This document discusses the importance of emotional design in product development. It defines emotional design as designing products to elicit emotional responses from users, as promoted by Donald Norman. The document outlines how emotional design can provide strategic advantages for companies. It provides examples of products like the iPod and Flip Video that achieved commercial success through emotional appeal. The document also discusses tools and methods for incorporating emotional considerations into the design of products, services, and digital experiences.

1. 1
Emotional Design:
A Strategic Imperative
Joely Gardner, PhD

2. 2
Agenda
1. Industries?
2. Why bother with it?
3. What is Emotional Design?
4. How is it strategic?
5. How do you create emotional designs?
6. Examples
7. Group discussion of challenges and solutions
8. Resources

3. 3
Excitement
(Unknown WOW’s)
What happens
over time??
Time
Performance
(Spoken)
Basic
(Expected)
X
X
X
X
X
X
Did it
Very well
Didn’t do
it at all
(Or very poorly)
You don’t get points for must have’s
Adapted from the work of Professor Noriaki Kano

4. 4
Monetary value of emotions
“The customer rarely
buys what the company is
selling him.”
Peter Drucker

5. 5
What is it?
Brain child of Dr. Donald Norman
Emotional Design:
Why we love (or hate)
everyday things
(2003)

6. 6
The challenge…
n So, in Emotional Design, I don’t give rules.
The rules and practical advice are in Chapter
8. Unfortunately, right now, the book only
has seven chapters.
http://www.design-emotion.com/2004/12/15/getting-emotional-with-
donald-norman/

7. 7
Norman on emotions
n Human centered design means
n Relieving customers of frustration
n Of confusion
n Of a sense of helplessness
n Make them feel in control
n And empowered

8. 8
Be Strategic:
Go beyond expected change!
NEEDS =
Verbs✔
Nouns✖

9. 9
How do we know this?
A rare glimpse inside the brain

10. 10
Emotions vs. Cognition
fMRI validates
that emotion
and cognition
contribute to the
control of
thought and behavior
conjointly and equally.
Khalid and Helander
“Customer Emotional Needs in
Product Design”
Concurrent Engineering,
2006; 14;197

11. 11 11
Left-Right Conflict
Black Blue
Green
Say the COLOR not the word:
Yellow

12. 12
Engage the Left Brain
n Why?
n What are the benefits?
n Compare A to B
n What happens when...

13. 13
Engage the Right Brain
n How did you feel about
that?
n What was the experience
like?
n Tell me more about that.
n Frustrations?
n Best of all possible worlds
vs. worst nightmare?

14. 14
Use the language of emotion
n What would you want to see that would
make you feel you can “trust” this product?

15. 15
What tools access emotions?
Open-ended questions
Researcher’s response to context:
n Body language (“You look …”)
n Emotional tone (“You sound…”)
n Use of words (negative vs. positive)
n Sighs (wishes)
n Eye blinks (signifies confusion or
discomfort)

16. 16
The secret is to
“operationalize”
the desired feeling

17. 17
Designing products

18. 18
Can hardware have an emotional
appeal?

19. 19
Norman on great products
n “If you want a successful product, test and
revise. If you want a great product, one that
can change the world, let it be driven by
someone with a clear vision. The latter
presents more financial risk, but it is the only
path to greatness.”

20. 20
Product Design:
Economics vs. Hedonomics*
Why? “Hedonomics!”
* Greek: eco/oikos (household); nomos (law); hedo (pleasure)
• Marketed late
• Costs more
• Best selling MP3 player
iPod
• Easy to use
• Aesthetically appealing
• It’s “cool.” It “feels good.”

21. 21
Flip Video
For a business case study: http://www.delmarresearch.com/
Developed by Pure Digital Technologies in 2006 and
acquired by Cisco Systems in 2009 for $590M

22. 22
Flip Video Designs

23. 23
Designing websites

24. 24
What emotion does this address?

25. 25
Emotional messages?
http://www.schwans.com/
#1 in website conversions, August 2009 – MARKETCHARTS.COM

26. 26
Emotional appeal of a pop-up

27. 27
Designing a service

28. 28
NetFlix

29. 29
Resources
n www.humaine.net
n http://www.ted.com/ (Technology, Education, Design)
n http://www.springerlink.com/content/8m620712861m0560/
- Article: “Emotional Design; Application of a Research-
Based Design Approach” Journal:
Knowledge, Technology & Policy, September 2007
n http://www.delmarresearch.com/ -- Bean’s Notes on
Customer Experience Advantage
n http://www.designingforhumans.com/idsa/
n http://www.designverb.com/

30. 30
Humaine.net

31. 31
http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/

32. 32
Did we cover the following?
1. Why bother with it?
2. What is Emotional Design?
3. How is it strategic?
4. How do you create emotional designs?
5. Examples
6. Group discussion of challenges and solutions
7. Resources

33. 33
Joely Gardner, PhD
Human Factors Research
760.994.6314
joely.gardner@humanfr.com