UX has become a vital component of mission-critical “bet-the-farm” projects. But you can’t just start designing screens. UX doesn’t happen on a screen – it happens in the mind. Join us as I describe Emergent UX – a process that goes beyond traditional UX techniques by using psychology to deeply understand what is in your users’ mind (or minds) and applying that to UX design. Learn about the 6 minds, what it takes to seduce them, and how we use the Emergent UX process when working on large high-visibility projects.

1. Language Vision / Attention
Emergent UX: Seducing the six minds.
How brilliant UX emerges from the drives of users and stakeholders.
John Whalen, PhD
Principal, Strategy & User Experience
brilliantexperience.com
Memory /
http://linkedin.com/in/johnwhalen
Semantics
@johnwhalen
Wayfinding
Emotion
Problem Solving /
Decision Making
#EmergentUX @johnwhalen

2. Introduction

3. I’m going to try
not to geek out.

4. N50 error-related negativity...

5. 5
D’oh!

6. Cognitive
Neuroscience
Vision
PhD: Science Linguistics
PhD Cognitive Science
Johns Hopkins Univ
Math in Brain
John Whalen
Professor in Psychology
CEO, UX Lead
Brillian Experience
Post Doc at UCLA
during Dot.Com boom
Usability/
Accessibility
Online
Strategy
User
Experience
Information
Architecture

7. Brilliant Experience
‣ Boutique user experience
consultancy
‣ Focused on the
psychology of user
experience
‣ Founded 2011
‣ Principals 15+ years
experience in the field
‣ Self-funded, profitable
since inception
‣ Annual revenue doubling
since founding

8. Why User Experience?

9. Why User Experience?
350

10. Why User Experience?
350
18,000%
difference
in sales!

11. Why keep innovating the user experience?

13. What is User Experience?

14. What is User Experience?
Responsive Page Layout?

15. What is User Experience?
The look and feel?

16. What is User Experience? The interaction
design?

17. NO
UX doesn’t happen on a screen.

18. UX happens here. In the mind.

19. User Experience is multidimensional.
Language Vision / Attention
Memory /
Semantics
Wayfinding
Emotion
Problem Solving /
Decision Making

20. The Six Minds

21. Vision / Attention
‣ Visual features drawing attention?
- Edges
- Contrast
- Shape
- Colors
- Patterns
‣ Words searched for?
‣ Visual flow?
Vision / Attention

22. Vision / Attention
‣ What have they tuned their visual system to find?
‣ What are they searching for and why?

23. Memory / Semantics
‣ Mental schemas activated
‣ Primed concepts
‣ Social nature of primed concepts
Memory /
Semantics

24. Memory / Semantics
Football
Orioles
NFL
College
Scores
Superbowl Ray Rice
Ravens
M&T Stadium
Wardrobe
malfunction The “Coats”
(Colts)
33rd Street
Stadium

25. Emotion
‣ What autonomic responses are being triggered?
‣ What are immediate hot-button issues? Why?
‣ What is desired? Satisfying?
‣ What are their biggest fears?
‣ What do they stand to lose?
Emotion

27. Language
‣ Which terms are being used?
‣ What level of expertise does this imply?
‣ What would be the right tone of expression
for this person?
Language

28. Language
“Dude, Uncle Sam is totally
going to take some of your
money and that is so not cool.”
“…generally recognizes gain or
loss on a liquidation equal to the
difference between the fair
market value of Target's assets
and Target's basis…”
“You are taxed on gains when
you sell a company.”

29. Wayfinding
‣ Navigation cues
‣ Sense of location
‣ Interaction expectations
Wayfinding

30. Wayfinding
‣ Do they know where they are?
‣ Do they know what actions to take?
‣ What interaction model and flow to they expect?

31. Problem Solving
‣ What is the problem space this person is working in?
‣ What do they believe the problem is that they
believe they are solving?
‣ How taxed is their working memory?
‣ How much will they “satisfice” vs. collect
the appropriate facts to make a deliberate
decision?
Problem Solving

32. Problem Space

33. Problem Space

34. Problem Solving

35. Problem Solving
http://www.slideshare.net/johnwhalen/

36. Two systems

37. System 1:
conscious, focused, deliberate

38. System 2:
unconscious, fast, estimates

39. We as UXers underestimate the power of
System 2 and don’t take full advantage of it.
39

40. Much of User Experience originates from System 2
Language Vision / Attention
Memory /
Semantics
Wayfinding
Emotion
Problem Solving /
Decision Making

41. Humans are only aware of a tiny fraction of our thoughts.

42. So how do we get the User Experience right?
?

43. Emergent User Experience
#EmergentUX

44. Emergent UX
EmergentUX is a process that uses psychology at
every stage of the user experience process to infer
the emergent psychological properties during the
user research, strategy and design phases.
#EmergentUX @johnwhalen

