Online Design, Evoking Emotions and Influencing Decisions

Jim McKendree - 7.29.2009 4:00 PM

Evoking Emotions through Effective Design

When it comes to our interpretation, "pretty" or "ugly" is determined by many factors. We are not usually aware of them as they influence our sub-conscious reactions. Certain triggers or "aesthetics" in everyday life evoke emotions in us that influence our choices, decisions and reactions. These triggers are not limited to just our vision, but appeal to all of our senses and they happen every minute of every day. To go even further, they can then tap into a personal experience and can influence our emotional responses.

I recently heard the song "Bang Your Head" by Quiet Riot and was instantly transported back to fourth grade, sitting on a bus with my friends going on a field trip to Independence Rock. I was not transported via the Flux Capacitor mind you, but instead that song  evoked the memory of being young and the emotion of being excited.  Suddenly I had the urge to peg roll my pants.

Evoking emotion through music has been used in advertising to sell products for many years, but it is still as influential today as it ever was.

The design of online solutions should also tap these same emotions . All of our senses bring emotion to us instantly, maybe the most powerful being our sight. In the world of Web design the communication to our user is primarily done through sight, but we must consider all of the senses to be aesthetically successful.

Aesthetics?

Aesthetics is defined as "Philosophical study of the qualities that make something an object of aesthetic interest and of the nature of aesthetic value and judgment.", or to put it plainly, the study of how something is interpreted via the senses. Aesthetics are mostly subjective, but many sensory stimuli bring about the same emotion or feeling in large groups of people. These broad stimuli are considered very important when designing with usability and user response in mind. These stimuli can be as broad as color, imagery and typography to set a mood or as subtle as designing a button to look more attractive to encourage a click.

The choice is yours...

Obviously there is a lot of thought and science that goes into creating a successful website from the discovery process in the beginning to the testing in the end. We tap emotional response at almost every phase and each phase can be an essay in themselves. For our purposes here we will narrow that down a bit to an important factor in a websites success.

Trust and Credibility

Approximately 1/3 of people that buy online use a search engine to find what they are looking for. [1] Lets assume that we throw brand recognition out the door, so the "thing" we are searching for is something that Amazon doesn't stock. Once we search for our "thing" we are presented with 10 websites that have our particular "thing" and they are all at a similar price point. Let's also assume that we have little to no technical knowledge about site security, shopping cart functionality, etc.. We are just an average user looking for our "thing" and we are going to buy it today. How are we going to choose which website to buy this "thing" from?

Let's talk about trust as a feeling when it comes to doing business with a company online. As doing business online becomes more saturated, trust will be more and more important to users than ever. A good portion of us make travel arrangements, buy insurance, look up health information and even buy vehicles online. What gives us that confidence to make these kinds of purchases without being face to face with someone? According to a study conducted in 2002, nearly half of all site evaluators (46.1%) used visual cues, such as the site's overall design or look, to assess a site's credibility. This is color, layout, typography and font size. Below are the complete results,

[2]

Now we aren't diving into a discussion on functionality, architecture or how many steps the user takes to complete their transaction, but only on the users perception and first impression of a site before deciding to proceed.

So design and visual cues are important!

Still not a believer?

Let's take this theory into the physical world. Many of us have experience buying a car at some point in our lives, so imagine this picture. You are looking for a 2002 VW beetle and you find two dealerships on the same street featuring our VW Beetle in the front of the lot. Dealership 1 is a slightly weathered, modified mobile home with streamers and balloons spanning the entire lot featuring a smiling salesman sporting a plaid jacket waiting to pounce. Dealership 2 is a shiny, clean modern building sporting a big bright logo with well-dressed sales people keeping their distance. What emotion are you feeling about Dealership 1?

Most people would feel like Dealership 1 is a scam waiting to happen. Now if "Bang Your Head" was playing on the loud speaker, I would instantly be in negotiation with our plaid friend. That's a different discussion though. But most of us with common sense will choose Dealership 2. Of course we don't know yet which dealership is a better value for our money and our friend in plaid might be a great guy, but he will not get many chances to prove it based on the aesthetics of his establishment.

Yes, this is a bit exaggerated and a stereotypical scenario, but it illustrates the point. According to Donald Norman, author of Emotional Design, "aesthetically pleasing objects appear to the user to be more effective, by virtue of their sensual appeal. This is due to the affinity the user feels for an object that appeals to him, due to the formation of an emotional connection [with the object]." [3]

So are we making decisions based on "pretty"?

We are constantly learning more about people and how we process information in relationship to our senses. Statistics can prove to us that aesthetically pleasing objects can attract us and shape our feelings. Still, a lot of business models don't view this as a top priority. Imagine what the marketplace would look like if everyone had a well planned, nicely designed website, our choices would be much harder to make. We will save what happens after the choice is made for another day. But for this discussion, the majority of us make our online decisions based on how we feel about the design and look of the site.

Reference

1. Over 875 Million Consumers Have Shopped Online -- The Number of Internet Shoppers Up 40% in Two Years - Nielsen.com
2. How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? - A Consumer Reports WebWatch research report, prepared by Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, Cordura Hall 226, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., 94305
3. Emotional Design - by Donald Norman

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