Unit 8: How People Feel

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.

Chapter 8: How People Feel

Understanding how your audience will feel is equally as important understanding how they think. Emotions, which are expressed physically and are a response to an event, differ from moods and attitudes. Moods and attitudes last about a day or two and may come about without a physical event.

There are seven universal emotions: joy, sadness, contempt, fear, disgust, surprise, and anger. Each of which can be expressed with the face. And considering how many muscles are present in the face, it doesn't come to much surprise that emotions are tied to muscle movement. It also brings to question, which the reading covered slightly, can muscle movement tie to emotions in the same way?

People use look and feel as their first indicator of trust, especially when it comes to web design. Whether or not a website follows traditional functional methods and presents itself with design, will make or break said site.

The reading makes this statement: "The more difficult something is to achieve, the more people like it." Yes, true. Sometimes. When it comes to UX and UI, this theory is the exact opposite. But then again, I suppose that wasn't the intended subject. This does bring about another subject, the desire to be unique. I find this subject especially intriguing in game design.

Desiring the familiar is related to the fear of loss. People crave the familiar. They want what is familiar, especially when they're sad or scared. This relates to brands in an interesting way. If one has a positive experience with a brand, then that brand is a safe place for them to revisit.

Amygdala versus thalamus: The thalamus processes sensory information and sends it to the appropriate part of the cortex while the amygdala is where emotional information is processed. The eyes function through the thalamus which gets routed to the primary visual cortex. Our sense of smell goes directly to the amygdala, which is why smells cause emotional reactions in people. The amygdala happens to be close to the memory centers of the brain which is why smelling can also invoke memories.

“Welcoming Warmth”: Welcoming Warmth is the name of the scent that the Sheraton hotels use as a part of their branding.

Nucleus accumbens: The nucleus accumbens is the part of the brain that is active when people experience pleasurable events. This was significant in the reading because of the study using water and fruit juice to surprise subjects.

Attention restoration: Attention restoration refers to pastoral scenes (paintings in the reading) which make people feel happier. However, real positive health effects can be seen from actually seeing nature.