45. Emergent UX
EmergentUX is a process that uses psychology at
every stage of the user experience process to
identify the emergent psychological properties of
the
user research, strategy and design phases.
Translation:
The unspoken is often the most seductive.
Emergent UX reveals the things people can’t tell you.
#EmergentUX @johnwhalen

46. Q. Do you need a psychology degree to do this?
!
A. No, you need a process.

48. The Emergent UX Process
Lean Traditional UX Emergent UX
Back of the Napkin Establish Business Case ?
Get Out Of the Building
(GOOB)
Discovery ?
Flesh Out Idea Strategy ?
Build MVP & Test Design ?
Build Go-To-Market Develop ?

49. 1. Back of the Napkin - Initial Client Meeting
Traditional UX
Establish business case:
‣ What are the business objectives?
‣ Who is the audience for the product?
‣ What is the user need?

51. 1. Back of the Napkin - Initial Client Meeting
Traditional UX
Establish business case:
‣ What are the business objectives?
‣ Who is the audience for the product?
‣ What is the user need?
Emergent UX
‣ What is motivating the leadership team?
‣ Is there really a user problem?
‣ What are the real and perceived (both user
and client) user problem spaces?
‣ Will the users have an emotional desire
motivating them to act?
‣ What might be some likely persuasion
techniques?

52. 2. Get out of the Building (GOOB)
Traditional UX
‣ Contextual Inquiry
‣ Capture current user flow
‣ Measure performance
‣ Document pain points

53. 2. Get out of the Building (GOOB)
Traditional UX
‣ Contextual Inquiry
‣ Capture current user flow
‣ Measure performance
‣ Document pain points
Emergent UX
‣ What are the visual cues drawing their
attention?
‣ What concepts and schemas are they
activating?
‣ What is the language they are using? What
does it imply about their level of expertise?
‣ What are their emotional drivers?
‣ What interaction models are the users
demonstrating knowledge of?
‣ What are their larger goals and what
resonates with the users?

54. 3. Flesh Out Idea

55. 3. Flesh Out Idea
Traditional UX
‣ Strategy Meeting
‣ Business Priorities
‣ User
‣ Personas
‣ Scenarios
‣ Sketching / Design Studio

56. 3. Flesh Out Idea
Traditional UX
‣ Strategy Meeting
‣ Business Priorities
‣ User
‣ Personas
‣ Scenarios
‣ Sketching / Design Studio
Emergent UX
‣ Are we working in the right problem space?
Are we satisfying senior stakeholder needs
with strategy?
‣ Can we build consensus around concept?
‣ Can we find common language amongst
developers, product management, marketing,
executives?
‣ Is there sufficient motivation for customers
to act? What is the desire? Need?

59. 4. Build MVP & Test
Traditional UX
‣ Create IA / Flow
‣ Sketch pages
‣ Establish basic page
layouts
‣ Begin to mock up

60. 4. Build MVP & Test
Emergent UX
‣ Establish visual language to draw attentional
flow on page
‣ Cue relevant schemas
‣ Elicit proper emotional response
‣ Use appropriate language
‣ Establish interaction model consistent with
user expectations
‣ Facilitate problem solving from user
perspective
!
Traditional UX
‣ Create IA / Flow
‣ Sketch pages
‣ Establish basic page
layouts
‣ Begin to mock up
‣ Evaluate & Refine
(Design thinking)

62. Usability Testing & Eyetracking
Emergent UX
‣ Measure visual design effectiveness to draw
attention
‣ Study misconceptions & adjust schema
which is invoked
‣ Validate emotions
‣ Validate language used
‣ Ensure problems solved.
!

63. Dig Deeper

64. 5. Build Go-To-Market
Emergent UX
‣ Identify Six-Mind Related Necessities for build
!
Traditional UX
‣ PSDs
‣ Annotated PSDs
‣ Interaction Design

65. Vision / Attention
Memory & Semantics
Wayfinding
Language
Emotion
Decision Making

66. 66
Phew, that’s a lot!
Let’s review, shall we?

67. Summary

68. UX doesn’t happen on a screen. It is in the mind.
Language Vision
Memory /
Semantics
Wayfinding
Emotion
Problem Solving /
Decision Making

69. #EmergentUX @johnwhalen
Emergent UX
Translation:
The unspoken is often the most seductive.
Emergent UX reveals the things people can’t tell you.

70. Take your designs further. Use Emergent UX.

71. Thank you!
Language Vision
Memory /
Semantics
Wayfinding
Emotion
Problem Solving /
Decision Making
#EmergentUX @johnwhalen slideshare.net/johnwhalen