Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Emotional Design

Emotional design is a framework in design theory and practice that emphasizes the role of human emotions in shaping user experiences with products, interfaces, and environments, positing that effective design must address emotional responses alongside functional needs to create meaningful connections.^[1] Pioneered by cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman in his 2004 book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, the concept argues that emotions influence cognition, decision-making, and satisfaction, with attractive designs enhancing perceived usability and performance. At its core, emotional design operates across three interconnected levels—visceral, behavioral, and reflective—each targeting different aspects of emotional processing to foster positive user interactions. The visceral level focuses on the immediate, instinctive emotional reaction to a design's appearance, such as its shape, color, and texture, which can evoke initial attraction or repulsion without conscious thought. For instance, sleek curves or vibrant hues might trigger feelings of delight or trust, setting the tone for further engagement. In contrast, the behavioral level centers on the functionality and usability of the design during interaction, where smooth performance and intuitive controls generate emotions like competence or frustration based on how well the product meets practical expectations.^[2] Finally, the reflective level involves deeper, retrospective emotions tied to personal identity, memories, and cultural significance, such as pride from owning a status-symbol product or nostalgia from a familiar interface. Research supporting emotional design demonstrates that positive emotions from these levels improve cognitive processing and task performance; for example, aesthetically pleasing interfaces are perceived as more usable and can lead to better user performance.^[3] Norman's framework draws on psychological studies showing that emotions are integral to rational thought, challenging earlier design paradigms that prioritized pure utility over affective responses.^[4] This evidence has made emotional design influential, with over 11,000 scholarly citations of Norman's work, underscoring its impact on fields like human-computer interaction.^[5] In practice, emotional design principles are applied across industries, from consumer products like Apple's iMac, whose colorful aesthetics boosted sales by appealing to visceral delight, to digital interfaces where microinteractions evoke joy or empathy. Recent advancements, particularly in UX/UI as of 2024-2025, integrate emotional design with AI and biometrics to adapt interfaces dynamically to user moods, enhancing personalization in apps and virtual environments while avoiding manipulative patterns.^[6] By balancing aesthetics, usability, and meaning, emotional design not only drives user loyalty but also promotes ethical considerations, ensuring designs support psychological well-being and inclusivity.^[7]

Definition and Origins

Core Definition

Emotional design is a discipline that integrates emotional responses into the design process to create products and experiences that resonate with users on an affective level, enhancing engagement and satisfaction beyond basic functionality. The concept was coined by Donald A. Norman in his 2004 book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, which argues that effective design must appeal to human emotions to foster lasting connections with everyday objects.^[1] At its core, emotional design operates on key principles that emphasize evoking positive emotions—such as joy, trust, and surprise—to build deeper user relationships and improve perceived usability.^[8] These principles recognize that emotions influence cognition, making attractive and emotionally resonant designs not only more enjoyable but also more effective in practice.^[9] This approach distinguishes emotional design from traditional functional design, which prioritizes practical utility and efficiency, by placing equal or greater emphasis on affective responses like visceral appeal through aesthetics and sensory qualities.^[2] For instance, a smartphone's intuitive interface that delights through smooth interactions and elegant visuals evokes joy and trust, creating user loyalty, whereas a comparable device that simply performs tasks without emotional resonance fails to inspire the same attachment.^[9] Norman's framework structures this through three levels of design—visceral, behavioral, and reflective—that collectively address emotional impacts.^[2]

Historical Development

The roots of emotional design trace back to early 20th-century psychology and design movements, where perceptual and aesthetic principles began to influence emotional responses to objects and environments. Gestalt psychology, emerging in the 1910s and 1920s through pioneers like Max Wertheimer, emphasized holistic perception over isolated elements, laying groundwork for understanding how visual configurations evoke emotional reactions in design by organizing sensory input into meaningful wholes that affect affective states.^[10] Concurrently, the Bauhaus movement (1919–1933) integrated emotional dimensions into form and color theory; for instance, Wassily Kandinsky, a key Bauhaus instructor, associated geometric shapes with specific emotions—triangles with aggression, squares with calm, and circles with spirituality—shifting beyond pure functionality to evoke affective experiences in architecture and product design.^[11] Following World War II, human factors engineering in the 1950s and 1960s expanded to include affective considerations alongside ergonomics and usability, recognizing that emotional responses impact user performance and satisfaction in complex systems like aviation and machinery.^[12] This period marked a transition from purely cognitive models to acknowledging emotions in human-system interactions, as seen in early engineering psychology research that explored how design elements could mitigate stress or enhance motivation.^[13] A pivotal advancement occurred in the late 20th century with Donald Norman's contributions, which formalized emotional design as a distinct paradigm. His 1988 book, The Psychology of Everyday Things, established user-centered principles focusing on intuitive interactions, setting the stage for integrating emotional factors into design evaluation. Building on this, Norman's 2004 book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things explicitly defined emotional design, arguing that products must address visceral, behavioral, and reflective levels to create meaningful affective bonds, thereby establishing it as a core field in design theory. In the 21st century, emotional design evolved through interdisciplinary integration, particularly with neuroscience, enabling empirical measurement of affective responses to design stimuli. Since the 2010s, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated neural activations during exposure to designed environments, such as architecture, revealing how spatial elements trigger emotional processing in brain regions like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.^[14] This neuroscientific turn, alongside the post-2000s boom in digital technologies, propelled emotional design into user experience (UX) practices, where affective engagement became essential for interactive interfaces and consumer products.^[15]

