Try to satisfy some need of users and design the product the way users love.
Any product or service serve some purpose of the stakeholders, it can be investors or the end-users. People also design & build products for personal satisfaction. But to reach a decision to solve a problem and build it on stakeholder’s way or rather solve user’s desire is another challenge. We have to assume all stakeholders are doing all necessary user research before getting into design and development, but factually that is not the case!
Let’s keep all these things aside and get into the real point of the subject that, how can we make our product lovable, usable, desirable etc.
The human psychology says people ignore many things they see or hear in everyday lives which can be personal, professional, political, general etc. The reason is simple we don’t get into things that do not matter to us. In simple words, what is needed or affecting someone, only will enter in their brain and store; because it can have some impact now or later in their life. We distinguish between negative and positive emotional responses around us by identifying some of the instances we might find in our everyday lives that exemplify both types of emotional responses. It all happens because of the chemical process that brings changes in our brain.
Emotion is a word we use without ever really considering exactly what it means, and it is unlikely that you have sought a definition. This is primarily because emotion is about feeling – something that isn't easily encapsulated or captured with words, but it is something familiar to us all. In their functional theory of emotion, researchers Keith Oatley and Philip Johnson-Laird (1987), at the Universities of Glasgow and Cambridge respectively, suggest emotions help us choose which goals to pursue, as they act as a barometer for determining the possibility of success when we take a particular approach to a problem. For example, anger is the result of an unsuccessful action or one that has been obstructed, which might lead to the individual ceasing their activity and attempting an alternative approach to their problem. This has the benefit of conserving physical and cognitive resources for other attempts at solving a problem, rather than continuing to expend these precious resources by following an already unsuccessful goal path. Happiness, however, encourages the individual to continue down a particular goal path, as this emotion is likely experienced as a result of a successful approach. One more point you should know that emotions can discourage the user from repeating the same attempt towards a goal when they are negative.
So now think about how to make a product or services that can knock a person’s emotions and wake his or her intrinsic motivations to make the decision to go and do a positive action that will be good for them and also the object, product or services they are going to use or get. All these activities can subconsciously invoke our emotions in a positive way. We can impact the emotions of users by designing in a way that considers the cognition, disposition, and environment of the user.
In this juncture, we have to mention about “Maslows Hierarchy of Needs”. And it talks about human needs. We need to know why it is important that design should touch these points so that we can get into the human emotional mind and make an impact that even can transform how we can make people love a website or a product.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. It is used to study how humans intrinsically partake in behavioural motivation. Maslow used the terms "physiological", "safety", "belonging and love", "social needs" or "esteem", and "self-actualization" to describe the pattern through which human motivations generally move. This means that in order for motivation to occur at the next level, each level must be satisfied within the individual themselves. Furthermore, this theory is a key foundation in understanding how drive and motivation are correlated when discussing human behaviour. Each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy. The goal in Maslow's theory is to attain the fifth level or stage that is self-actualization. Every design should be able to touch these important points so that we can get into the human mind and make a great impact on product design, which can touch & motivate human minds.
Getting into the solution that how can we do it... is key!
An effective system is similar to our inner child, screaming to us when he/she wants something and making just as much fuss when things are not right. The inner child has basic needs; things must look nice, feel nice, bring positive emotions, and make him/her happy. When the inner child is comfortable, then they are quiet and allow the inner adult (i.e. the cognitive system) to devote their attention to the cold, hard facts and make well-reasoned decisions. Therefore, to enable rapid, accurate decisions, you must ensure the things that influence our effective system are considered and cared for; otherwise, the inner child threatens to scupper the whole process.
Emotions are the product of changes to the effective system following stimulation from sensory information. When the effective system has been aroused, psychophysiological changes occur, and it is these changes that create emotional sensation. The effective system operates both consciously and subconsciously. However, this system influences us immediately and for this reason, is often referred to as the judgmental system. The effective system influences the cognitive system, which is the more rational, considered system involved in the emotional response. When the effective system is impacted in some negative way, it can potentially impede the cognitive system. For this reason, we must ensure the negative aspects of viewing, using, and experiencing our products are taken care of so as to limit their impact on our decision-making and overall user experience.
All things can evoke emotions in their prospective users in some way, whether we are wearing a simple T-Shirt, climbing a ladder, using a chopping board, typing on a keyboard, watching a DVD, each of these things we use in our day will have evoked an emotion. We may have focused on the impact of objects on our emotional state when we are using them, but many objects produce an emotional response by their simple presence in our surroundings, and they are often bought for this exact reason. Ornaments and the general object’s that adorn our shelves, walls, and rooms, are rarely used, but they help to create an emotional experience or to evoke previous emotional experiences.
The things that now shape and consume most people's lives, such as computers, televisions, and phones, have the capacity to induce a whole host of emotional responses. A relationship exists between users and the things they interact with; we refer to this relationship as the 'Product-Emotion Cycle', essentially the series of changes that occur both in the product and the user during the process of a user-object interaction. A user feels an initial emotional response, which affects the way they then behave with the product; the product then changes as a result, which then induces or maintains an emotional response. This cycle continues for the duration of an interactive experience. Successful products are those that induce positive emotional responses, which are also fitting for that product and meet the expectations of the user.
One of the greatest examples now we can say is “Amazon echo/Google Home”. Think about it, something we ask and get answered from it as our buddy is an interesting thing. Somehow it actually touches our mind in many ways, which is what any product should focus. It should bring some kind of emotions to the user’s mind. A product should be able to bring an emotional connection with its users. So user’s empathy is important and creates a product in line with it. Success will be the end result!
Happy to assist you with any of your UX/UI doubts. Please message me at designeraj@aol.com
Yorumlar