1. Rantau Studio
  2. »
  3. Blog
  4. »
  5. What is Emotional Design? Types, Tips, and Examples

What is Emotional Design? Types, Tips, and Examples

What is Emotional Design Types Tips and Examples

What is emotional design? It’s art that emphasizes the role of emotion in a visual concept. Whether you’re a graphic designer or product designer, incorporating emotional elements into design will help you foster a stronger connection and enhance user engagement. Thus, it can create a seamless and frustration-free user experience.

Let’s discover what emotional design is all about, why it matters, and how it engages the audience through the explanation below!

Key Takeaways:

  • Emotional design is fundamentally user-centric.
  • Emotional design is concerned with user experience to achieve better satisfaction within a project.
  • Three types of emotional design are interrelated to build a lasting emotional connection.

What is Emotional Design?​

According to Interaction Design, emotional design is the concept of creating designs that elicit positive and memorable feelings in user experiences. Designing for emotions is crucial since humans prefer to make emotional decisions before justifying them with rational reasons.

This entails going beyond utility and usability to connect with users on a deeper emotional level, leading to better user satisfaction. Here, the designer should begin emotional design with a deep understanding of users’ emotions and behaviors by doing research, mapping, or persona creation.

Also Read: Best Freelance Platforms for Designers to Make Earnings

Three Types of Emotional Design

Donald Norman, a design expert, captures how emotion connects to objects in three levels, as follows.

1. Visceral

Visceral level tends to focus on the user’s gut reaction or initial perception within a design. It encompasses the project’s attractiveness, the user’s pre-conscious state, and the whole instinct.

Visceral design is impactful, often triggered by sensory involvement and the project’s aesthetic, including colors, shapes, and textures.

To evoke a visceral reaction, designers must produce clean and uncluttered designs that are understandable by audiences. A well-crafted, visceral design evokes excitement and joy, setting a positive emotional tone that influences how users perceive everything that follows.

2. Behavioral

What is emotional design in behavioral stages? In graphic design, it utilizes a product’s visual aspects and concepts to influence user behavior. This involves employing visual clues, color psychology, or layout to guide people toward taking the desired actions.

The behavioral stage ensures that the product design is not only visually pleasing but also useful and helpful at once. For this reason, it focuses on designing products that are more engaging and user-friendly to help achieve the desired outcomes.

3. Reflective

Regarding the emotional design context, this is the top stage concerned with the user’s longevity connection to a product. Reflective emphasizes the meaning, value, and cultural impact of the product, leading to deeper emotional connections and potentially fostering a sense of pride or product loyalty.

Further, reflective allows designers to create products that are not only practical but also memorable, inspiring, and meaningful. For this reason, designers should explore how the design affects a user’s personal significance, interpretation, memories, and long-term experience that goes beyond usability and aesthetics.

Also Read: How to Improve Your Graphic Design Skills in a Simple Way?

Emotional Design Examples

Here are the popular brands that use emotional design in reality.

1. Spotify

Spotify example
Spotify example (Source: Pinterest – Dribbble)

This company often uses colorful and dynamic design to reflect the music genre and match with the user’s mood.

2. Airbnb

Airbnb example
Airbnb example (Source: Dolarapp)

This brand uses the concept of storytelling and personalization to foster a connection sense by allowing hosts to share stories about their property.

3. Disney+

Disney example
Disney example (Source: Pinterest – PCMag)

Disney+ employs iconic and visually striking title artwork to persuade people to watch specific series.

4. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola logo
Coca-Cola logo (Source: Pinterest – Vicio78)

The classic Coca-Cola is often associated with a memorable and nostalgic essence through its logo.

Also Read: How to Create a Timeless Logo for a Brand Design?

How to Evoke Emotional Design?

Here is how to create meaningful connections and positive experiences for emotional design purposes.

1. Use Visual Elements

Designers can utilize colors, shapes, images, and other visual clues to directly affect how users feel and interpret a product.

2. Define Emotion Goals

What is emotional design in defining emotional goals? Here, designers should elicit users’ desired feelings to achieve a higher level of user satisfaction and engagement.

3. Personalize Experience

Lastly, designers should personalize experiences to establish a stronger emotional bond.

Also Read: Master These 8 Elements of Graphic Design to Elevate Your Skills!

Let’s Craft Your Emotional Design Project!

It is arguable that emotional design is a powerful recipe to offer a delightful moment to users. By maintaining the right emotional design, visual elements, and personalized experience, designers can effectively meet users’ expectations.To make your design more stunning, it’s worth using fonts for emotional design from Rantautype Studio. Thanks to its affordable cost, you can experience premium fonts that are easy to install and come in versatile formats. Don’t hesitate, let’s elevate your design by applying emotional design and our font collection.

Share :

Related Post

Scroll to top