Emotional Design

Fast Company recently posted a powerful article, linked here: From Design Thinking to Emotional Thinking: Designing Products with E.Q.. In it, the author directs our attention to the reality that as technology becomes more immersed in our daily lives, personalization of design becomes more fundamental, and that personalization is rooted in designing with increased emotional awareness. Some highlights and reflections are offered below:

“Instead of beginning with a problem statement, we must begin with a relationship and value map which defines the type of relationship we want to create.” This requires strong awareness and empathy. What emotions are we trying to create? What emotions will best lead to the impact and engagement we are aiming for? What are the emotions that represent the relationship we want? Is it safety? Comfort? Confidence? And reflecting on these questions from a place of empathy as we “sit in the seat of” our audience will allow us to connect to whether we are achieving the desired states.

“Instead of shaping the core user experience around a feature set, we shape it around the goal of building trust—the foundation of every relationship. Creating and maintaining trust must shape every product decision. Instead of beginning with user goals, we begin with user values. Instead of testing for usability alone we must also test for relatability. This means designing for emotional response as much as for beauty and utility.“ How do we design for creating trust across a global audience, sensitive to cultural and ethnic considerations? What elevated emotional intelligence does that require? What work is required to clearly define our organizational values, to then create alignment with our users’ values?

“As digital products bleed into the most intimate spaces of our lives, we must design products led by the heart.“ Beautiful! What a gift to be growing into these conversations, improving the quality of the technology that influences our lives daily. Certainly this trajectory will continue as humanization of technology does.

ENGAGE: How emotionally intelligent is your design thinking? Click here to contact me and let’s chat. 

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EMOTION DRIVES ACTION!   

#humanizingtechnology #userexperience #humanengagement #emotionAI #emotionalintelligence