Theoretical Framework

Three Levels of Design

The three levels of design, as proposed by Donald Norman in his 2004 book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, form a hierarchical model that explains how products evoke emotions through visceral, behavioral, and reflective processing.^[4] This framework posits that effective design addresses all three levels to create meaningful user experiences, integrating immediate sensory reactions with deeper cognitive and personal evaluations.^[4] The visceral level focuses on the immediate, instinctive emotional response triggered by a product's appearance, including elements like shape, color, texture, and overall aesthetics.^[4] This level operates subconsciously and rapidly, often determining first impressions without conscious thought.^[4] For instance, the sleek, aerodynamic exterior of a sports car can evoke excitement and desire through its bold lines and vibrant finish, appealing directly to sensory preferences.^[4] The behavioral level concerns emotions that arise from the product's usability, performance, and functionality during interaction.^[4] Here, satisfaction or frustration emerges based on how effectively the design supports user goals, such as intuitive controls and responsive feedback.^[4] An example is a kitchen tool with ergonomic handles and smooth operation, which instills a sense of competence and pleasure through seamless use.^[4] The reflective level involves long-term emotional attachments formed through personal interpretation, memories, self-image, and cultural associations.^[4] This conscious layer evaluates the product's deeper meaning over time, often leading to loyalty or nostalgia.^[4] A heirloom watch, for example, may symbolize family heritage and personal milestones, fostering pride and emotional connection beyond its practical utility.^[4] These levels interact dynamically, with visceral appeal providing an entry point that influences behavioral satisfaction, which in turn supports reflective bonds for sustained engagement.^[4] Holistic designs that balance all three enhance overall emotional impact; Apple's iMac, with its colorful, approachable aesthetics (visceral), reliable performance (behavioral), and innovative cultural positioning (reflective), exemplifies this by driving significant sales increases and user loyalty.^[9] Critics note that Norman's model has limitations in addressing cultural variances, as emotional triggers at each level can differ across societies, potentially leading to designs that fail to resonate universally without explicit cultural adaptation.^[16]

Psychological Foundations of Emotion in Design

The psychological foundations of emotional design are rooted in established theories of emotion that explain how affective responses shape user interactions with designed artifacts. Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions, introduced in 1980, provides a foundational model by categorizing eight primary emotions—joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and anticipation—arranged in opposing pairs to illustrate their intensity and combinations. In design contexts, this framework is adapted to identify emotions as levers for influencing user experience; for instance, designers can evoke joy through playful interfaces or trust via reliable visual cues, thereby enhancing attachment and satisfaction with products.^[17] This psychoevolutionary approach underscores that emotions are adaptive responses, allowing designs to align with human evolutionary needs for safety and pleasure. Appraisal theory, as articulated by Richard Lazarus in 1991, further elucidates how users emotionally evaluate designs through cognitive assessments of personal relevance and coping potential. Primary appraisals determine if a design is beneficial, threatening, or irrelevant, while secondary appraisals assess controllability and adaptability, leading to specific emotional outcomes such as delight from intuitive usability or frustration from ambiguity. In product interactions, this process explains why users might feel empowered by a sleek smartphone interface that aligns with their goals or anxious about a cluttered dashboard that signals potential failure, guiding designers to anticipate and mitigate maladaptive responses.^[18] Neuroscience reinforces these theories by highlighting brain mechanisms underlying emotional processing in design. The amygdala plays a pivotal role in rapidly evaluating visual elements for emotional significance, activating stronger responses to threatening or salient features.^[19] Complementing this, aesthetically pleasing designs trigger dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway, fostering hedonic pleasure and motivation.^[20] This neural reward system enhances perceived usability and engagement, as users associate beauty with positive outcomes.^[21] Cultural variations modulate these emotional responses, with high-context societies—such as many East Asian cultures—prioritizing symbolic and implicit emotional cues in design, valuing harmony and subtlety over explicit expression, while low-context cultures, like those in North America, favor direct, individualistic appeals that evoke clear joy or excitement.^[22] This distinction arises from differing socialization norms, where high-context users derive deeper satisfaction from designs embedding relational symbolism, contrasting with low-context preferences for straightforward hedonic stimulation.^[23] To assess emotional impact, tools like the PrEmo questionnaire offer validated, non-verbal measurement through animated characters expressing 14 product-relevant emotions, enabling designers to quantify responses to prototypes and refine affective outcomes.^[24] Developed by Pieter Desmet, PrEmo captures nuanced feelings like inspiration or irritation without linguistic bias, supporting empirical evaluation across design iterations.^[25] Recent advancements as of 2025 have integrated advanced neuroscience methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), to empirically investigate emotional processing in design, building on these foundations to refine models of user affective responses.^[26]

