Susan Price, CEO and Chief Digital Strategist.
Luckily for us as designers, there are certain emo6ons that are hard-‐wired into every human being. It’s worth studying how to tap into those emo6ons and use them to impel users to do what we want them to do.
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Across cultures, human beings respond with warmth to baby animals. Especially baby mammals. Even people who don’t like kiAens, puppies, or ducks. We can engender delight and openness by showing these.
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We’re wired to find, and respond with posi6ve emo6ons to, faces. Brands abound that simulate the eyes and mouth, like OXO. When somebody is looking DIRECTLY at us in a photo or video, we are HARD WIRED to pay aAen6on. Similarly, when the depicted person looks AT something – even only by virtue of a layout trick, we LOOK IN THAT DIRECTION. And you thought you were smarter than your dog when you fake throwing the s6ck!
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Across cultures, empathy manifests in mentally healthy individuals at very young ages. “Arms of the Angels” with Sarah McLaughlin singing – it works!
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The tongue-‐thrust is a universal gesture of disgust – again, across cultures. Based on pushing something disgus6ng out of our mouths. We work to engender posi6ve emo6ons in our marke6ng – to inspire, to delight. But we work the nega6ve emo6onal space too.
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Fear is an emo6on that we MUST ac6vate in order to get people to take ac6on or change. We’ve got to be careful with fear; it’s easy to overdo. But we ac6vate anxiety when we, for example, want someone to sign up for a service, or buy insurance. Fear of loss. Fear of missing out on something. Fear of making the wrong decision.
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Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. We work our way UP the pyramid. It’s no good trying to get love or be actualized if you’re starving, or going 2 weeks solid without sleep.
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One of the best takeaways from Aarron Walter’s book Designing for Emo6on was this mapping of user experience design focus to the Maslow Hierarchy. We start out making something func6onal, then have it work reliably. A\er that – we make it USABLE, a place I’ve spent a lot of my career working on. But the top part of the pyramid in UX has largely been missing in a LOT of UX design. We’re leaving behind, to a large extent, the 6p of the pyramid where real change happens.
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Here are some key emo6ons that most good UX designs manipulate.
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Like all design, it gets beAer the more you think about it. In a brilliant film, every object in frame, every angle, every light level has been carefully planned out. We spend a lot of 6me at Firecat studying our target users – what mindsets, beliefs, and likely emo6onal states they are coming in with. What are their problems, their fears?
Match them where they are – then take them where you want them. Let’s get started.
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Manipula6on of the emo6ons of our users can feel creepy. These are POWERFUL tools – use them for good, not evil!
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A friend of mine, an execu6ve coach, told me a story of him going to see the famous business guru, Stephen Covey (of the 7 habits). Covey used a cobranding trick to get his audience to think beAer of him. He’d use a giant screen behind him and run a clip of Ben Kingsley playing Gandhi. Stephen Covey = Gandhi. You know – selfless, saintlike, wise, powerful, a force for change.
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So I started thinking – who would I project behind ME? I had so much fun with this; I highly recommend it. Ann Richards came to mind.
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Or Wonder Woman!
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Billie Jean King!
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Barbara Jordan!
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They don’t have to be all women, either, I decided. So – Leonardo da Vinci!
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Einstein! OK, enough. Do try it yourself.
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Another key takeaway from Aarron Walters’ Designing for Emo6on: Manipulate TIMING to get different emo6onal effects.
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Surprise – such as the unexpected parallax effects, anima6on, or just unusual placement or humor can be highly effec6ve. Our adrenaline rate actually goes up – and that makes an event much more memorable.
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On the other end of the 6ming scale is an6cipa6on. Make people wait for it – like piling on the benefits before you show the price, in a squeeze page, or a Ronco commercial.
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Here are some best prac6ces for leveraging emo6on in UX design. I will add here: Check out Designing for Emo6on and other books from A List Apart. Make notes when a website, mobile app or other interface or object makes you happy, or mo6vates you to take an ac6on in an unexpected way. Look for how you’re being manipulated.
One last bit of advice – In order to delight, it’s fine to reference yourself. Make YOURSELF delighted. You may not please everyone, but chances are, you’ll connect with the folks that maAer to YOU.
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Speaking TRUST is a huge emo6on that we need to strive to build. A UX is a RELATIONSHIP, and rela6onships take 6me to build trust.
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Don’t forget the amazing power of MUSIC and AUDIO to s6mulate and manipulate emo6ons. Even when you’re designing a SILENT UX, it can be very helpful to iden6fy what music you WOULD play – it helps inspire the visuals and the tone of the text.
I have created playlists for various emo6onal states. I have Pissed Off, Tristesse, to take me from nega6ve to posi6ve, gradually. They really work! And when I’m in a good mood, I can stay that way with She’s Happy or Ojeat or Contempla6ve.
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As much as we like to think we make decisions with our vastly ra6onal minds and keen intellects – it’s not nearly as true as we like to think. The default choice in any user flow is extremely persuasive and powerful. A UX is like a sentence – you can change the meaning – or outcome -‐ completely by moving the elements around.
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Dan Ariely is a pioneer in a new field called Behavioral Economics. He’s the author of Predictably Irra6onal and other great books that explode the long-‐held beliefs of tradi6onal economists that human beings make ra6onal decisions about uses of money, 6me and other important things.
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Thanks for listening! Feel free to suggest other Firecat First Friday coworking / brown bag topics.
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