How to design for the emotional brain.

Ciara Luke

Contents

About the Author_______________________________________________3

The illustrations_____________________________________________3

Introduction ___________________________________________________ 4

Chapter One- The emotional Brain _______________________________________________________5

- What is emotional design ___________________________________________________6

-Happiness _______________________________________________________________7,9

-Don’t make me think _______________________________________________________10

-Be Visual ________________________________________________________________12

-Memory _________________________________________________________________13

-It’s all to do with experiences _________________________________________________14

Chapter two- How to design for the emotional brain _________________________________________15

-Empathy ______________________________________________________________15, 16

-I want to tell you a story ____________________________________________________17

- Colours ________________________________________________________________18

-Conclusion ______________________________________________________________20

About the Author

Ciara Luke is a passionate web designer from Northern Ireland currently undergoing her Mas-ters in Multidisciplinary Design. Ciara researchers and practises the psychology behind creat-ing wonderful user experiences. Ciara has studied the different areas of the brain and practises creating wonderful, beautiful designing interfaces to create that perfect user experience.

Ciara is also a passionate writer and has been working on these series of books to raise aware-ness into the importance of designing for the brain. You can also follow up to date blog entries at Creative Couch.

@ciaralukehttp://www.ciaraluke.com

The illustrations

Liah Luke has just completed her second year at the University of Ulster as a student on BA-hons Textile Art Design and Fashion.

Liah’s work has a graphic quality; recent work focuses on abstract composition. Her confident use of colour and composition is evident in both her textiles and the collage work she creates as part of the design process.

Hazel BruceCourse DirectorBAhons Textile Art, Design and Fashion

INtroduction

This book has been put together to create awareness into designing for the emotional area of the brain. Why is this important? Well how could we possibly create amazing products without fully understanding what are brains are capable of processing.

This books focuses on the emotional area of the brain. This area of the brain loves to see something new and exciting. As designers we are aiming to provide some message, our story but in order to do this we need to ensure that we are telling our story with a clear and under-standable approach.

There is much we still have to learn from the brain and so this is the start of a series of books I am putting together that will focus on different areas of the brain and how when we collectively learn this information we can begin to design effectively to grab the attention we need.

The emotional brainThe emotional brain uses the limbic system, among this system is our amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus and hippocampus. The emotional brain controls our emotional responses and is also responsible for registering our surroundings. This could either be the treat of danger or feelings of hunger. These feelings where covered in the “Designing for the primal brain” but here we go into a bit more detail. The emotional side of the brain can carry a great power over the decisions we make. Strong emotions can create vivid memories and they can also create strong connections. This book will give you a deeper understand of what the emotion-al brain does and how we can learn to design for it.

1

Emotional design includes an emotional intent. If we focus on the detail of our designs by com-municating direct design implications we can apply better meaning and a much clearer under-standing of the message we are trying to put across.In other words by adding more meaning to our work we are creating designs that people feel drawn to. Explore this concept and you will be creating designs that are much more effective.

So how do we take a simple design or product and make it something more?A good example is to think of food. Food is a need for survival but it is also something we enjoy. Imagine you are grabbing a coffee break after a hard days work. The coffee will serve many purposes if you are tired it will give you some energy, if you are cold it will warm you up. So how to we add an extra feature not to do with the food itself? Below is an example of what often brings a smile to peoples faces. Adding emotion to food is a great way to add effort into making the products we offer more fun and enjoyable to use.

What is emotional design?

What does it mean to be truly happy? As the days go by we often experience the up’s and down of life as if we are on a fast roller-coaster. However when it comes to design we can create an effect on people, making our message heard. This can often be done through us-ing emotion, figuring out how we can create those smiles as a reflection to our designs can be a tough one, but its worth spending the time to do it.

There are many examples that make us the customer smile. Coca Cola demonstrated a lovely example when they set up a vending machine in a school and used humour by giving out extra bottles or perhaps a bunch of flowers. Clearly offering flowers doesn’t make you thirsty, what it does do is so much more important. It allows you to feel emotion towards the brand resulting in you having a better memory and overall experience.

Happiness

Apple is another great and popular example. How did you feel when you first walked into an apple store? Was it different from walking intoTescos? Of course it was, the atmosphere, the colours and the custom-er service have been designed to make you feel a particular way.

