Comments on Emotional Design with A.C.T. - Part 1

Frank Turley — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 06:29:50 GMT

This article is amazing. Very well put and definitely well thought. Emotional design isn’t something that I know much about but reading this article has got me excited and interested in this field and given me a lot of new ideas.

Trevor van Gorp — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 06:01:05 GMT

Glad you’re enjoying the site David. And we’re happy that you’ll keep coming back. ;-)

David Ertel — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:46:41 GMT

Involved in web design and finding the best way to get users involved with the website via structure and content. I just discovered this site to know more about it. It’s all overwhelming and interesting to not keep on going back to. Salutes to everyone!

superdavid

Trevor van Gorp — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:40:02 GMT

Hi Vineet,
You’ll want to read “Emotional Design” by Donald Norman, which is a great introduction to the field. The citations list at the end of this article lists a lot of good books and publications.

You can find out more through the links, articles, interviews and presentations on my blog
http://www.affectivedesign.org

Also, check out the Design & Emotion Society
http://www.designandemotion.org/

and the interviews on Marco van Hout’s blog:
http://www.design-emotion.com/

I hope that helps.
Trevor

Vineet A — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:48:03 GMT

Thanks Trevor – I have recently got interested in this field and would like to bring it more into my interaction designs. Can you guide me to any resources in this field, links, books, certifications etc.

I look forward to your next article.

Vineet

John Reen — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:03:02 GMT

Thanks Art. I haven’t read “Watches Tell More Than Time”, I’ll have to check that out.

Trevor van Gorp — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:15 GMT

Thanks for the comments Raelin. I appreciate the feedback as making this topic accessible is a big part of what I’m trying to accomplish.

Many of the ideas behind emotional design and brand personality have been very high level and conceptual. But, by adding perspectives from other disciplines such as psychology and sociology, we can begin to identify and utilize the visual and interactive qualities that communicate personality to improve the experiences and relationships our users have with the things we design.

Raelin Musuraca — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:13 GMT

Thank you for posting. This is a very accessible read, even for someone outside of UX. This is going to become my “read this” article for clients who ask why it’s important to do contextual interviews with the target audience – and why they just can’t send out an email survey. You very concisely incorporate several elements and have some visuals that drive home the point quickly. Looking forward to the next installment.

Trevor van Gorp — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:10 GMT

Glad you found it useful Whitney. I’m a big believer in systems design, and understanding the system at the “big picture” level in order to make better decisions at the detail level. It’s taken over 6 years and a master’s thesis on this topic to form a working model in my mind that collects and unites the varying disciplinary jargon, while touching on design, emotion, psychology and sociology. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll explore how people experience love in relationships. :)

Whitney Hess — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:07 GMT

Trevor, thanks so much for this article. You really helped to synthesize a lot of disparate things I’ve been thinking about for a long time.

Trevor van Gorp — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:05 GMT

Thanks Art. I haven’t read “Watches Tell More Than Time”, I’ll have to check that out. But I am familiar with the research on semantic differentials through Edie Adams and her work with them at Microsoft.

Art Swanson — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:02 GMT

HI Trevor – really nice article. I’ve done a fair amount of research myself into this field and two other foundational sources for me have been “Watches tell more than time” by Dell Coats, and the seminal research by Charles Osgood into the Semantic Differential (which gives some mechanisms to quantitatively investigate emotional response). Looking forward to Part 2…

Trevor van Gorp — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:01:00 GMT

Glad you found it interesting Matt. This is a topic that almost everyone understands is incredibly important, but few people have had the time to really explore in depth. However, once you begin to understand the huge role emotions play in basic decision-making, it’s hard to ignore this subject. Be sure to return for Part 2, where I’ll describe a new framework for designing emotional experience that’s based on how people experience different forms of “love”.

Trevor van Gorp — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:00:55 GMT

Thanks for the comments Brett.
I think you’re right in saying that emotions are somewhat “unstable”. For me, the interesting part IS that even though emotions are unstable and ever changing, we can come to see them as stable personality traits when they are expressed consistently over time. And once these traits are established in our minds, we then form (or don’t as the case my be) our relationships based on them.

Brett Lutchman — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:00:52 GMT

A fantastic article and very well thought out.
Emotional design is a sensitive topic in the design field due to the fact that emotions are a fickle and unstable trait of humanity. Yes the fact that we have emotions is stable, but one minute we can be throughly happy in one movie scene, and the next, thoroughly disappointed in it’s ending.
While both of these emotions are reliable for it’s time and at the moment, one thing for certain is that different users will display different emotions to the same design piece.
Mastering the emotions of your users is a fine talent that great UX Designers have.
I personally find that the best emotional and service designers are the ones who live it in their lives and show sympathy and empathy to others regardless if design is involved or not.