A bit more emotion,
a little less emotional
Future perspectives for emotion-driven designers

Me
Designer/Researcher
SusaGroup
Amsterdam University of Applied
Sciences
The Design & Emotion Society

Change
Conscious Designer? The Elephant & The Rider
The big take away of this metaphore is
that change can come easily when
Elephants and Riders move together.
The challenge for the rider is to learn how
to engage the elephant and appeal to its
emotions.
Subconscious User? Jonathan Haidt

Emergence of
.Emotion
in the design discourse.

”” Since 90’s
“The face of (product) design is changing”
“We can no longer ignore the important
role that emotions play”

Q A divorce?
This would indicate that previously,
functionality and emotion were not in a
relationship at all...

But...
“In less enlightened times, the
best way to impress women was
to own a hot car”

But...
New?
Women wised up and realized it
was better to buy their own hot
cars so they wouldn't have to ride
“In less enlightened times, the
around with jerks”
best way to impress women was
to own a hot car”
MAGE: http://500px.com/photo/15008197 -

But...
“I remember being in awe of these
as a kid back in the early 80's”
MAGE: www.retrothing.com -

But...
“Back then people who carried
them on their shoulders seemed
to be screaming for attention”
IMAGE: www.friendsreunited.co.uk -

And...
“It revolutionized the way people
carried their music with them”
(not the iPod)
IMAGE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34019036@N05/ -

And...
“It revolutionized the way families
prepared, cooked and ate dinner”
(both beneficial and harmful)
IMAGE: http://scenteddemented.com/blog/ -

Q Ha! So...
...lots of good examples in history to
illustrate functional and emotional designs,
right?

However...
Modernism, which actually shaped the
world as we know it today...
... did only emphasize function, honesty,
simplicity and directness of an object.
Emotion was purposely never mentioned...
IMAGE: www.artnet.com -

But, even...
Modernists had a heart.
“Here is the machine for resting.
I thought of the western cowboy smoking his pipe,
his feet up above his head, leaning against a
fireplace: complete restfulness”
Le Corbusier
IMAGE: purecontemporary.blogs.com -

But, even...
Modernists had a heart.
Despite the modernist rhetoric that has accompanied it, this space was
highly sensual and was apparently designed for sensorial pleasure.
IMAGE: commons.wikimedia.org -

A So yes.
Design is by definition emotion-based.
“Design, at its most basic level, is about
rendering objects more desirable.”
(Greenhalgh, 1993)

“” F <> E
“I have a taste for austerity and utility, but that’s
certainly not to say I have no appetite for pleasure.
Quite the contrary. I firmly believe that plain, simple
things are superior to flashy, complicated ones,
precisely because ultimately they are more
pleasurable.”
(Terence Conran, 1985)

Q But...
If functionality and emotion are indeed far
from mutually exclusive...
...what made us suddenly focus on it?

Focus on emotion, to improve
1 Purchases 2 User Experience
It became more important to A new focus on users, and
make a difference on different proving a more pleasurable user
consumer needs-levels in order experience, automatically
to influence purchase decisions indicated an important role for
emotions

Purchases
1 ““ Distinguish
“Nowadays it is often (even more) difficult
to distinguish products on the basis of
their technological functioning or quality.
Consequently, emotional responses to
consumer products are often a decisive
factor in purchase decisions.”
Desmet, 2006

Adopted from Stephen P. Anderson’s consumer needs pyramid

Experience
2 “ “ Emotion ≠ UX
Emotion does not equal user experience,
however it is at its core: they shape the
experience by being either positive or
negative or a mix of both.

Experience
““ FUN
“Contemporary capitalist societies are
increasingly preoccupied with “having
fun” and with the pursuit of pleasure.”
Kotchemidova, 2005

Experience
““ Engagement
Creating engagement by focusing not
only on beauty, but also on beautiful
interactions

Experience
““ Ease of use
Improve the ease of use of products, with
a focus on emotion

Experience
““ Authenticity
Making products that fit people’s real
needs (meaningful)

The substance of
.Emotion
driven design

Let’s see what Don said
““
“Did you ever wonder why cheap wine
tastes better in fancy glasses? Why sales
of Macintosh computers soared when
Apple introduced the colorful iMac? New
research on emotion and cognition has
shown that attractive things really do
work better.”
Donald Norman, 2004

Let’s see what Don says now
““
“...long-ago I touted the virtues of a
human-centered design, one that takes
real needs of people into account. Yes,
people have emotional needs, and
aesthetic pleasure is a good thing. But
let's take another look at how these new
devices add to our aesthetic pleasure:
they fail miserably.”
Donald Norman, 2012

Q But...
Is that all there is to it?
So does/did emotional design fail?

