How People Feel

7 Universal Emotions

• -Joy, sadness, contempt, fear, disgust, surprise, and anger.
• -Emotions are expressed through gestures
• -Moods last longer then emotions
• -Attitudes are more cognitive

Emotions and Muscles are connected

• -We mirror one another's emotion
• -If your design has a sad element, it may negatively affect your user's emotion
• -Keep your users facial expression in mind when designing. If a user has to squint to read it could create a permanent frown the will make the user sad.
• -Media with someone smiling can positively effect your user

Data is weaker than Anecdotes

• -Information that emotionally effects user is remembered better
• -Use anecdotes instead of data
• -Give a message that invokes emotion or empathy

Smell evokes emotion and memories

• -A smell can remind you of past experiences both good or bad
• -Companies often use smell to persuade their users to interact a certain way

People like suprises

• -There are good and bad surprises, but our brains react in a somewhat similar way for both experiences
• -New things capture the user's attention
• -New change makes people try new things and return to your clients business

Busy people are happier

• -People don't like to be at idle
• -People like to complete tasks that don't seem like busy work
• -People who are busy are happier
• -If you make people wait, give them something to do

Pastoral scenes

• -People desire beauty in their lives
• -Use pastoral scenes in your design to give user since of nature on the web

Look and Feel can indicate trust

• -Content us more important than design
• -Sites owned or ran by well known or respected organizations are trusted easier than others
• -People make quick trust decisions when visiting a site
• -The first indicator of trust is the design (color, layout, etc.)
• -Second and most important indicator of trust is the content of the design

Music releases Dopamine

• -Music can be pleasurable
• -Music effects people differently so be sure to know your audience
• -Letting your users add music to your design's experience is a good way to engage them and could become addictive for them

People like Difficult

• -If something is hard to obtain or achieve people feel it has worth
• -People like groups they have to endure hardships to join
• -A scarcity of people means you are "one of the few" which tends to be a good feeling for people

People Overestimate

• -People don't know what the future holds
• -People remain close to the same happiness level the majority of their life no matter what negative or positive events happen in their lifetime.
• -People tend to overestimate the way they will feel about events that will happen in their life

Emotion before and after an event

• -People tend to be more positive before and after an even more so than during the event
• -When designing draw out the planning (if the user is prompted to plan a trip or vacation) phase because it will excite the user.
• -User feedback to interaction will be more positive a few days after the interaction

Familiarity helps Sadness

• -People are willing to try new things when they are in a happy mood
• -People like familiarity when sad
• -Craving for familiarity is directly tied to fear of loss
• -Brands give people closure
• -A message of fear or loss may be good for a seasoned brand
• -A message of fun or happiness is good for a new brand