In recent years, we have increasingly entered into these personal interactions via social media channels. telegram number list We answer customer questions, handle complaints and share fun and inspiring content (at least; we try ;-)). Strangely enough, this ‘ personal touch ‘ often does not resonate in our websites. Those who switch from an organization’s Facebook page to the site often get a rude awakening: a distant environment that does not surprise, cheer you up, inspire you or provide (emotional) recognition.
According to experts like Don Norman and Aarron Walter , a good emotional design does provide this ‘ human connection ‘. So that we can build more sustainable relationships with our visitors. In other words (and a bit of a shortcut): your customer feels more understood and involved, because we know how to touch him or her on an emotional level. And with that, your site has more impact, which you see in higher conversion, returning visitors, satisfied customers and employees.
Functional, reliable, user-friendly and enjoyable
In the book ‘Designing for Emotion’, Aarron Walter (director of User Experience at MailChimp) makes a connection with the well-known pyramid of Maslow and the hierarchical order of universal basic needs. Similar to Maslow’s pyramid , Walter states that a website must first be functional, reliable and user-friendly (in that order) before pleasure can be experienced. In that respect, our approach so far (mainly focused on the first three layers) is not wrong: but it is time for the next step.
maslow emotional design
Three levels of emotional design
A little bit of theory before we move on to practice: Don Norman identifies three levels of how to measure the effectiveness of digital marketing design in his book :
Visceral level (I want it!)
The lowest level contains all the elements of design that contribute to the user’s instinctive search engine optimization mails reaction: the first impression. What does it look like? How does it feel? Personality and cultural background play a role here.