A No.
Norman is right that ‘spectacular’ looking
designs do not always fit our own context,
but that is as old as well... design.
However, it is exactly these personal, social
and cultural contexts that emotional design
is all about.
It is indeed about appropriateness.

Personal
When a product benefits our 1 Fit my goals
personal concerns and context,
we will feel positive about it and 2 Fit my standards
when it harms them, negative.
3 Fit my attitudes

Personal
That is why these will not work, if
my goal is not ‘to live healthy’.

Personal
That is why this website on a.o.
‘Feng-Shui’ will not appeal to me
if my standard is ‘practice what
you preach’.

Personal
That is why I will hate this website
if my attititude is that I do not
like bright, screaming colors.

So...
A
In the case of the Samsung TV set
Norman talked about.
It did not fit his living room, because he
felt it did not. It would not meet his
personal concerns.

Emotion-driven design
It is about how
something makes you
feel.
And therefore any well
executed user-focused
design has an
emotional design in it.

Emotion-driven design
‘Steps’ In short it is about
knowing what makes
your audience click,
1 Research deciding what you
would like to evoke,
2 Strategy and making sure that
your product (the rider)
3 Creativity benefits the concerns
of its user (the
elephant).

Q But...
That’s what I always try to do!?

A Exactly!

Process
Measure/learn Understand Fingerprint Conceptualise
The what The why The what The how

Mindshift
!
With emotional appeal as an intended
outcome, you come up with different
designs.
These designs will create meaning by
benefitting your user’s concerns.

Remember
!
To consider each and every stakeholder
in the user-group.
They all have concerns that need to be
aligned in your solution.

The future of
.Emotion
driven design

Screens
Mobile first?
The statement of mobile first is already
getting outdated in terms of experience.
Urban digital life includes public screens,
personal screens and more and more
interfaces inbetween.

Urban Digital Life
The challenge lies in which
screen presents what and for
which purpose?

Media façades and urban screens to...

Advertising
Information
Art, culture and aesthetics
Entertainment
Alter (mood, persuasion, ...)
Improve customer experiences
Communication
Participation

Advertising
Nothing more than an animated billboard

Advertising Potential
Using the screen to interact with the viewer
Fitness First add by N=5 >

Communication
Communicate through public screens
Biepbeep, Almere. Post tweets on the screen
@schermalmere >

Communication Potential
Combine advertising with communication
Upload photo ‘galleryforeveryone.com’ by Google
Chrome and shown on Times Square >

Communication Potential
Cam on one side, screen on the other: Adidas is all
in - promotional interactive screen >

Entertainment
Screens can entertain the public through games, or
via mobile interaction or Internet.
Virtual rugby at BBC Big Screen in Liverpool >

Alter
Screens can be used to alter mood, or persuade
people to behave a certain way
Interactive screens react to speed
by Electroland (LA, VS) >

Alter
Screens can be used to alter mood, or persuade
people to behave a certain way
Moodwall, Amsterdam >

Ongoing research
Moodwall
Increase safety perception through light, color,
movement and aesthetic appeal.
Moodwall, Amsterdam >

Improve customer experiences
Adding dimensions to the customer experience
Tweet Mirror by Nedap >

Necessary activities
Optional activities
Social activities
Activities in public spaces (Gehl, 1971)

Personal concerns

UX
The user experience as we knew it moved
away from our home and is now
omnipresent in urban digital life.
For us UX designers this means we need to
move outside as well.
Consider the complete urban space as
your playground and working field.

Role for Emotion-Driven Design
Support rituals Alter behavior and mood
Activities, needs and Enrich the experience
concerns

Role for Emotion-Driven Design
We as UX/ Interaction designers have a
! responsibility in aligning all screen
experiences out there.
A focus on emotion will help you because
of its importance for experience in
general and its cross-contextual
character.

Finally
.Promotion

Tools measure emotion
PrEmo LEMtool LEMstickers
Products/ services Interfaces/ media Focus groups/ sessions
www.premotool.com www.lemtool.com

Learn to design 4 emotion
workshop
master class
www.getemocional.com

Since 1999
the Design & Emotion Society raises issues
and facilitates dialogue among practitioners, researchers, and
industry in order to integrate salient themes of emotional
experience into the design profession.
www.designandemotion.org

Oct. 2014
JOIN US!
www.designandemotion.org

marco.vanhout@susagroup.com
Twitter: @demadera
Thanks! www.susagroup.com