Applications in Design Practices

In Product and Industrial Design

In product and industrial design, emotional design principles enhance user experiences by integrating sensory elements that evoke positive affective responses, often aligning with the visceral and behavioral levels of design outlined by Donald Norman.^[27] Designers focus on tangible attributes to foster comfort, excitement, and attachment, making products more memorable and desirable beyond mere functionality. Sensory integration plays a central role, with materials and haptics selected to trigger specific emotions through touch and texture. For instance, soft-touch plastics are employed to evoke sensations of comfort and approachability, creating an immediate visceral appeal that encourages user interaction and perceived quality.^[28] Haptic features, such as textured surfaces or ergonomic grips, communicate emotions like reassurance or delight, allowing products to convey subtle affective messages that strengthen user bonds.^[29] A prominent case study is the OXO Good Grips kitchen tools, introduced in the 1990s, which exemplify empathetic emotional design by addressing user frustrations, particularly for individuals with arthritis. The oversized, cushioned handles reduce physical strain and evoke a sense of ease and empowerment, transforming routine tasks into less aggravating experiences and building user loyalty.^[27] In automotive design, emotional principles manifest through visceral excitement, as seen in BMW's longstanding "Sheer Driving Pleasure" slogan, introduced in the 1970s, which emphasize dynamic forms, responsive handling, and sensory thrills to generate exhilaration and a sense of freedom during use.^[30] These elements, including contoured interiors and engine acoustics, heighten emotional engagement, positioning the vehicle as an extension of the driver's identity.^[31] Designers face challenges in balancing emotional appeal with practical requirements, such as ensuring durability without sacrificing affective qualities. Overemphasis on aesthetics can lead to functional compromises, like fragile materials that prioritize visual allure over longevity, potentially undermining user trust.^[32] Achieving emotional durability requires integrating robust construction with elements that sustain positive feelings over time, avoiding planned obsolescence that erodes attachment.^[33] The emotional return on investment (ROI) is often measured via user satisfaction surveys conducted post-launch, which quantify affective responses and correlate them with metrics like repeat usage and loyalty. These surveys reveal that emotionally resonant products can double customer lifetime value compared to those focused solely on satisfaction, providing evidence of design impact on commercial success.^[34]

In Digital and User Experience Design

Emotional design in digital and user experience (UX) design focuses on crafting interactive interfaces for software, apps, and websites that elicit positive emotions to enhance user engagement and satisfaction. By integrating emotional elements into user interfaces, designers create experiences that go beyond functionality, fostering delight, trust, and loyalty through subtle cues like animations, color psychology, and responsive feedback. This approach draws on principles from cognitive psychology, where emotional responses influence perception and behavior during interactions with digital products.^[35]^[36] The evolution of UI design reflects a shift toward incorporating emotional cues, moving from skeuomorphic styles in the pre-2010s—where interfaces mimicked physical objects like leather textures in Apple's iOS—to flat design that prioritizes simplicity while using color, icons, and motion to convey emotion. Skeuomorphism provided familiarity and visceral appeal by imitating real-world objects, easing users into digital environments, but it often cluttered interfaces and limited scalability on diverse devices.^[37]^[38] Flat design, popularized around 2013 with Microsoft's Windows 8 and Apple's iOS 7, stripped away ornate details for cleaner aesthetics, yet designers compensated for lost tactility by amplifying emotional signals through vibrant hues (e.g., red for urgency) and symbolic icons that evoke feelings like joy or accomplishment.^[37]^[39] This transition emphasized usability without sacrificing emotional depth, allowing interfaces to feel more intuitive and human-centered.^[40] Micro-interactions, small animated feedback loops triggered by user actions, play a crucial role in emotional design by providing immediate, delightful responses that build motivation and reduce frustration. These single-purpose elements, such as a button that "pulses" on hover or a progress bar that fills with celebratory sparks, communicate system status while evoking positive emotions like satisfaction or playfulness.^[41]^[42] For instance, Duolingo employs micro-interactions in its streak notifications, where confetti animations and cheerful sounds celebrate daily learning milestones, reinforcing joy and habit formation to boost user retention.^[42] Such designs humanize apps, turning routine tasks into engaging moments that align with emotional processing levels, from visceral delight to reflective pride.^[41] Personalization in emotional design leverages AI to adapt interfaces to users' inferred moods, creating tailored experiences that deepen emotional connections. Since the 2010s, platforms like Spotify have used machine learning to analyze listening history, time of day, and contextual data for mood-based playlists, such as Discover Weekly, which curates tracks to evoke relaxation or energy based on past behaviors.^[43]^[44] Features like AI DJ further personalize by generating narrative commentary on recommendations, fostering a sense of companionship and emotional resonance at scale.^[44] This adaptive approach enhances user loyalty by making interactions feel empathetic and relevant, though it requires careful data handling to maintain trust.^[43] While emotional design promotes positive outcomes, it also invites critique through dark patterns—deceptive UI elements that manipulate emotions for commercial gain, such as scarcity notifications in e-commerce. Amazon's tactics, like countdown timers claiming "only 3 left in stock" or urgent pop-ups urging immediate purchase, exploit fear of missing out to drive impulse buys, often misleading users about actual availability.^[45]^[46] These patterns prioritize short-term conversions over long-term trust, leading to user frustration and regulatory scrutiny, as seen in FTC complaints against Amazon for coercive designs.^[45] Ethical emotional design counters this by focusing on transparency and user empowerment rather than manipulation.^[46] Frameworks like Google's Material Design incorporate emotional principles to guide developers in creating expressive, responsive interfaces. Introduced in 2014 and evolved into Material 3 Expressive by 2025, it uses dynamic theming, motion, and color palettes to evoke moods—such as "energetic" through bold animations—while ensuring accessibility and consistency across platforms.^[47]^[48] User research shows these elements increase perceptions of positivity and creativity, making apps feel more engaging without overwhelming functionality.^[49]^[50] By blending emotional impact with practical guidelines, Material Design democratizes affective UX for widespread adoption.^[47]

