What is Emotional Design? Why It Matters More Than You Think
At times, a product or service is not just functional; it ties up with you. Have you ever observed unanticipated happiness after unboxing a product, or felt immense joy after watching an animation?
It is your emotions captured through smart design thinking and that’s exactly what we will explore today: How designs are deliberately crafted to induce emotions and feelings in your mind.
Emotional design is a blend of psychology, aesthetics, and storytelling. It is why we see Apple’s “safe” branding, or making people feel the function of design.
What do you feel when someone says “water”? Most probably refreshment, relaxation. And that’s the simplest definition of Emotional Design.
Design becomes more powerful when it triggers emotions and leaves unforgettable imprints in the minds. Therefore, customers want to revisit a product or service, not to just buy it but to FEEL it.
What is emotional design?
Emotional design is derived from 2 words “Emotions and Design” which means inducing emotions in people through design in a way that they want to see it again and again.
Every design is an emotional design, but some are strong and others are not. Strong emotional design builds a long-lasting impression in the audience’s mind, such as trust, satisfaction, joy, surprise, and nostalgia. For example: What do you feel when you hear these? Kinderjoy Surprise Eggs, Beyblades, Pokemon Cards and Remote Controlled Car. One word – Nostalgia!
You have your childhood memories associated with these toys and those feelings get triggered as soon as you see any of thems, and it’s not just luck- it’s genius use of marketing and product designing.
The 3 levels of emotional design by Norman
Do you know who discovered the term emotional design? Have you ever heard the name of Don Norman? He is known as the father of emotional design because he introduced the concept of emotional design in the digital design world. He is a great cognitive scientist and usability engineer.
The concept of emotional design Norman introduced highlights that attractive designs work better because they leave an unforgettable mark in the human mind. He has explained all about emotional design in his famous book, Why We Love or Hate Everyday Things.
According to the theory of emotional design by Don Norman, people are influenced psychologically at 3 levels and these are followings;
1. Visceral Influence
It is an intuitive reaction to the design. Textures, shades, shapes, and overall visual affect produced a visceral influence on the human mind. An example would be the sleek design of the iPhone, and similarly, Duolingo’s comforting animations.
2. Behavioral Influence
The Behavioral influence is found common in products or services that works well. In other words, behavioural influence means how good a product does it’s job.
3. Reflective Influence
It is a feeling of self-identity and self-image, where products speak loudly about its smartness, style, and control over the audience.
In this digital era, emotional design in UX is the design that wins the race, and it is the art of shaping experiences at user interfaces on different social media platforms and websites. This is the reason why some users love certain applications. Today people don’t use design just for how “pretty” it looks but also about how good the experience is while using it.
Why It Matters in Everyday Design?
Emotional design concept is not just limited to top-notch famous brands; rather, it is for all applications that use interactions on a daily basis. Emotional design has made the physical and digital interaction more pleasurable. There are unlimited emotional design examples here at Emoris, some of which are:
1. iPhone Packaging
Do you know why it is a dream of a huge population to unbox an iPhone? The opening of the iPhone package is just ceremonial, and people want to enjoy it. It is one of the best design psychology examples that generate communication values and anticipation.
The fitness, weight, and layering of iPhone packaging add deliberation to the overall experience. The physical design of Apple’s products adds emotional value to make them thoughtful and premium, as per Apple’s slogan.
2. Spotify Playlist
Spotify has earned fame by playing with the moods of users with emotional design because it knows how to create an emotional connection through design. It has created unique playlists such as “Deep Focus” and “Songs to Sing in the Shower” that personalize the user experience as compared to applications.
Spotify has also launched the emotional design feature named “Wrapped” which offers emotional narration and personalization by visualization in a Spotify music journey.
3. Airbnb UI
Airbnb UI is another example which clearly describes the differences between emotional vs functional design. It is functional as well as attractive to customers through inclusion of micro interaction features such as a heart icon for safe home personalized recommendations for everyone’s safety.
The UI of Airbnb gives a dreamy experience to every travel plan with warm, soft, and tempting language that relieves anxiety and depression and builds trust.
4. Instagram Animation
The emotional design concept becomes prominent when we talk about Instagram. Have you noted that when you double-tap a reel, a heart explosion triggers a release of dopamine to get pleasure? This is an emotionally charged design that evokes a sense of reward and excitement.
These moments are small and are real emotional design psychology examples to engage users. All human beings are emotional and like to be playful, which is why users love certain applications over others.
It is not because of the speed or anything else; it’s all because of the emotion in design that makes the experience unforgettable and even nostalgic.
How Brands Use Emotional Design
There are unlimited examples of top brands that utilises the power of emotions in design. They have adopted their platforms in such a way that they enhance the connectivity, loyalty, and engagement of the customers. Let’s enlist some;
1. Duolingo
Do you know that the design of every successful application is created to add an emotional element to make it user-friendly? Duolingo is basically a language learning application, and you know language learning is very boring, but Duolingo makes it fun. How?
Duolingo has a joyful mascot, amusing pushApp notifications, and game game-type interface that turns a stressful experience into delightful and enjoyable. Duolingo acknowledges this emotional design psychology and knows why users love certain applications over others. You can easily understand the whole emotional design concept at Emoris.
2. Notion
The design of Notion is very calm and personalized, and helps users quietly stay organized and peaceful. It has smooth animations, soft design, clear structure that feels like a canvas of the mind.
It shows that emotional design plays with human psychology, and the majority of customers like the interface, and comes back again and again.
3. Apple
Apple understood the emotional aspect of design from the very start, and that’s why they stand out today. They have sleek design devices with soft UX experience, smooth animations, a high level of trust, and simple language.
iPhone experience is seamless and invisible, and it gives the feeling of smartness and empowerment to users. iPhone is famous for its user-friendly design and experience because it plays with the emotions of customers.
The reflective design of Apple products differentiates them and helps understand how to create an emotional connection through design.
4. Pinterest
Have you ever used the Pinterest platform or heard about it? You will understand clearly the meaning of emotional design if you use Pinterest, because it is based on inspiration. It has a sleek layout, eye-catching typography, and unlimited scrolls to ignite the feeling of joy in users.
There is a dominant role of emotional design in every successful platform. Pinterest creates a unique mood type board to engage users in their reflective and personal activity.
All brands and platforms employ a strategic mix of emotional and functional design to perfectly engage users and drive business success.
Conclusion
Mostly users consider design as making it “pretty” or “pop out” but they forget about the human side of it. If we keep emotions of a product first before launching, the chances of that product to fail will reduce significantly. In this social platform-saturated world, people are running mindlessly to make their products look beautiful forgetting that they were made for humans first.
When you understand the meaning of emotional design, then you will come to know that great design is not just usable, it’s addictive. It not only provides solutions to daily problems but also builds loyalty and relationship with users.
Here at Emoris, we help you slow down and understand the human side of design diving into all aspects of design psychology, emotions, storytelling, and aesthetics. So if you ever feel like slowing down and giving it one more thought, one more revision, Emoris is your place.
Giving you more room to think, here’s an article where Emoris has simplified color theory for you.