Essentials Of Emotions In UX/UI To Change The User Behavior

The brain of a human is an incredibly complex system that acts as a processor. It consumes, stores, and processes information and even reacts to the same effortlessly. Humans judge new products through experiences that are relatable to emotions. In the world of UI/UX, there’s an old saying that proclaims how interacting with any product leads to an experience or emotion, whether it has UX or not.
 
Humans are rational creatures, but they also let their emotions drive them at specific moments. You often end up purchasing a bag of potato chips or a bar of chocolate simply because you think that they look appealing. However, such reactions don’t happen with physical products only. They are quite a common phenomenon in the digital world too.
 
About emotional designing in websites and apps
 
The emotional feelings of an individual let them make sense of the reality they see around them. It’s by your instinct that you tend to repeat experiences that lead to positive feelings. You do it because it feels good, and you also avoid the ones that led to negative emotions at the same time. The structure of your brain is such that it helps you recognize unenthusiastic experiences and prevents you from repeating your mistakes.
 

 
Therefore, when it comes to emotional UI/UX designing, it lets a user understand how a specific product makes him/her feel. It can affect the success of a website or an app drastically. Naturally, it has a direct impact on the bottom line of the enterprise that created it. According to a contemporary design visionary, it’s possible to break down a person’s emotional responses into three stages.
 

• Visceral: It’s the most fundamental level of emotional response that you may recognize by the phrase, “first impressions.” High-quality UI/UX designing is something that makes a user feel good or excited from the word go.


 


• Behavioral: At a behavioral level, a user evaluates the functionality of a product. They analyze it subconsciously and ascertain how easy it makes things in finding the solutions that they seek. In the world of visual designing, it can mean how cluttered or neat your interface appears. The ease of use always translates to positive emotions.


 


• Reflective: It’s the highest cognitive level where a user weighs the advantages and disadvantages of a product consciously. It’s at the reflective level that the user forms the overall impression of the design bestowed upon the product by a UI/UX design company.

 
None of the levels mentioned above is more important than the other. In reality, and quite often, the reflective level can destabilize the initial reaction to an app or a website. If you work with a UI/UX design company, then you have to do your best to satisfy all three cognitive levels to form an emotional and long-lasting bond with your audience.
 
How to use emotion in UI/UX design?
 
According to industry experts, humour is the most powerful emotion that lets you establish a bond with your users. This particular brand does it exceptionally well on their product pages. The loading screen pages and error pages are exceptional when it comes to injecting humour into visual design. However, you have to ensure that you always keep your audience in mind. After all, you can’t make the mistake of appearing distasteful and annoying. For that purpose, you should contact user experience and user interface design consultancy organization.
 
Here are a few other ways to introduce emotional design to your website or mobile app.
 
Utilizing micro-gestures to strike connections: When it comes to micro-gestures for establishing a connection with users, Apple’s screen shake for incorrect passwords is an appropriate example. It mimics your gesture of shaking your head when you refuse something. You may also consider using emojis and sounds to introduce a bit of personality to your application. Facebook Messenger does it excellently with sounds for specific emoticons. A sliding meter to get user feedback with animated emoticons is another example of incorporating micro-gestures in your UX. You should even check the app called “Calm.” It’s a breathing app that showcases superb uses of including micro-gestures to mimic humans. The UI of the brand has a balloon that inflates and deflates to help users in setting their breathing rates.
 
Making unpleasant experiences tolerable: Everyone is aware of Google Chrome’s dinosaur game that keeps users engaged if something disrupts the internet connection. It’s a noteworthy example of converting a negative experience into a positive one. There are other ideas for you to exploit. For instance, you can ask the user experience and user interface design consultancy to incorporate a free eBook on a topic that you specialize in on pages that show the error 404.
 
Microcopy for relativity: Mailchimp is one of those companies that utilize microcopy to engage users. Whether it’s the welcome screen, contact form, search bar, or even a page riddled with error 404, you get an opportunity to infuse some personality in your brand with microcopy. Here are a few brands to gain inspiration on contextual and relatable microcopy.
 
Experience personalization: Just check the mindfulness of the app called MyLife by Stop, Breathe & Think. The app’s welcome screen checks with the user on how they are feeling at that moment. Based on the response of the user, it delivers a personalized and guided meditation. You can make use of the same principle for your website by showing content to users based on their browsing behavior and previous engagement patterns. Some of the most successful brands, such as Amazon and Netflix, use personalization to create positive and memorable experiences for users.
 
Create a solid foundation before anything else
 
If your foundation isn’t strong enough, then even the cleverest emotional design won’t do the trick. That’s why you need to make sure that your website or app is functional, usable, reliable, and pleasurable.