In Architecture and Environmental Design

Emotional design in architecture and environmental design emphasizes creating built spaces that evoke positive emotional responses, enhancing occupant well-being through intentional integration of sensory and psychological elements. This approach draws on the visceral level of design, where immediate aesthetic and atmospheric impressions influence initial emotional reactions to environments. By shaping mood, reducing stress, and fostering a sense of connection, architects leverage spatial configurations and natural motifs to address human emotional needs in physical settings.^[51] Biophilic design represents a key strategy in emotional architecture, incorporating elements of nature such as green walls, natural light, and organic forms to evoke feelings of calm and restoration. Research indicates that these features lower cortisol levels and promote relaxation, as natural integrations mimic evolutionary preferences for serene landscapes. A prominent example is Singapore's Gardens by the Bay (opened in 2012), where supertrees and enclosed biomes create immersive experiences that reduce anxiety and enhance emotional rejuvenation through multisensory engagement with flora and water elements.^[52]^[53]^[54] Spatial psychology further informs emotional design by examining how layouts influence interpersonal dynamics and individual moods. Open-plan configurations in communal areas foster community and social warmth, while enclosed private zones provide security and introspection, balancing emotional needs for connection and solitude. Post-2020 pandemic designs have amplified this, with hybrid spaces incorporating flexible partitions to mitigate isolation anxiety while supporting restorative privacy, as evidenced in adaptive residential and office architectures that prioritize emotional resilience.^[55]^[56]^[57] Historically, Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture from the 1930s exemplifies emotional integration with the environment, where buildings like Fallingwater harmonize with natural contours to evoke harmony and spiritual upliftment. Wright's philosophy treated structures as extensions of their sites, using materials and forms that resonate emotionally by blurring indoor-outdoor boundaries and promoting a sense of belonging. This approach has been linked to positive psychological outcomes, including reduced stress and heightened environmental appreciation.^[58]^[59] In urban contexts, public spaces designed for emotional restoration, such as New York City's High Line Park (opened in 2009), transform disused infrastructure into linear greenways that inspire joy and contemplation. By weaving paths through elevated gardens, the park encourages serendipitous encounters and nature immersion, leading to improved mood and social cohesion among visitors over long-term use. Studies highlight its role in alleviating urban fatigue through biophilic and experiential elements.^[60]^[61] The link between sustainability and emotional design manifests in the use of eco-friendly materials, which not only minimize environmental harm but also instill ethical pride in users. Buildings employing recycled or low-impact resources, like cross-laminated timber, generate positive affective responses tied to place attachment and moral satisfaction, motivating ongoing stewardship. This emotional dimension reinforces sustainable behaviors by associating green architecture with personal and communal accomplishment.^[62]^[63]

In Media and Entertainment

In media and entertainment, emotional design leverages visual, auditory, and interactive elements to evoke affective responses, enhancing narrative immersion and audience connection. This approach draws on principles like the reflective level of design, where deeper emotional resonance fosters lasting impact through storytelling. Filmmakers and game designers apply these techniques to manipulate mood and empathy, transforming passive viewing into profound emotional experiences. Visual storytelling in film uses color palettes and cinematography to directly influence viewer emotions. For instance, warm hues like reds and oranges convey passion or urgency, while cool blues evoke calm or melancholy, guiding audience interpretation of scenes. In Pixar's Inside Out (2015), the anthropomorphic emotions are visually designed with distinct shapes and colors—Joy in bright yellow, Sadness in deep blue—to make abstract feelings tangible and relatable, aiding viewers in processing complex affective states. This visceral layer of design ensures colors not only support the plot but also trigger subconscious emotional cues, as seen in the film's headquarters shifting from vibrant to muted tones during Riley's turmoil. In interactive media such as video games, environmental design builds empathy through immersive worlds that respond to player actions. The Last of Us (2013) exemplifies this by crafting post-apocalyptic settings with overgrown ruins and personal artifacts, like abandoned family photos, that humanize survivors and heighten emotional stakes during gameplay. These elements encourage players to form attachments, using subtle visual storytelling to amplify themes of loss and resilience without explicit narration. Sound design further intensifies emotional engagement by employing audio cues to trigger specific feelings like nostalgia or tension. John Williams' scores, such as in Star Wars (1977), utilize leitmotifs—recurring musical themes tied to characters—that swell during climactic moments to evoke heroism or dread, synchronizing with visuals for heightened impact. This auditory layering manipulates heart rates and emotional arousal, making scenes more memorable and affecting audience retention. The evolution of emotional design in media traces from silent films' reliance on expressive visuals and exaggerated gestures in the 1920s, which conveyed emotion without dialogue, to modern VR experiences that immerse users in multisensory environments. In the 1920s, directors like Fritz Lang used stark lighting contrasts in Metropolis (1927) to stir awe and fear, laying groundwork for affective immersion. By the 2020s, VR platforms enable 360-degree narratives, such as in Notes on Blindness (2016), where spatial audio and haptics simulate sensory loss, fostering profound empathy through embodied emotional triggers. To measure effectiveness, media producers increasingly use biometrics like galvanic skin response and heart rate variability to track audience retention during emotional peaks. Studies show that synchronized music and visuals in films can significantly increase physiological arousal during high-emotion segments, correlating with higher engagement metrics and reduced dropout rates in test screenings. These tools allow iterative design refinements, ensuring emotional arcs sustain viewer investment throughout narratives.

