Embracing Emotion: The Heart (and Business Case) of Modern Design

Artem Udovichenko, Product Designer, Dyninno Latvia

Greetings to all colleagues in the global design community! My name is Artem Udovichenko, and I am a Product Designer at Trevolution Group, working with asaptickets.com. With over 4 years of experience in the UX/UI design field, in this article, I would like to dive into the transformative world of emotional design, where user experience meets human emotion and discover it’s profound on both users and businesses.

What is emotional design?

Taking away general formulations and complicated terms, emotional design is the practice of creating products, websites or environments that evoke certain emotions in the user. In short, eit’s about understanding how various design choices influence user emotions and then using that to create more immersive and compelling experiences.

Historically, our products bombarded users with a lot of detailed text. However, heeding feedback, we have come to truly value the user experience. It’s thrilling to note our active efforts in refining and improving our products to be even more user-friendly and intuitive. We’re committed to evolving and better catering to our users’ needs, ensuring they have the best experience possible. Users usually need our assistance in resolving their problems. They seek understanding and genuine intentions from us. Establishing trust is paramount, guiding them towards our solutions.

As IxDF states “The fact is that the emotional design of a product or service affects its success — and thus the bottom line.”

The success of our products directly depends on our users. And who is our user? That’s right — a human. Recognizing this, it’s evident that the product is made not only with the single goal of fulfilling a user’s task, but it must also help solve their entire problem with which they approached us. We must tailor our solutions to their unique needs, fostering trust and ensuring they find our product both useful and enjoyable.

Here are three core tenets on this topic:

· Emotional connection: Make users feel understood and catered to.

· Trust: A more human-centric design promotes trust in the brand and the platform.

· Reducing frustration: Minimize the chances of the users to feel overwhelmed or confused.

Emotional design plays a significant role in the user experience and product adoption. At its core, emotional design aims to create products that elicit appropriate and positive emotional responses from users. This can enhance the user’s overall experience, encourage continued use, and foster loyalty. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how emotional design impacts these areas:

1) Enhances User Engagement:

· Joy and Satisfaction: A well-designed product that evokes feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, or joy can lead to increased user engagement.

· Personal Connection: Emotional design can create a sense of personal connection between the user and the product. When users feel a product “understands” or “speaks to” them, they’re more likely to engage with it.

2) Drives Product Adoption:

· First Impressions: Products that are visually pleasing and intuitive at first glance have a higher likelihood of being tried by users.

· Word of Mouth: Positive emotional experiences can lead users to recommend products to their peers.

· Lowered Abandonment Rates: If users feel good while using a product, they’re less likely to switch to competitors.

3) Encourages Brand Loyalty and Influences Decision Making:

· Emotional Bonding: Products that consistently evoke positive emotions can lead to users forming an emotional bond with the brand.

· Forgiveness: Creating positive emotional experiences can lead users to associate those feelings with the brand or product, influencing future purchasing decisions. Users are more forgiving of minor product faults or mistakes if they have an overall positive emotional association with the brand or product.

· Trust and Credibility: Emotional design can instill a sense of trust and credibility, influencing users’ decisions to purchase or adopt a product.

In summary, emotional design goes beyond aesthetics and functionality. It taps into the psychology of the user, building products that resonate on an emotional level. This approach not only results in delightful user experiences but also fosters brand loyalty and drives product adoption.

The importance of emotional design in business

Emotional design plays a pivotal role in business by fostering deeper connections between a brand and its consumers. Products, interfaces, and branding that incorporate emotional design cater not just to the user’s functional needs but also to their feelings and experiences. This approach helps create memorable, engaging, and enjoyable user experiences that drive brand loyalty and customer retention.

From the inviting glow of a well-designed website to the comforting feel of a meticulously crafted product, emotional design speaks to the subconscious and can significantly influence purchasing decisions. In a competitive market, where multiple brands offer similar product functionalities, emotional design becomes a differentiator that can turn a one-time buyer into a lifelong customer.

Conclusion

I would like to highlight that emotional design is not just what your product looks like, but most importantly — what does the user feel while interacting with it. It is vital to maintain an emotional connection with the user at all stages of your product.

And as we know, by the example of popular products, if the user is comfortable and pleased with using something, the product is bound to become successful.

This is why the introduction of emotional design whilst focusing on users is the best solution for any product. Because embedding emotional design into business strategies is not merely an aesthetic choice but a sound investment in cultivating meaningful customer relationships and enhancing overall brand perception.

Stay tuned! I will go deeper on the topic of emotional design and the need for it in my upcoming articles:

· Beyond Functionality: Designing with Empathy;

· Humanization in Design: Breathing Life into Digital Experiences.

Dyninno is a group of companies providing products and services in the travel, finance, entertainment, and technology sectors in 50+ countries.
It was founded in 2004 in San Francisco by Alex Weinstein. Today, 5,100 professionals work in the company around the world. Our offices are located in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, India, the UAE, the Philippines, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Moldova, Romania, Latvia, Cyprus, Malta, and Turkey.