In all the hullaballoo of bounce rates and colour schemes, we can sometimes make the mistake of forgetting to consider our audience and what we want them to feel when they interact with our designs.

It’s easy to get caught up in a flood of rationality, focussing on functionality and tech specs, but great design is about so much more than efficiency and budgets. At the end of the day, what sets you apart from the pack isn’t your colour scheme or font choice, it’s that little bit of magic that you incorporate into your design that makes people unexpectedly laugh out loud, or is just a little bit surprising.

A provocative design will engage your audience in a new way and can turn your passive consumer into an emotionally connected fan without compromising on form or function. But how?

How to Integrate Emotion into Your Designs

Know Your Audience

Emotional design at its core is about having an innate sense of your audience and what they need or want. If you don’t know your audience you won’t be able to communicate with them effectively. Get to know them intimately, respond accordingly and you’ll soon find them forming a love connection with your brand.

Make Them Smile

Humour is a great way to build connections. The internet is an impersonal place, but a silly little joke or unexpected graphic of a dancing bear can do wonders for changing the way your audience feels about your design. One little smile and their body will start releasing endorphins, all thanks to you.

Be More Human

It’s in our nature to crave connection with others, so creating a design that will ultimately remind your audience that there is a person – or team – “behind the curtain” will help forge a relationship. Include photos of people in the design, or if you can’t do that, keep in mind the golden ratio rule which will create a sense of harmony and connectivity.

Every contribution you can make to a more personal design space will increase engagement in your audience and help them to build an emotional connection. That connection will then allow customers to more easily forgive issues that may arise and will create positive user experiences that will hopefully turn everyday ambivalence into consumer fanaticism.