Broader Implications

Relationship to Usability and Functionality

Emotional design complements traditional usability and functionality by layering affective elements onto core principles, such as those outlined in Jakob Nielsen's heuristics, to create more holistic user experiences. Extensions like the "ten emotion heuristics" integrate affective metrics to evaluate how designs evoke emotions alongside usability factors, enabling designers to assess user states like pleasure or frustration during interactions.^[64] This approach reduces cognitive load by leveraging positive emotions to make functional tasks feel less burdensome, as evidenced by research showing emotional design principles alleviate mental strain in learning environments.^[65] At the behavioral level of design, these integrations refine everyday functionality, making products not only effective but also intuitively satisfying. Empirical studies underscore how emotionally engaging designs boost usability outcomes without supplanting functionality. For instance, incorporating emotional elements into interfaces has been found to increase user involvement, leading to improved retention and task efficiency in software applications.^[66] In multimedia contexts, emotional design enhances comprehension and reduces perceived task difficulty, resulting in higher completion rates for complex activities compared to neutral designs. These findings from UX research, including analyses from around 2018 onward, highlight that affective enhancements can improve performance metrics in controlled scenarios, provided they align with functional goals.^[67] However, trade-offs arise when emotional appeal overshadows functionality, potentially undermining usability. Overly whimsical interfaces, such as those with exaggerated animations or non-standard layouts intended to delight, can confuse users by deviating from familiar patterns, increasing navigation errors and frustration.^[68] Designers must mitigate these risks by ensuring emotional elements support rather than compete with core tasks, as excessive focus on visceral appeal may inflate cognitive demands in high-stakes environments. Frameworks that merge emotional design with universal design principles promote inclusive experiences by addressing diverse emotional responses alongside accessibility. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), for example, incorporates emotional capacity guidelines to build empathy and self-regulation into educational tools, ensuring affective benefits reach varied users without functional barriers.^[69] This combination fosters equitable emotional engagement, as seen in practices that adapt designs for neurodiverse needs while maintaining usability.^[70] A notable case is IDEO's human-centered design process, which has woven emotional insights into functionality since the 1990s through empathy mapping and user observation.^[71] By prioritizing emotional understanding in prototyping, IDEO's approach, detailed in their field guides, ensures products like medical devices balance intuitive use with affective resonance, influencing widespread adoption in industrial design. Emotional design, while effective in enhancing user engagement, raises significant ethical concerns regarding manipulation, as designers can exploit psychological triggers like dopamine release to create addictive experiences. For instance, features such as infinite scrolling in social media platforms are engineered to provide continuous rewards, prolonging user interaction and increasing addiction risks by normalizing excessive usage.^[72] Post-2010s critiques have highlighted how persuasive technologies, including algorithmic recommendations and endless feeds, shape behavior in ways that prioritize corporate interests over user well-being.^[73] These practices underscore the potential for emotional design to foster dependency, prompting calls for greater transparency in how such elements influence user autonomy.^[74] Inclusivity poses another challenge, as emotional designs often embed biases that favor certain demographics, leading to cultural insensitivity in global products. What evokes positive emotions in one culture—such as color symbolism or interaction patterns—may confuse or offend users from others, resulting in exclusionary experiences.^[75] For example, interfaces relying on Western-centric emotional cues can alienate non-Western users, perpetuating inequities in access and engagement across diverse markets.^[76] Addressing these biases requires culturally sensitive approaches to ensure designs promote inclusivity rather than reinforce stereotypes.^[77] Regulatory frameworks are emerging to mitigate risks associated with emotional AI in design, particularly through the European Union's AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024. The Act prohibits AI systems that infer emotions in sensitive contexts like workplaces and educational settings, aiming to prevent manipulative or discriminatory uses of emotional recognition technologies.^[78] It classifies such systems as high-risk or unacceptable, imposing obligations on providers to ensure transparency and human oversight, thereby influencing global standards for ethical design practices.^[79] On the positive side, emotional design offers therapeutic benefits, particularly in mental health applications that employ calming interfaces to reduce anxiety. These apps use soft colors, intuitive flows, and emotion-regulation tools to foster well-being, with studies showing reductions in stress and depressive symptoms among users.^[80] For example, platforms featuring mindfulness exercises and mood-tracking elements leverage emotional cues to support positive mental health outcomes.^[81] Debates surrounding emotional design intensify around issues of consent, especially in targeted profiling, as exemplified by the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. The firm harvested Facebook data without explicit user consent to build psychological profiles, enabling emotionally tailored political advertising that influenced voter behavior.^[82] This case highlighted the ethical perils of non-consensual emotional targeting, sparking discussions on privacy rights and the need for informed user agreement in designs that personalize based on inferred emotions.^[83] Critics argue that such practices erode trust and autonomy, fueling demands for stricter consent mechanisms in emotional design.^[84]

