Panic! How it Works and What To Do About It

When we create technologies that are extremely complex and do not provide comprehensive feedback for each and every possible error, such as a seat belt left unbuckled, people have a tendency to drive their aircraft into garden parties. When we create technologies where similar actions produce dissimilar results, such as placing a brake and accelerator pedal side-by-side, to be actuated in the identical manner by the identical limb, people will periodically die.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2004). Design>User Interface>User Centered Design>Emotions

Personas, Goals, and Emotional Design

When Don Norman's most recent book, Emotional Design, hit the shelves in early 2004, it sent a ripple through the user experience world. Norman introduced the idea that product design should address three different levels of cognitive and emotional processing: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. This idea seemed like old news to some and a revelation to others in the UX community. In either case, Norman's ideas, based on years of cognitive research, provide an articulated structure for modeling user responses to product and brand and a rational context for many intuitions long held by professional designers.

Reimann, Robert. UXmatters (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Emotions>Personas

Putting Power, Creativity, and Truth into Your Marketing Message  

Good marketing has a clear, concise, benefits-oriented message. Great marketing adds power and creativity by using effective graphics, headlines that tie the graphics to the message, and body copy that invites the reader in and tells the story of a problem that can be solved. Power results from combining emotion and facts; creativity lets the message break through the clutter, differentiates the product or service from the competition, and helps to convey the company’s values.

Brenneman, Judy Fort. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Marketing>Emotions

Technical Versus Non-Technical Students: Does Emotional Intelligence Matter?    

Intellectual Quotient (IQ) has long been considered in education as the deciding factor in a person's success but have we overlooked emotional intelligence (EI) in determining one's success in life? In my attempt to reexamine the acceptance of EI, I studied the difference in EI between different groups of undergraduates in Singapore in terms of their field of study, gender and university. The sample comprised undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS), with a fair mix of gender and field of study. From their responses to an EI questionnaire, it was found that there was no significant difference in EI between undergraduates who study technical and nontechnical courses, as well as between undergraduates of NTU and NUS, although male undergraduates achieved higher EI scores than female undergraduates.

Poon Teng Fatt, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Technology>Emotions

"The Stories We Tell Ourselves" — Personal Writing for Technical Communicators  

Inside each of us live the stories we tell ourselves, things we say to ourself about ourself in our private moments. These stories create a world that, if seen more clearly, can nourish all the other worlds we live in. Practice in personal writing, sharing the result, and reflecting on the experience can bring three kinds of benefits: professional, by integrating more of our creative selves into our work lives; psychological, by giving expression to previously unacknowledged memories, desires, losses, and triumphs; and emotional, through learning to negotiate among available stones in the creation of our own.

Keene, Michael L., Diane S. Whitmer and Chuck M. Anderson. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Writing>Emotions

Towards a General Theory of the Digital Library

Debate about the digital library is clouded by emotion and self-interest. Emotion plays its part because the digital library is seen by some as a threat to the book, and a threat to the book is an attack on culture itself. Self-interest enters the fray because in the instability provoked by the digital library there will be winners and losers, whether in business, or the professions. Depending on your point of view the digital library can be the end of libraries as we know them, or the salvation of libraries as we know them.

Collier, Mel. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Publishing>Online>Emotions

The Truth about Technical Writing    

In view of the contradiction that surrounds the term, perhaps the distinction of technical writing from other forms is as much emotional as actual.

Grossberg, Kathryn Milner. English Journal, The (1978). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Emotions

Weaning Your Audience Off a Paper Diet  

The transition to an on-line documentation system was not without its obstacles–obstacles of an emotional, rather than of a technical or administrative nature. We realized that as technical communicators, we must also consider the emotions of our audience or users, particularly the emotional issue of change, when making the great technological leap to electronic documentation.

Huth, Elizabeth Ann and Kevin J. Schmidt. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online>Emotions

Emotion and Voice User Interfaces

When you hear the term voice user interface (VUI), what comes to mind? Most likely, memories of an interactive voice response system (IVR) for customer service arise. IVRs are certainly not going away. For many companies, they remain the foremost contact point with customers. But voice user interfaces are more than just IVRs. In fact, VUIs have tremendous potential for enhancing the experience of any mobile phone user. As the use of mobile devices and applications proliferates internationally, understanding how to integrate, or mash up, graphic user interfaces (GUI) and VUIs is becoming critically important.

Clayton, Darnell and Colleen Jones. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Interface>Emotions>Voice

Emotional Intelligence: Putting Theory into Practice

Social and emotional learning may seem difficult to teach, but there are activities out there that can help.

Edutopia (2008). Articles>Education>Emotions>User Centered Design

The Design and Emotion Society

The Design and Emotion society raises issues and facilitates dialogue among practitioners, researchers, and industry, in order to integrate salient themes of emotional experience into the design profession. The Design and Emotion Society was established in 1999 as an international network of researchers, designers and companies sharing an interest in experience driven design. The network is used to exchange insights, research, tools and methods that support the involvement of emotional experience in product design.

