I believe products are like humans. Like a human, a product gets created from nothing. It lives & breathes, interacts & communicates, changes with time, forms relationships, and gives birth to a new generation. Hated by a few, disliked by some, and loved by many!
Wait, back up! Let’s take it from the top. I sometimes find myself in discussions with people over what a well-designed product is. Some say it’s the “look and feel”, some say it’s “how it works”, and some even say “it’s whatever gets the most business, bruh!” While there are almost no conclusions to these conversations bruh, they give me professional existential crises (a profexistential crisis as I like to call it!), make me doubt my work, and question our product!
I believe as design/product guys, it’s our job to make something users love. But, is it really that important that the users ‘love’ your product? What makes a product love-able? How do we make something which is loved? I find answers in humans and emotions.
We hoomans are ruled by our emotions! Emotions triumph over logic and cognition many times. Perhaps that’s the reason I choose to wear HMT mechanical watches which can never be trusted. Perhaps that’s why my friend Nikhit wears the most uncomfortable, incredibly heavy sneakers yet the coolest shoes ever(as I have been told). Heck, we hire someone over someone else because we like them better.
One thing which distinguishes a human from a product though is that a product has a well-defined purpose. Every basic product serves a function. But a loveable product doesn’t stop there; it satisfies the user’s emotional & visceral needs too. In fact, satisfying and catering to emotions IS one of its functions. To oversimply, a well-designed product, one which users love, fulfills users’ functional needs while invoking positive emotions (surprise, happiness, pride, relief, joy, nostalgia, interest etc.)and avoiding any negative ones (anxiety, fear, confusion, anger, boredom, annoyance etc.).
In Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman says — “Great designers produce pleasurable experiences.”. I say Great products produce pleasurable experiences. For it’s not just a designer’s job to create this experience, but the whole product teams’. The experience determines how fondly people remember their interactions. Quite similar to how we remember and still love all our best friends we have had and the worst people we have met in life, innit?
Every screen, interaction and every action invokes certain emotions within the users. While some might say that a good UI is invisible, while contextual, it doesn’t stop there! A good UI lets you do your job without frustrating you and while making you smile. Just like a good colleague.
Stealing from Mr. Milton Glaser, a good UI informs and delights!
OK! Fair enough. How do we do that?
Step 1: Know your values.
It’s important for every human to hold some values for herself. These are the values you abide by. You form your personality around these values. These values could be around honesty, integrity, equity, family, love or maybe even about non-stop pleasures, drugs, rock & roll.
And just like a human, every brand and product needs certain values & traits to live by. Ask yourself (or your co-founder, or your marketing guy), if your product were a person, what kind of person she would be? Would that person be witty or serious? These values depend on who your product is interacting with. What has worked for other people might not work for you of course. A product interacting with college students can afford to be trendy & witty but maybe not so much (but not necessarily) if your product is for their parents. Other such values for a product are friendliness, snarkiness, transparency, honesty, humorous, caring, cool, cute, etc.
Don’t try to make your product a robot; try to make it an intelligent, emotional & compassionate human.
Step 2: Implement those values without distracting users from the functions and messing up with the usability.
There is no recipe to making this humanized robot though. It’s big and little things coming together. But don’t start designing the ‘humanized’ or ‘emotional’ product right away. Start with the basics! Write the emotional-less UX copy about WHYs and HOWs, analyze the data, make the wireframe version, test the usability and iterate. Know how you want users to feel when they use your product. Align them with your product values. Only when the functions are working well, dwell into how you can invoke those emotions. Fit your product values in every mode of communication (copy, animation, illustration etc.) and stick to them!
Using cultural reference to invoke emotions —
Absolut Vodka launched a design competition looking for the Indianized Vodka bottles! While people have been drinking this vodka for years, these vodka bottles had a different meaning altogether. They turned a regular Absolut bottle to a collectible.
Using surprise to invoke emotions —
There’s a hotel I go to very often with my colleagues. Apart from their desserts, there’s one thing I really look forward to. They have tiny glass/marble illustrations embedded in an otherwise usual bland floor. Blending with the floor, it is still delightful and surprising to find a cow jumping over the moon as it was the first time I found it. The floor would still be equally functional without it too and yet!
MailChimp’s audio campaign had regular people speaking —
Ads are boring annoying and irritating! Especially on radio! And yet there is one which made me smile every time I’d listen to it: MailChimp’s audio ad campaign. A girl pronouncing the company’s name wrong, diverse voices, and one of them saying “I use it myself” makes the advertisement and the company more human and transparent.
How do we use it in UX/UI though?
Let’s look at some of the ways products try to invoke emotions in users. In the end, it’s the little things which tie the whole product together.
Using pop culture reference to invoke emotions —
Trello’s Sign up page uses humor and reference to pop culture. Just enough to put a smile on your face.
Using mascot to invoke emotions —
Tunnel Bear takes it to a different level. Their values like humor, cuteness, empathy makes an otherwise utilitarian, boring, mundane, geeky product more human/emotional. With their consistency, when I think of VPN, I think of TunnelBear.
Keeping it light—
Zeplin’s goofy style uses a not-so-serious nature to an otherwise serious office environment.
Using beautiful interactions/illustrations/imagery to invoke emotions—
Elevate is one great example of using illustrations/imagery to let chemicals like dopamine flow.
While booking movie tickets on BookMyShow app, it shows the possible (or may be not) mode of transport you might take depending on the number of tickets you’re booking.
Duolingo turns a difficult job of learning a new language into a fun activity with their illustrations and interactions.
Alright. Let’s wrap it up. To conclude, I believe it’s our job to make something which is not just functional but has emotions and invokes emotions.
We are trying to do something like that at Grofers. But, more on that later. Now hit that clap button till you break the internet.
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