References

[1]
Emotional Design by Don Norman & | Hachette Book Group
In stock Free delivery over $35Emotions are inseparable from how we humans think, choose, and act. In Emotional Design, cognitive scientist Don Norman shows how the principles of human ...
[2]
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/norman-s-three-levels-of-design
[3]
(PDF) Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
PDF | On Jan 1, 2004, Donald A Norman published Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things | Find, read and cite all the research you need on
[4]
‪Don Norman, Donald A. Norman‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬
Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. D Norman. Basic books, 2007. 11272, 2007 ; Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behavior.
[5]
emotional design Articles, Videos, Reports, and Training Courses
Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about some principles of human psychology and how they relate to UX design.Missing: developments | Show results with:developments
[6]
(PDF) Emotional Design Donald Norman - Academia.edu
T H I S C O N C L U D E S part I of the book: the basic tools of emo tional design. Attractive things do work better—their attractiveness produces positive ...
[7]
Emotional Design | Book by Don Norman - NN/G
New research on emotion and cognition has shown that attractive things really do work better, as Donald Norman amply demonstrates in this fascinating book.
[8]
Art, Design and Gestalt Theory - | Leonardo/ISAST
What may be gestalt psychology's most enduring influence on art and design came from a paper by Max Wertheimer titled "Theory of Form," published in 1923 [13].
[9]
The Bauhaus, 1922–33 | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation
He believed that the triangle embodied active and aggressive feelings, and the square represented peace and calm. The circle suggested the spiritual realm.<|separator|>
[10]
(PDF) Affective Interaction Understanding, Evaluating, and ...
Aug 9, 2025 · This chapter reviews relevant research on emotion, focusing on aspects of emotion that are most relevant to human factors design.
[11]
Engineering Psychology - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Since the late 1940s, the framework of specialists has focused on that topic developed as a part of human factors engineering called engineering psychology. At ...
[12]
The Cognitive-Emotional Design and Study of Architectural Space
The present article presents a scoping review, which maps out the broad areas on which the new discipline is based.3. Results · 3.2. Holistic Framework Of... · Conflicts Of Interest<|control11|><|separator|>
[13]
From Neural Decoding to Design Intervention: A Systematic Review ...
Oct 1, 2025 · This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 17 neuroimaging studies (2009-2023) to establish methodological paradigms and neural correlates ...
[14]
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/6/2193
[15]
Appraisal Patterns of Emotions in Human-Product Interaction
Appraisal theory asserts a causal relationship between appraisals and emotions, meaning that activation of a particular appraisal pattern results in the ...
[16]
The role of the amygdala in emotional processing - ScienceDirect.com
Our results confirm that the amygdala responds to both positive and negative stimuli, with a preference for faces depicting emotional expressions.
[17]
Pleasure Systems in the Brain - Neuron - ScienceDirect.com
May 6, 2015 · Mesolimbic dopamine systems clearly do play an important role in reward, but that role may not be as hedonic as once thought. The idea that ...
[18]
Emotion perception across cultures: the role of cognitive mechanisms
Mar 11, 2013 · We review recent developments in cross-cultural psychology that provide particular insights into the modulatory role of culture on cognitive mechanisms.
[19]
(PDF) Cultural differences in emotions: A context for interpreting ...
Aug 6, 2025 · In this article, it is suggested that cross-cultural assessment of emotional disturbances would benefit from the consideration of cultural ...
[20]
Premo (Emotion Measurement Instrument)
Sep 11, 2023 · Premo is a cartoon character that uses her/his face, body and voice to express fourteen different emotions. Half of these are positive, like pride and joy.Missing: impact | Show results with:impact
[21]
(PDF) Measuring emotion: Development and application of an ...
... Emotional reactions elicited by car design: A measurement tool for. designers ... This paper introduces the Product Emotion Measure (PrEmo), an instrument to ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[22]
[PDF] designers and users: two perspectives on emotion
Figure 3: A utilitarian kettle (the OXO Good Grips tea kettle). The shield ... Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate). Everyday Things. New York: Basic ...
[23]
Emotion Measurements Through the Touch of Materials Surfaces
These different studies offer a better understanding of the emotional aspects of materials in order to master their emotional impact in a sensory design process ...
[24]
[PDF] Communicating Emotion through Haptic Design
Abstract: This paper explores how designers may communicate with the users of their products through haptic design. More specifically, how tactile ...
[25]
“Sheer Driving Pleasure”: BMW slogan history
Aug 27, 2020 · The 'Sheer Driving Pleasure' slogan delivers positive emotions and does exactly what a claim should. Joachim Blickhäuser. Head of Corporate and ...
[26]
[PDF] Automotive Emotions: Feeling the Car - Lancaster University
May 19, 2003 · Automotive emotions are the embodied dispositions and feelings associated with car-use, including aesthetic, emotional, and sensory responses, ...
[27]
[PDF] Design for Emotional Durability: Investigating the Relationship ...
Dec 14, 2024 · This study will also shed light on the difficulties and chances faced by designers when producing emotionally durable products and offer ...