Design and Emotion Society, The. Organizations>Graphic Design>Emotions

Are We There Yet? Effects of Delay on User Perceptions of Web Sites

One of the chronic challenges that will be highlighted by emotional design is site download speed. There are many sources of delay in Web site and application delivery.

Straub, Kathleen. Human Factors International (2003). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Emotions

Fast-Downloading Websites are Still Important

People are impatient on the Web. They are function and task orientated. They want to get things done as quickly as possible. The average person is still accessing the Web over a 56 KB modem. You should therefore have a major focus on 'light' webpages if you want to increase reader-satisfaction.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Emotions

Emotions in Organizations: Joint Laughter in Workplace Meetings     

Humor and laughter are emotion-involving activities that can be jointly constructed in interaction. This article analyzes instances of joint laughter in leader-member meetings where laughter may or may not be associated with humor. The method applied is conversation analysis in which the focus lies on laughter's role in the microlevel organization of interaction. The results show that the instances of laughter do not occur in accidental locations but are clearly connected to specific activities. First, humor and laughter can be strategically used by team leaders to create collegiality and a good working atmosphere in their teams. Second, laughing together is connected to closing down a topic or a phase in a meeting in a way that displays mutual understanding. Third, shared laughter initiated by team members appears to be a resource that can be used to reduce tension in challenging situations such as the accomplishment of difficult tasks or the treatment of delicate topics. Finally, laughing together can be used to do remedial work in problematic or conflicting situations. Ultimately, joint laughter appears to be a resource that can be used to improve the task performance and, through this, the achievement of the goals of the organization.

Kangasharju, Helena and Tuija Nikko. JBC (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Organizational Communication>Emotions

Save the Touchy-Feely for the Redwoods

When you lay your feelings out to people, it can be cathartic for you, but it also places a weight on those around you. Learning when, where, and how, to talk to someone about your feelings is tricky. Sometimes it’s okay, and sometimes it’s not.

Powazek, Derek. Powazek.com (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration>Emotions

Beyond Usability: Designing Web Sites for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust

The next wave in Web site design is persuasive design, designing for persuasion, emotion, and trust. While usability is still a fundamental requirement for effective Web site design, it is no longer enough to design sites that are simply easy to navigate and understand so users can complete transactions. As business mandates for Web site design have grown more strategic, complex, and demanding of accountability, good usability has become the price of competitive entry. So, while usability is important, it is no longer the key differentiator it once was.

Schaffer, Eric M. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Emotions

Lessons Learned with Quick Reference Guides: Timing and Truth

I should never fully trust anyone on a project. I don’t mean this disrespectfully, because I work with competent, talented professionals. But no one has the full picture of how the application will truly work. The quality assurance (QA) engineer usually has the clearest picture. The program manager and project manager are often living in a slightly different world, full of a vision of how the product should work and how they expect users to interact with it, but sometimes they’re missing important nuances in the actual implementation. The interaction designer builds prototypes and assumes the developers will build them to spec, but since the prototypes are usually HTML-based, and not in Java or .NET, variances are inevitable.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Emotions

Emotional States of Computer Users in Times of Frustration

If there’s one undeniable characteristic of the frustrated computer user, it’s that her patience is gone. She will not be slowly flipping through the user manual. Notice her jerky movements. If she turns to the help (which she doesn’t here), she’ll search for keywords, skim rapidly, click quickly from topic to topic. As we write for users in this state of mind, we have to remember the hurry.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Emotions

The Experience is Key

It is important to remember that the experience a person has using a product or service is every bit as important as that product or services usability.

Frontend Infocentre (2009). Articles>User Experience>Usability>Emotions

Overload, Shmoverload

We don't really know what attention is, despite all the mumbo-jumbo spouted by Nobel laureates. My guess: most of what people say about attention is hogwash: mere anecdotes, or flimsy cultural norms offered up in a 'be productive, be happy' wrapper. Whenever business thinkers seek to apply an economic metaphor to human cognition, it is a mess: remember "knowledge management"?

Boyd, Stowe. SlideShare (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience>Emotions

Testing the User Experience: Consumer Emotions and Brand Success 

The key to creating brand loyalty is developing a consistent and salient brand perception through the association of specific emotional experiences with a product or service. A classic example of this is the emotion of wonder and happiness people associate with The Walt Disney Company’s films and theme parks. By crafting amazing experiences for the people who enjoy their products, Disney has created such a favorable association, leading consumers to feel they can trust the brand and know what kind of experience to expect from a visit to a park, hotel, or movie theater. People can appreciate their intense focus on the user experience, whether watching Mary Poppins, meeting characters like Goofy and Minnie Mouse for the first time as a child, shown in Figure 1, or watching Toy Story characters leap to life in the amazing and spellbinding zoetrope at the California Adventure theme park.

Madrigal, Demetrius and Bryan McClain. UXmatters (2009). Articles>User Experience>Assessment>Emotions