(Aug 2009) Emotions & UX Design, a Mobile UI Designer's Perspective

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I am a senior mobile interaction design for Motorola. I’m heavily involved in designing the next generation of user interfaces for mobile social media on Android. I am based in Chicago.Want to talk about a topic that has caught my attention during the past 10-12 months during my professional work and course work at Institute of Design in Chicago.Share opinion on why relevance of emotions in designing CONSUMER mobile interfaces and experience, what is it and how to go about putting that into your practice.I’m in the early state of my exploration so I also want to start and maintain a dialog with this group.

Although these examples are not mobile or UX solutions that we are all familiar with, they are examples of companies that successfully sell high quality but commoditized products in highly saturated markets.They would not have been so successful and iconic had they not established an emotional connection with their customers.If they could survive, the would be generic brands that compete on distribution (selling it ever where) and price (cut throat low price)You may think that I’m talking about marketing, but it is a lot deeper and a lot more. People don’t just buy cars, they also want to self express. People don’t wear jeans, they have plan other things to wear, they want to look good in them.

Interactions designs, esp mobile applications and services, are becoming saturated and highly competitive because of opening of software platformsThere is no clear winner yet.

Anyone can make anything -> Lots of choices. It takes just weeks to put up an application on the Apple App Store. Despite that, the Apple app store opened on July 10 2009. In 1.5 years, 50000+ applications became available. It takes hours for the Android Market Place.Cite: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/09/apple_stuns_wwdc_crowd_with_pulsating_app_store_hyperwall.htmlWith all these choices, people search for Meaning. “Why I need to keep buying and upgrading?” “And also, why are YOU still around and why do YOU keep making this stuff?” Consumershave short loyalty span.

User Interface Designer -> User Interaction Designer -> User Experience DesignerWikipedia:Experience design (XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design.From the PoV of an interaction designer… User interactions during an experience is the made up of the the user’s responses to the stimuli the designers plant during the journey of use. A successful experience design, at the very least, requires user’s un-divided attention, even for a short burst of time.But in Mobile UI Design, Undivided Attention is Extremely Difficult to Get.Statistics.. Show the number of interruptions users face during operations of a mobile phone.

To get consumers to adopt your kick ass application (and inevitably ask them to abandon their old application), you cannot just tell you what your product it is.Most consumers are only good at what is working (or not) in front of them. To help them switch over, you have to help them imagine your application in their lives in the future. Emotional connection (if done right), does a much better job in that task than explaining the features (even tho that’s still a crucial idea).

Emotions are universal and innate. It is easier to keep user’s engaged when the interactions and visuals evoke the right kind of emotions.We can decipher and respond to our own emotions a lot faster symbols, voices, even colors and shapes - TODO: Need proof!Emotive design that connect with user’s values promotes loyalty. Because they are just not usable, they ‘speak to’ the users.

Two things to search for and you should work hard to nail down early in your design process. (Tell me if you know others!)RESEARCH -> competitive survey -> brainstorm -> prototype -> test -> prototype -> TEST -> … -> produce.

Like I said before, you must understand what your user is looking for. What they believe in and what they respond to. Not only the problem that they want to solve, but also how they need about things around the problem.

Slightly, different from web design, you need to get straight to the point in mobile UI designs because users are constantly and have simply too many options. - The UI could have started with a Map or Search on reviews or long list of cities and cuisine types - Complete reverse of Yelp or Zagat

- Urban spoon - Adds fun and randomness to alleviate pain point of looking for a place to eat.Align your design goals with those often unspoken values.You cannot lab-test values. You have to go ask.

What is your design ‘in character’? Beyond usability, information architecture and graphics design best practices A door knob is usable, can be completely boring and distracting in a user’s experience journey. An un-usable but contextually fitting door knob is often better.

e.g. Apple. Logic Plus - Tabs into the user’s need of being a rock star and producer. - Controls and synthesizers from different music genre evoke emotional responses that are in context and aligns with user’s values - Question: if the design team solely focuses on usability, would they have arrived with these designs? - Unlikely, because they require user to learn the same actions again and again. From purely usability stand-point, consistency is King.

Seek to understand the problem, then look for solution.DON’T look for a problem from the PoV of a product/technology/brand, like “What can we do with this new glowing goop that came out of our lab?DO use methods like contextual inquiry and ethnographic interview with your users AND non-users to find out what’s they care about and what they think current solutions lack

Ask them to record qualitative responses using methods like cultural probes (diary study) and follow up with in-depth interviews about their feelings about the new solution. Use open question (e.g. take pictures of what transportation means to you) Talk to users in where they live. The New Coke was tested with 100k people after CEO repeated asks for the more testing. It failed to address the emotional that the people never wanted a new Coke. Lab test is good enough if your users live in labsUsers are incapable of looking forward, they are very good at looking at what is in front of them. Test but always look for the context of your problem. Prototype and let them use those prototypes in context.

Being funny can get your out of many difficult situations and user’s pass pain-points. Explaining why your system doesn’t work for example.Wii have been doing an amazing work in drawing fun-ness out of set up tasks.

Incredibly hard to do, esp. in large companies with multiple teams.But note that a problem that your solutions solve started outside your design studios and ends up outside your studios. Make secondary and field research a mandatory part of your design process. Model, prototype and have dialogs early with your users so your solution match their connect with them, not mere ‘works’.

Parting thought on that note..“If I ask you about your favorite book, you will tell me about what you remember about the characters, and story line. If the book REALLY connects with you, you’ll tell me about stories about the time when you bought and read the book. I’m CERTAIN that you’ll not tell me about how good is the grammar and accuracy of the spelling. Great designs should connect with people in the same manner. If should be create emotions and become memorable. In the world anyone can make anything and make it available any where. Our designs need to go beyond ‘it works’.”

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(Aug 2009) Emotions & UX Design, a Mobile UI Designer's Perspective - Presentation Transcript

Emotions in UX Design… a mobile UI designer’s perspective
UX Camp London. Aug 2009
Can you imagine…
BMW only sells you cars?
Coke just talks about their fizzy citrus drinks?
What if Diesel just promotes comfort & styles of their jeans?
All these products have several things in common.
Why get so emotional?Why now?
Interaction design a profession is also changing
Customer loyalty has become very finicky
emotive Design
Ok then, how the h*llwould one approach emotive design?
User’s alues
Context
Tools, Methods & Lessons Learned
Lesson One:Approach with Empathy.
Lesson Two:
Don’t just ask. Watch.
Lesson 3:Never under-estimate the power of fun & cuteness
:-)
Lesson 4: Never, Ever, Outsource understanding.
People & Resources
Pieter Desmet: studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/desmet/
Dave Armano: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
Looking for Meaning – Steve Diller, Nathan Shedroff, and Darrel Rhea
Emotional Design – Don Norman
Design & Emotions Conference 2010, Chicago
About
Alfred Lui is a Sr. User Interaction Designer in Chicago, specialized in Social Media.
Alfred worked in Japan, Canada and United States. He currently lives in Chicago, but dreams about retiring in Paris.
w: www.connection76.com
t: @connection76
e: alui@connection76.com