5/1 “100 Things” How People Feel #72-84
72. Seven basic emotions are universal
The seven basic emotions of joy, sadness, contempt, fear, disgust, surprise, and anger are universal and are shown by facial expression and physical gestures.
If you’re using pictures to communicate (for example, pictures of people at a Web site), use one of the seven basic emotions in the picture to communicate them most clearly.
People read the seven basic emotions fairly well from photos. Try to use photos where the expressions look real, as people can often detect fake emotions.
Decide which emotions drive your target audience. In addition to basic demographic information, identify and document psychographics; for example, what emotions are motivating or will motivate different parts of your target audience?
73. Emotions are tied to muscle movement and vice versa
You may need to consider the emotions you’re generating as people interact with your product. For example, if someone reads a sad story and is frowning, this may put them in a sad mood that might affect the next action they take.
Watch out for unintended facial expressions that may change how people feel about your product. For example, if the font at your Web site is very small, and people are squinting and frowning to read it, that may actually prevent them from feeling happy or friendly, and that may affect an action you want them to take.
This is another instance of the power of video. Because people mimic others’ expressions (see #64 on mirror neurons), showing a video of someone who is happy and smiling will tend to make the person watching smile, which will then make them feel happy, and that in turn may change the next action they take.
74. Anecdotes persuade more than data
Information is processed more deeply and remembered longer if it has an emotional hook. Ex. Instead of just presenting data, use a video of someone telling their story/how they use a product or tell it yourself
Look for ways to provide a message that will invoke emotions and empathy.
Use anecdotes in addition to, or in place of, factual data.
75. Smells evoke emotions and memories
Scents are used in retail stores, hotels, malls, and other places to evoke particular memories, emotions, and associations.
Scents have been experimented with in movie theaters, and there is some research on using scents while people are learning information online with a computer.
In the future, designing scents for emotional influence with be part of some user experience designers’ skill sets.
76. People programed to enjoy surprises
Things that are new and novel capture attention.
Providing something unexpected not only gets attention, but also can be actually pleasurable.
Although a certain amount of consistency (at a Web site, for example) is a good thing if people are trying to complete a task, providing novel and unexpected content and interactions is good if you want people to try something new, or if you want them to come back to see what’s new.
77. People are happier when they're busy
People don’t like to be idle.
People will do a task rather than be idle, but the task has to be seen as worthwhile. If people perceive it to be busywork, then they prefer to stay idle.
People who are busy are happier.
If you have a task that requires people to wait, you’d better have something interesting for them to do while waiting.
78. Pastoral scenes make people happy
People like pastoral scenes. If you’re looking for a nature scene to use at a Web site, try to pick one with the pastoral elements (trees, water, hills.
People will be drawn to, like, and feel happier looking at a pastoral scene online, but it won’t have the same positive health effects as seeing the actual scene out a window or being able to walk through the pastoral setting.
Walking through a pastoral scene improves attention and reduces stress.
79. People use look and feel as their first indicator of trust
Extroverts are happier than introverts.
Optimists are happier than pessimists.
Married people are happier than singles, but people with children are the same as childless couples.
Republicans are happier than Democrats.
People who go to church are happier than those who don’t.
People with college degrees are happier than those without, but people with advanced degrees are less happy.
People with an active sex life are happier than those without.
People are least happy when they are commuting to work.
Busy people are happier than those with too little to do.
Wealthy people are happier than poor ones, but just by a little bit.
Iceland and Denmark are some of the happiest places.
Seventy percent of the variability in happiness can be attributed to relationships with people.
Interestingly, among all the variables, the best predictor of happiness is whether people have trust (for example, trust in their country and trust in their government).
People make quick decisions about what is not trustworthy. So they reject a Web site first, and then decide after that whether or not to actually trust it.
Design factors, such as color, font, layout, and navigation, are critical in making it through the first “trust rejection” phase.
If a Web site makes it through the first rejection cut, then content and credibility become the determining factors as to whether the person trusts the site.
80. Listening to music releases dopamine in the brain
Music is very individualized. What induces euphoria in one person may have no effect for someone else.
Anticipating the pleasurable parts of music activates different areas of the brain and neurotransmitters than actually listening to and experiencing the music.
Allowing people to use or add their own music to whatever Web site, product, design, or activity they’re engaging in is a powerful way to engage them in a positive experience.
81. The more difficult something is to achieve, the more people like it
People like groups that they had to endure hardship to join.
Cognitive dissonance theory- If a group is boring and uninteresting, why did I submit myself to pain and hardship? (cognitive conflict) Thus you decide it is actually worthwhile.
If you want people to join your online community, you might find that people use it more and value it more if there are steps that have to be taken to join. Filling out an application, meeting certain criteria, being invited by others—all of these can be seen as barriers to entry, but they may also mean that the people who do join care more about the group.
82. People overestimate reactions to future events
Be careful of believing customers who tell you that making a particular change to a product or a design will make them much happier with it, or cause them to never use it again.
People may prefer one thing over another or think that they will, but their reaction, be it positive or negative, will probably not be as strong as they imagine it.
83. People feel more positive before and after an event during it
The anticipation for the trip is more exciting than the trip itself.
Tips for the best vacations:
Several short vacations are better than one long one.
The end of the vacation affects your long-term memory more than the beginning or the middle.
Having an intense, peak experience makes you more likely to remember the trip positively, even if the intense experience wasn’t necessarily positive.
Interrupting a trip makes you enjoy the uninterrupted part even more.
If you’re designing an interface where people are planning something in the future (winning the lottery, going on a trip, arranging a business event, building a house), they’ll have more positive feelings about the experience the longer you can draw out the planning phase.
If you measure satisfaction or other feelings, realize that you’ll get more positive ratings if you ask people a few days after the interaction, than if you ask them while they’re interacting with the product or Web site.Â
84. People want what is familiar when they're sad or scared
Brands are a shortcut. If someone has had a positive experience with a brand in the past, then that brand is a signal of safety to the old brain.
Brands are just as important, or even more important, online. In the absence of being able to see and touch the actual product, the brand becomes the surrogate for the experience. This means that brands have a lot of power when people are making an online purchase.
Messages of fear or loss may be more persuasive if your brand is an established one.
Messages of fun and happiness may be more persuasive if your brand is a new one.
