What’s designing for emotions? UX design explained
We are a part of this constantly changing world which has shocked all of us with the level of evolution and change. Our private lives are changing and becoming more and more public nowadays. With the booming popularity of social media, human emotions which were once quite private and restricted have become substantially liberal. Sharing a breakup with the world on social media is an acceptable emotional expression in today’s social frenzy world. As humans have become more emotional online, they also expect a similar kind of response from the websites and UX design they interact with. They feel that a website should have a personality of its own and the interaction is more of an emotional communication rather than merely a transactional one.
We are possessed by our emotions and get magnetically attracted to things that tickle those emotions. Visual impact is something which is most effective to pull the emotional trigger. People are smoothly attracted to images, graphics, videos, and other visual elements. UX design for emotions carefully identifies the importance of these emotions and use it in web designing and app designing.
Humans are very emotional creatures. They want a personal experience with a website, nothing less than building a relationship.
So let’s try to peek at some of the important techniques which can be used to evoke human emotions and create an impactful experience to drive the users to come back again and again:
Laughter is the best medicine:
Which is your favorite TV commercial? I bet it would be some creatively developed humorous ad. You never forget it and share it through word of mouth as well. That’s because happiness is contagious. People seldom forget things which make them smile. The same concept applies to websites as well. Implement the humor quotient in your web designs as well. Use cartoons or funny graphics to create a light, happy feeling across the website. Check out these funny ERROR 404 messages –
Balancing the Surprise and expectation factor:
We humans are very predictive of nature and we are always enticed by things and experiences which we can kind of predict and follow easily. It is important to identify and utilize this attribute in UX design for emotions. However, being completely predictable can lead users to boredom and thus a little surprise element should always be a part of the design process.
Attention and Personal touch:
It’s human to be an attention seeker and center of attraction. This is one of the emotion that should not be neglected and UX design for emotion must use this emotion to its advantage. For instance, you browse through an Italian website and see a speech bubble reading “HELLO!! I’m Doris. Do you want me to be your translator for today? ____YES___NO___” When you select YES and enter your name, it reads back “Thank You Roger. Let’s start exploring the website”. So every time you hover your cursor on any word, it translates it to English. How about that for personal attention?
Enhanced user engagement:
User engagement is pivotal in creating a repeat visit. The whole user interaction should be very engaging and compel the user to build a liking towards your website and enhances his comfort level. Users should be engaged through some way like visuals, easy transactional flow, customization or interactive interface.
Have a word with them:
A healthy interaction with the users helps to build their trust in the product or the website itself. People like getting heard and appreciate a response more than anything. With the help of UX design, communicate to the users in a way that makes them feel you are their companion or friend rather than just a mechanical business platform. The choice of words and tone of the language are crucial in this process. Too formal or too casual can both be harmful towards your relationship with the users.
Now, did we ring a bell here?
Are you startled and amused by discovering the complexity along with the importance of the entire UX design for emotions fundamentals? Well, you don’t need to scratch your head over it as we are here for you. Let us infuse this ideology in your website and make you the best friend of your customers. Take the first step, reach us TODAY!