It’s the season 5 finale episode of Game of Thrones… We all are sitting and watching the final few minutes of the episode in a cafe. And Jon Snow dies.!!!!! OH F*CK!!!
Everyone had the similar emotion at that moment- curious, shocked, some even crying :’D Is it possible for a lot of people to have similar emotions and experience from something? In that case, yes!! It’s fantastic… If you can bring that emotion in your design, you will be able to gain user’s attention and build a user experience that not just connects but converts. How an intelligent UX designer use his skills to get the required emotions from people? Let’s find out.
Does it really matter how we feel?
The main reason why UX is a significant part of our lives is because we all crave for something more human in our interactions. Experience and interaction are two inseparable factors in UX. When you are blending emotions in UX design, you should look for two things:
- How your audience is going to benefit from this?
- How this experience is going to satisfy their needs?
A design that has emotions connects better with the user and the story that we want to convey is clearly understood. Users will enjoy every moment spent with the brand, using their product/service and will create a memorable experience. There are many ways in which you can bring about an emotional connect with your users.
- I’m just kidding!!: Humour is always the best way to create a relationship with the users. Use cartoons, hand drawn sketches, jokes, funny videos, to make them laugh. Viewers tend to remember positive things better, compared to any other emotions.
- Have I seen this before?: Many times, when we listen to a song, we tend to relate it to a memory, with some incident that had happened last time you were listening to that song. Always give the users something to remember, something that sticks in their memory when they think about your brand.
- I hope Jon Snow comes back: That was pretty much the one thing which was on every GOT fan’s mind after season 5 finale. That’s what we are talking about. Creating a sense of expectation in your user’s mind every time they leave your website, will make them come back for more.
- Hey! How you doin!!: Have you ever noticed how Google customizes itself to wish you on your bday? In today’s world, it’s not about how you can build a relationship with your customers or users, but how good you can maintain it. Talk to them and engage them in all the possible ways. For example, having interactive videos on your websites, or motion pictures or illustrations etc.
- Hey, that’s a BARNEY!!!: What if you were ToysRUs? You will have to put up things that will attract and engage kids. Things that will create a sense of curiousness is what you will have to deliver, to attract them, something that they can connect to. Always know your audience and their demographics.
- Just the one: Always try to have one single emotion as the priority, so that it’ll be easy for the users to connect with the brand. Think what you want your users to feel when they think about you? When you think about NIKE, the first thing that comes to your mind is ADVENTURE. That’s the kinda thing we are talking about.
That’s not all, there’s a lil more to it… How to bring out the emotions in your design, you can use elements like colors, fonts, images etc to create a strong impact. As they are always associated with emotions either in a positive or negative way:
- Colours and sounds can be related to each emotion. Say, for example, Yellow for joy, Red for excitement, Blue, and purple for creating surprise or mystery etc.
- Typography and Readability are another main factor. The size of the text, the texture, the style, the background etc is really important. Typefaces can create a strong liking or disliking feeling; clean font can bring simplicity, a playful font can appeal to youth while a fancy font can bring a mysterious element to the message.
- Images that are used also plays an important role. If the image used is too pixelated, grained and of a bad clarity, users won’t give much importance to the overall design. Images of food, sex and danger automatically alerts our senses.
ATTENTION!!!
That’s a lot of emotions at a go…don’t you think? But don’t worry, if you use the right emotions in an honest way, you can create a relationship with your audience better than what you think.
Creating a strong emotional design cannot happen in just one step. Emotions have to be present in all stages of the design, from a minute detail to the most important call-to-action button.
Emotions make the users feel good, create a sense of belonging while they are using your product/service. When you make someone feel that way, you have created a way to stand out in the crowd, and that’s the main step of creating a strong brand image.