As designers, our natural process is to create a functional design that makes a task easier for the end-user, but what if we could go a step further? We’d all love to take our designs to the next level and add in that wow factor that makes users choose Thing A over Thing B.
So what’s this magic that we can work for better UX design? Emotional engagement. It’s true. By imparting positive emotion through design, we create an experience that’s not only functional, but actually connects with the user on an emotional level.
Understanding Emotional Engagement
Before getting into ways of actually creating a positive UX, let’s take a look at what emotional engagement means. While this post from Treehouse focuses on interface design, it makes quite a few great points surrounding emotions in design.
One point that really hits home is how design has changed from the late 90s to today. Originally, interface design had to be professional for users to trust it. Now, users want some personality in the design. Hence, the emotional engagement part. It’s that extra personality that appeals to a user’s emotions and creates a connection.
Stepping outside of digital interfaces, let’s use a physical product as an example. Originally, laptops were typically black or silver. They looked sleek and professional. When places like Dell started offering more colorful options and designs, users loved it. It was a way for them to have a laptop that matched their personality. While it seems simple, simply changing the color was enough to create positive emotion through design.
In a nutshell, emotional engagement means eliciting an emotion from the end-user. Obviously, when it comes to making a user like a product or interface, we want that emotion to be a positive one.
Avoiding A Negative Experience
A negative emotional experience is the last thing we want as UX designers. This means that users aren’t happy with the design and may not come back to it at all, especially if there’s a more positive alternative. So what constitutes a negative experience? A few examples that create negative experiences includes:
- Offering too many options. It creates indecision and confusion – not an experience any of us enjoy.
- Over-complicating the process.
- Creating a confusing design, such as poor navigation on a website.
- Assuming the user will understand versus designing for the least experienced users.
- Adding in time consuming elements.
The more negative the emotion that’s invoked, the less satisfied a user is with the overall experience. In such a competitive landscape, it’s important to go that extra step to create a positive experience through emotion.
Creating A More Positive Experience
Now for the fun part – creating positive emotion through design. We all want our users to not just enjoy the experience, but truly connect and engage with it. One way to see if we succeed is to try the experience ourselves. Does it elicit warm fuzzies or is it just okay? Do we want more of it or could we do without it?
Think of Build-A-Bear Workshop. We could buy a teddy bear anywhere, but we don’t get to create it ourselves. This is an example of real world UX design that creates a positive emotion through design. The brand took a teddy bear and created an engaging process that allows people to pick out a bear, stuff it and add clothes. Suddenly, it’s not just any old bear. It’s their own unique creation and that’s why kids (and adults too) love it.
We can use this same approach in our own UX projects. Simply building upon something basic and giving the end-user more personality and something wonderfully unexpected is the key to creating that positive emotion. A good way to see how a design compares is to look at Aaron Walter’s hierarchy of emotional design, which builds upon Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.
To keep it simple, create positive emotion through design by doing things such as:
- Using bolder colors versus ultra professional
- Create a personalized feel, such as adding in a fun character
- Add friendly elements, such as Amazon’s smile logo
- Offer rewards, such as a fun thank you box after a sign-up
- Offer more ways for users to interact and feel like a part of the design
Create not just function, but pleasure with each design. It’s kind of like buying a car. If they both cost the same, would we buy a car with bad shocks and a fading paint job or the newest luxury car with leather seats and a smooth ride? It’s all about experience and how the end result makes the user feel.
Create that type of positive connection and you’ve created the true wow factor that makes some designs stand out above others.
Images: Duri from Mocup, Noah Silliman