Designing for Emotion Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of designing for emotion centered on how to design for emotional engagement.  This chapter enumerates many strategies for achieving this connection including: surprise, delight, anticipation, elevating perceived status, and limiting access to elicit a feeling of exclusivity.  At the close of the chapter, the author counterbalances his statements with a caveat, explaining that your tactic must me appropriate for your target audience and brand message.

I strongly agree with the idea that surprise has the potential to positively amplify our emotional response and create long lasting impressions among brand supporters.  For example, I thought it was clever how Photojojo created an online experience that encouraged users to put more items in the shopping cart because of the unique and surprising human element to the cart emoticon (its demeanor becomes happier as it is filled with products).  Although this strategy seems effective for new users, it did not illustrate how to implement elements of surprise for existing customers.  Therefore, I thought it was brilliant how Wufoo pens personal letters to each of their customers in order to continue encouraging brand loyalty through an element of surprise.

One concern I have about this chapter on emotional engagement is how to make connections with audiences when a light/informal tone may be inappropriate.  I look forward to learning about how to address this issue in the upcoming chapter.

Until next time,

S