[28]
Emotional Durability Design Nine—A Tool for Product Longevity
Jun 11, 2018 · Emotionally durable design (EDD) [2,3] is a user-focused approach to product longevity with which to explore this way of thinking. It examines ...
[29]
https://www.keer.org/keer2014/papers/KEER2014_150.pdf
[30]
https://www.bmw.com/en/automotive-life/the-history-of-the-bmw-slogan.html
[31]
(PDF) Emotional Design in Digital User Experience - ResearchGate
Oct 20, 2025 · In this paper, we are shedding light on how people perceive products through emotions and why it is so important for users and product success to include this ...
[32]
What Is Skeuomorphism? Pros, Cons, Evolution, Examples - Dovetail
Apr 27, 2023 · Skeuomorphism is a design trend that looks to imitate everyday objects in the physical world. This usually involves taking the visual characteristics of ...
[33]
Skeuomorphism in UX: Definitions, examples, and its relevance today
Mar 26, 2025 · Skeuomorphism in graphic UI design describes interface elements that mimic real-world objects in how they appear or how the user interacts with them.
[34]
THE EVOLUTION OF UI DESIGN: A DECADE IN REVIEW AND THE ...
Jan 23, 2025 · In 2013, flat design emerged as a reaction to skeuomorphic interfaces that mimicked real-world textures and objects. Popularized by Microsoft's ...
[35]
The Renaissance of Skeuomorphic Design in Modern User ...
Nov 18, 2024 · Designers are now embracing skeuomorphism once again as a way of creating more comfortable, familiar, and engaging digital user experiences.
[36]
Microinteractions in User Experience - NN/G
Oct 21, 2018 · Microinteractions convey system status, support error prevention, and communicate brand. They are initiated by a trigger, are single-purpose, and can make the ...
[37]
Evoking Emotion and Enhancing Engagement with Microinteractions
Oct 6, 2025 · When you design microinteractions with purpose, they provide clarity, reinforce trust, and create moments of satisfaction that make users' ...
[38]
How Spotify Uses Design To Make Personalization Features Delightful
Oct 18, 2023 · The Personalization Design team helps create core surfaces like Home and Search, along with much-loved features like Discover Weekly, Blend, and DJ.
[39]
Behind the Scenes of Spotify's New AI DJ
Mar 8, 2023 · The result is a delightful music-listening experience that is deeply personalized to each individual listener, yet at a scale that the world has ...
[40]
Deceptive Patterns in UX: How to Recognize and Avoid Them - NN/G
Dec 1, 2023 · Deceptive patterns are designs that force users to take actions not in their best interest, by deceiving, misdirecting, shaming, or obstructing ...
[41]
The Subtle Tricks Shopping Sites Use to Make You Spend More
Aug 6, 2020 · Dark patterns are digital design elements that manipulate users into making decisions they otherwise wouldn't, often to a corporation's benefit.Missing: emotional | Show results with:emotional
[42]
Material Design 3 - Google's latest open source design system
M3 Expressive: Design with emotion. Build more usable and engaging products with emotion-driven UX. M3 Expressive adds vibrant colors, intuitive motion, ...Web · Material Design · Material · Develop
[43]
Expressive Design: Google's UX Research
“Playful,” “energetic,” “creative,” “friendly,” and “positive vibe” are some examples. As we've been developing Material 3 Expressive, our researchers have ...
[44]
Start building with Material 3 Expressive
May 13, 2025 · Expressive interfaces have an emotional impact, fostering connection by evoking a feeling or mood through visual design and interaction.Button groups · Toolbar · App bars · Loading indicator
[45]
Benefits of expressive design | Wear - Android Developers
May 20, 2025 · Material 3 Expressive designs were overwhelmingly rated higher for attributes such as "energetic," "emotive," "positive vibe," "creative," " ...
[46]
The Cognitive-Emotional Design and Study of Architectural Space
The present article presents a scoping review, which maps out the broad areas on which the new discipline is based.
[47]
Exploring biophilic building designs to promote wellbeing and ... - NIH
Mar 4, 2025 · Biophilic designs aim to promote health and wellbeing by incorporating nature-based features into internal and external built environments.
[48]
Biophilic office design: Exploring the impact of a multisensory ...
We evaluated the impact of a multisensory biophilic environment on occupants' cognitive performance, stress, productivity, mood, connectedness to nature, and ...
[49]
Nature in the Concrete Jungle - IRK Magazine
Biophilic Design & Singapore's Gardens by the Bay · Reduced stress and anxiety · Improved cognitive function and creativity · Increased productivity and focus ...Missing: emotional | Show results with:emotional
[50]
(PDF) Architectural Space and Psychological Feelings - ResearchGate
Different buildings can generate different psychological feelings. Each building will generate different spaces, each building also consists of various spaces.
[51]
Housing design during COVID-19: effects of psychological states on ...
This study sought to clarify how COVID-19-related psychological states and anxiety affect changes in designs and perceptions of living environments.Missing: post- | Show results with:post-
[52]
Towards domestic space design in the post-COVID-19 era: A review ...
Jul 15, 2023 · This study is a review of the latest published studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals on the period of mandatory stay-at-home associated with COVID-19.
[53]
The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright
Jul 7, 2019 · The buildings employ geometric abstraction and spatial manipulation as a response to functional and emotional needs and are based literally or ...Gallery · Maps · Documents · Indicators
[54]
A Positive Psychology Interpretation of the Benefits of Wright's ...