Many people are drawn into apple products because everything they offer isn’t only for functionality, its because they offer an experience. Apple offer a friendly and personal service but they also establish trust through their products and advertising. Apple is often seen as the best and people who would have a lot of value and interest in the products simple want the best. Its because of their services that create the long term loyal customers that in result buy more and more apple products.

There are many theories for emotion. Schachter-Singer Theory proves to be very interesting. It is claimed that when we are first faced with a physiological event we need to identify that feeling with a reason, with that reason we are then able to label and experience that emotion. This is also the reason to be cau-tious as what one person might take as a positive aspect may be negative for someone else. So pay atten-tion to the difference between the different characteristics when planning your designs. It will bring all the things already discussed such as a pleasant customer experience and most importantly loyalty.

Showing emotion in design has real risk. Some people, even places do not appreciate humour. Take a bank for example, we don’t expect to log into a banks website and see jokes and colourful designs. We expect to see a different kind of professionalism that conveys security.

I personally think that we can add more emotion into designs, even banks. Does anyone remember the Henry the Hippo from Ulster bank? For the younger ones reading this Henry the Hippo was a savings box that was given out to children to save their money. This brought some form of emotion, adults wanted their children to learn the importance of money and the children were able to use these boxes to save their money and take it to be put into their saving account. This was a nice user experience that conveys a special experience between the child, parent and bank. Personally I would like to see more of this type of market-ing.

Showing personality in your designs or brand can be a powerful and encouraging way to engaged with your audience. Remember we are sociable creatures and we love connecting with ideas and business’s that truly understand our needs.

Don’t make me think

The limbic system is the main area of the brain responsible for emotions however there is some controversy in the neuropsychology field as to whether emotions really can be de-scribed to any one specific area.

Think of an object/product you are attached to. It could be your phone, a piece of jewelery or a particular brand. Now ask your self the question what is it that makes me drawn to this product?

When we experience emotional reactions they are often due to logical or intellectual reac-tions. The difference here is that there are things in life that make you feel and there are things that make you think. Research shows that when an individual is experiencing a feeling they don’t think as much. What can we make of these findings? A good example would be to think of a good sales experience. If you are buying a product and are made to feel special and worthwhile. Feelings of happiness and excitement might be felt due to the new product you are buying, so when it comes to the concept of money you will be less likely to thorough-ly think through your options and more likely to accept the offer. This also happiness when people get upset and angry, have you ever felt upset about something and found that you couldn’t think quite as clearly? well this is the effect of how emotions can affectour thinking.

This is why making our customers smile is so important, we want them to experience our product rather than thinking too much into the reasons and cost for them buying it.

Be visual

Using emotion in our designs has been proven to be very useful, however it is also just as important to ensure that when design is involved that it is made to look good. Don Norman made a very important distinction between content and attractiveness.

Advances in our understanding of emotion and affect have implications for the science of design. Affect changes the operating parameters of cognition: positive affect enhances crea-tive, breadth-first thinking whereas negative affect focuses cognition, enhancing depth-first processing and minimizing distractions. Therefore, it is essential that products designed for use under stress follow good human-centered design, for stress makes people less able to cope with difficulties and less flexible in their approach to problem solving. Positive affect makes people more tolerant of minor difficulties and more flexible and creative in finding so-lutions. Products designed for more relaxed, pleasant occasions can enhance their usability through pleasant, aesthetic design. Aesthetics matter: attractive things work better.

- Don Norman

This is a wonderful piece of advice. Once you have your content that is suitable and carries a sense of worth, this is not always enough, think about the design carefully and ensure that the design backs up the message you are trying to sell.

Memory

We all have experienced wonderful and bad events, it is these events however that we are often able to remember much more effectively than other events. Why is this? This is due to a heightened sense of emo-tion, whether we are ecstatically happy or feel devastated due to bad news. This is our brain capturing the events and recoding them for future events . Your brain is wishing to learn how to deal with these events so that when they happen again. Your brain is continually thinking about your future.

