THE EMOTIONAL DESIGN PRINCIPLE an interface, the positive experience you wanted will

mutate
They may not know it, but Betabrand has the emotional
into a rant-inducing disaster for your users. A friendly
design
wager
principle at the heart of their business. When you startyour
with an upset customer isn’t always going to turn the tide.
next design project, keep this principle in mind: people
We’ll have a candid discussion about the pitfalls of
will forgive shortcomings, follow your lead, and sing your
emotional
praises if you reward them with positive emotion.
design and how to avoid them. But before we do, I’ll
To engage your audience emotionally, you must let your
help you understand the firmware that powers the human
brand’s personality show. In the examples we’ve seen in
perspective, as it’s the framework for the strategies you’ll
Wufoo and Betabrand, personality is unmistakable. When
craft
you
in your next project.
present your brand’s personality clearly, your audience can
relate to it as if it were just another human. It creates
empathy
and helps your audience see a better version of themselves.
Humans want to connect with real people. We forget that
businesses are just collections of people—so why not let
that
shine through?
Emotional design turns casual users into fanatics ready to
tell others about their positive experience. It also offers a
trust
safety net that encourages your audience to stay when
things
go awry. Again, Chris Lindland of Betabrand reinforces this
idea with a story about a customer we’ll call the Pink
Panther
from Portland.
A customer in Portland learned of a Cordarounds sale 10 days
after buying a pair and wrote to ask for a discount. He told me
companies like Nordstom offer such rebates, and I asked if a
oneman
online business should be held to the same standards of a
multi-billion dollar biz with thousands of employees.
Our disagreement was following a predictable path until I
realized there was no holy way in hell he’d ever buy anything
from us again, so I proposed a wager—if his Portland
Trailblazers
could defeat the lowly Clippers, not only would he get a
discount
but a pink pair of pants. If I won, I’d give him a discount and
he’d
have to tell two people that he’s now a consultant for
Betabrand.
He tuned into the game with his wife, listened as the
Trailblazers won, and earned himself a prized pair of Pink
Panthers.
To this very day, he remains one of our greatest, most loyal
customers. Why? Because he found something that’s better
than
customer service—fun customer experience.
In addition to this, our greatest customer also became an
investor in our company. The Pink Panther had a bad start
with Betabrand, and
Lindland could have done what most of use would have:
tell
the guy to go fish. But Lindland changed the tone by talking
to the Panther like a friend. He won a lifelong customer
and an investor by staying true to his company’s
personality.
Emotional design isn’t just about copy, photos, or design
style:
it’s a different way to think about how you communicate.
Certainly, emotional design has risks. If emotional
engagement
compromises the functionality, reliability, or usability of