Oct 7, 2025 · Dr. Dieser will present “A Positive Psychology Interpretation of the Benefits of Wright's Organic Architecture,” exploring how Frank Lloyd ...
[55]
Why do we love the high line? A case study of understanding long ...
Apr 27, 2023 · The High Line park (HLP) in New York City is one of the most successful contemporary greenway parks, inspiring urban planners, designers, ...
[56]
(PDF) Why do we love the high line? A case study of understanding ...
Aug 9, 2025 · The High Line park (HLP) in New York City is one of the most successful contemporary greenway parks, inspiring urban planners, designers, ...
[57]
Pride and guilt as place-based affective antecedents to pro ...
Our findings show that multiple place meanings predicted place attachment, which in turn predicted the discrete emotions of pride and guilt.
[58]
Leveraging emotion for sustainable action: One Earth - Cell Press
Dec 17, 2021 · This paper is meant to stimulate discussion and a coordinated research effort on how emotions may be better leveraged to promote large-scale sustainable action.
[59]
Ten emotion heuristics: Guidelines for assessing the user's affective ...
This paper presents preliminary work for developing a set of guidelines for efficiently, easily and cost-effecti vely assessing the users' affective state by ...
[60]
Investigating the effectiveness of emotional design principle to ...
Emotional design alleviates the impairment of the ego depletion effect on learning. •. Emotional design helps the learner reduce his/her cognitive load. •.
[61]
Emotional Design Strategies to Enhance User Retention - MoldStud
Mar 9, 2024 · Utilizing emotional elements in application interfaces can elevate user involvement by 30%, according to recent studies. Creating compelling and ...
[62]
Exploring the effect of using different levels of emotional design ...
Aug 10, 2025 · Uzun and Yıldırım (2018) found emotional design multimedia increases mental effort (germane load) and learning recall than the neutral design ...
[63]
10 Bad UX Examples and How to Avoid Them - Chameleon.io
Rating 4.0 (8) Bad UX includes non-intuitive, slow, and non-inclusive designs, with examples like clashing colors, irrelevant pop-ups, complicated flows, unclear navigation, ...
[64]
Emotional Capacity - UDL Guidelines - CAST
Emotional capacity involves recognizing emotions, managing thoughts/behaviors, and empathizing. It includes developing awareness of self and others, and ...Recognize expectations · Develop awareness of self and... · Cultivate empathy and
[65]
A practice for the creation of emotionally accessible digital learning ...
This book chapter, which describes emotional accessibility in digital learning experiences and its relation to Universal Design, was included in the book.
[66]
https://moldstud.com/articles/p-the-impact-of-emotional-design-in-software-user-retention
[67]
Understanding Social Media Addiction: A Deep Dive - PMC - NIH
Oct 27, 2024 · Features like endless scrolling are implemented, which increases the risk of addiction and normalizes prolonged usage.Missing: critiques | Show results with:critiques
[68]
Social Media and the Brain - Center for Humane Technology
We've learned that persuasive technology is designed to shape our attitudes and behavior. From features like infinite scroll to algorithmic recommendations, ...Missing: critiques | Show results with:critiques
[69]
[PDF] The Psychological Impacts of Algorithmic and AI-Driven Social ...
Continuous and endless scrolling, facilitated by infinite content feeds, can lead to excessive screen time, which has been associated with a range of adverse ...<|separator|>
[70]
[PDF] The Role of Emotional Design in User-Centered Products - IJIRT
Cultural Insensitivity. What feels emotional in one country might be confusing or even offensive in another. not every emotional design works everywhere, so ...
[71]
Cross-Cultural Design: Creating Inclusive Global Experiences
Rating 4.9 (20) Oct 13, 2024 · Explore how cultural context influences UX/UI design and learn strategies to build inclusive, user-centric interfaces for global audiences.
[72]
Why Cultural Sensitivity Marketing Is Essential for Global Sales ...
Nov 3, 2025 · Boost global sales with cultural sensitivity marketing: Build trust, reduce bias, and customize UX to engage diverse markets and increase ...
[73]
Article 5: Prohibited AI Practices | EU Artificial Intelligence Act
The Act also bans AI systems that scrape facial images from the internet or CCTV footage, infer emotions in the workplace or educational institutions, and ...
[74]
The Prohibition of AI Emotion Recognition Technologies in the ...
Apr 14, 2025 · 2024. According to Article 113 of the AI Act, the legislation entered into force on August 2, 2024, and will apply from August 2, 2026.
[75]
Mobile Apps That Promote Emotion Regulation, Positive Mental ...
MHapps aim to promote positive mental health and well-being, including a reduction in mental health symptoms such as stress, and anxiety and depression ...Missing: calming | Show results with:calming
[76]
Top Mental Health App UI Kits for Wellness & Therapy - Design Monks
Jun 2, 2025 · Mental health UI Kits are often built with soft colors, calming visuals, and intuitive flows. These features usually reduce friction by creating ...
[77]
[PDF] The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal - IRE Journals
users without explicit consent to create psychological profiles for political micro-targeting. The analysis identifies violations of fundamental ethical AI ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[78]
Whistleblower: Cambridge Analytica Aimed To Trigger Paranoia ...
May 16, 2018 · Cambridge Analytica used Facebook to find and target Americans to trigger paranoia and racial biases, a former employee of the data analytics company told ...
[79]
What Psychological Targeting Can Do - Harvard Business Review
Psychological targeting, the practice of influencing behavior through interventions customized to personality traits, burst onto the world stage in 2018.