Interface Design: Playing with Emotion
There is a sound to good design. At first, it can be subtle and vague, as it is not about being greeted by peers when a new web product comes out, getting a wow or two, or even a flood of visitors in your stats. In time, you get to recognize good interface design by the ability to cause emotional reactions and consistently evoke positive feelings. In time, that sound is clear — and it’s all about the way it speaks to people.
The human factor
Why are there products and interfaces that are undeniably good when it comes to design? Companies that create iconic products sold worldwide and are case studies in schools; designers who come up with interfaces that are replicated to exhaustion and truly an inspiration; industry trends that are based in the launch of operating systems; or a new mobile application that dictates the patterns to use in the remaining?
Crafted by man, those web products are not perfect. But their perceived benefits surpasses flaws or inconveniences. When people stand in line for hours to buy a phone or when then repeatedly reopen an app that keeps crashing, they are holding their breaths in the name of something bigger — an individual statement, group validation, a recognized gain that is worth some anxiety and discomfort. That phone is worth waiting for, this app is worthy of endurance.
So what’s the story behind user motivation? Is there a way to predict response? Can we design in a way to appeal our users in deep emotional terms? Make them stand in lines for us? Make them overlook when there’s an error?
Going visceral
There is a bias replicated from the physical world and by the impact of first impressions: it says more-aesthetics interface designs are perceived as easier to use, just as an attractive person is perceived as being more intelligent and competent. This means a good look and feel causes a (fake or not) perception of usability and enhances user adoption promises.
In the book “Emotional Design — Why We Love (or Hate) everyday things”, Don Norman divides the human brain into three levels when it comes to processing information from the outside world — visceral, behavioral, and reflective — and relates it to different aspects of design.
The author claims that design has to do with the pleasure and the effectiveness of use (the behavioral level) and to the rationalization and intellectualization (the reflective level), but enjoying the appearance of a product is also crucial to its success (the visceral level).
Working with emotions
The visceral level is the most primitive and simple part of the brain, and responds to sensory information, as the other levels are more related to education and experience. This means all of us are viscerally prewired or genetically programmed to respond in a certain way.
Evidence of the vital role that the prewired mechanisms play in our daily lives are all around. For instance, the relationship between the sounds of a language and the meaning of the words seems arbitrary, but somehow we can link specific sounds to their meanings — Norman points out the warm and softness in vowels, and the harshness in some sounds that mean harsh things (“just like the word “harsh” itself and the “sh” sound in particular“).
Other conditions like symmetrical objects, harmonious music and sounds, smiling faces and well-shaped bodies evoke positive emotions to all of us. Through times, these conditions were signs of protection and survival, and continue to affect how we respond to the world around us, to our interactions with people and things. So how do we translate this into interface design?
Playing with aesthetics can affect the way users respond both to physical and web products. For instance, making use of humanlike forms and patterns that bear a resemblance to faces or body proportions draws attention and establishes emotional connections.
Making use of strong images and videos can also influence the appeal of a design and direct the user to adopt specific behaviors. Classical conditioning plays an important role here — having triggers that remind people of enjoyable circumstances, a picture of food, a glass of wine, the beach at the sunset, beautiful people all around — and your website is already fostering positive attitudes and evoking affection, loyalty and patience, which will make people more tolerant when it comes to problems.
What is that sound?
“We scientists now understand how important emotion is to everyday life, how valuable. Sure, utility and usability are important, but without fun and pleasure, joy and excitement, and yes, anxiety and anger, fear and rage, our lives would be incomplete.”
Don Norman in “Emotional Design — Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things”
Emotion is valuable to interface design. It is about presenting people with immediate information about the world — this is safe, this is not. The emotional system will have a direct impact on how the behavioral and cognitive systems operate, and will help your users in decision-making. That is when they will stand excited in line for hours and hours to buy the new phone; or when they reopen the app after multiple crashes and repeatedly complain about it in the market place (it shows they care!).
Devoted users are more effective in finding alternatives when things go wrong. So a sound to good design also means people got your back. It means you have played the right music to their ears, a tone that got to their visceral level. They care and they will come in to see what’s new or who’s around, they will talk about you to their friends, they will complain but they will forgive. With such devotion, your responsibility increases dramatically, so listen to what they say, iterate and iterate, and then maybe move from good to great design.
Sílvia Otto Sequeira | UX Expert at OutSystems
This is part of the process we run as an Expert Services team at OutSystems, to help our customers deliver great user experiences, that are fully aligned to user expectations.
