• Giles Colborne
• 10 Feb 2012
• 1 Comment

Open any book or article on ‘emotional design’ and chances are you’ll see advice on how to make something look so that people like it. You know the kind of thing: we like the Mini because it has a ‘face’ or that smart copywriting equals emotional engagement.

That’s all very well, but it’s kind of old fashioned. It’s how monolithic corporations deal with people – with a rigidly fixed expression. One emotion for all situations.

When you watch any conversation between two people, you’ll notice that it’s not just about exchanging words: there’s an emotional ebb and flow. Even if it’s in a language you don’t understand, you can tell a lot about what’s being said from the participants tone of voice and expressions.

And when people don’t respond to our emotions, we find them untrustworthy and irritating.

We need a more sophisticated view of emotion in design.

My presentation at Interaction 12, this year’s IxDA conference, in Dublin, looked at the question of how we could build some emotional intelligence into our websites and mobile apps – using the kinds of technology we have today – and what benefits this can give users and businesses.