Consider this information in a design sense. If a design makes us happier then we are much more likely to remember it. If we receive bad customer service that generally upsets us, then this will tap into your memory of that company making you feel distrust. When planning your designs consider what type of memories you would like your customer to take away with them. For example, lets say we are advertising a music event, where might we advertise our beautiful posters? We could put them up at train stations, supermarkets and billboards. This is still great advertisement but what could make this even stronger is considering the fact that this is a music event and start by looking into what other music events are on and placing the posters there. Why? Because while the target audience are at these events enjoying themselves, listening to music, creating memories. In a happy sate of mind these posters might in fact be better re-membered and considered more efficiently.

It’s all to do with experiences

When planning your design also ask yourself, what type of experience am I offering. Consider the fol-lowing: Ladies who lunch, fine dining and fast food . All these events serve food and yet it would be fair to say that each of these would offer a different experience. I would expect the ladies who lunch to be filled with tea and lots of well presented nibbles. I would expect to see at least three different courses with well presented food that comes at a cost with fine dining and with fast food I expect cheap and cheerful.

When you are designing think about the value you want to put across, where is your work going to be presented and how is your work going to represent that experience. We have already seen with the coke advert the humor used, well lets consider that experience. The students all thought that the adverting campaign was great and it pulled the students together. A nice experience was had that they could tell their friends about. What is it about your designs that you want others to say. Do you want them to laugh about it, discuss it or share it.

Everyones message will be different, think about what it is you would like to offer. It will make you stand out and get yourself noticed.

How to design for the emotional brain

2

How can we use design to attract the emotional brain?

The key areas for the emotional brain are empathy and story-telling.

Empathy

As human beings we are hard wired into recognising the emotions of others. This is due are mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are the reasons we smile when we see someone make an achievement and also the reason we feel unease at those gory scary films.

Engage with these mirror neurons by using imagery within your designs conveying the emo-tional state you want to put across.

I want to tell you a story

This is a very powerful and important aspect to add to your designs. Your story is what it is you are offering. What language are you going to use? Who is your target audience? What does the colour you use say? In what ways are you going to emotional engage with your target audience?

These are important questions to ask. There are many wonderful examples of brands that tell a story, how about innocent smoothies. A company that has taken packing and their brand into strong considering and has been rewarded in the long run for it.

Ask your self is my product was to tell a story, what might it be?

Use colours

Colour can be a very important feature in your designs. Colour can cause more emotion than simply looking at black and white. Colour can carry a range of different meanings but be careful as these meanings can vary between different cultures.But here is a guide I use as guideline when using colour.

RED = PhysicalPositive aspects: Physical courage, strength, warmth, energy, basic survival.Negative aspects: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain. BLUE =IntellectualPositive: Intelligence, communication, trust, logic, coolness, reflection, calm.Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness. YELLOW = EmotionalPositive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem,, emotional strength, friendliness, creativity.Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.

GREEN = BalancePositive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, universal love, rest, restoration, peace.Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation.

PURPLE = SpiritualPositive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority. ORANGE = socialPositive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun.Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity. BLACK = SophisticationPositive: security, emotional safety, efficiency, substance.Negative: Oppression, coldness, heaviness. GREY = Psychological neutralityPositive: neutrality, minimalist.Negative: depression, hibernation, lack of energy.

It is important to note that the meaning of colour can vary between different cultures. Be aware of this and custom your designs to the culture you are working for.

Conclusion

Emotional design carries a wide range of new and exciting possibilities. In this section we have covered the overall experience of the customer and learning how we can define their needs even more efficiently. The main point to take away from this book is to tell your story. Everyone loves to hear a good story, just make it interesting.

To make a good story you can use many techniques to your advantage. Make your customers smile, create a memory, an experience and add a splash of colour.

Let’s get creative.

references

As psychology. (). he Schachter and Singer Page. Available: http://www.holah.karoo.net/schachter.htm. Last accessed 03/05/13.

Coffee image. (). waffles. Available: http://considerthesauce.net/2012/10/20/waffee-waffle-coffee/. Last ac-cessed 10/05/13.

Don Norman. (). Attractive things work better . Available: http://www.jnd.org/. Last accessed 04/05/13.

youtube. (2010). Coca cola happiness machine. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPAp-j9U. Last accessed 10/04/13.