Risk & Reward

I ended my adventure in Designing For Emotion with the final chapter of the book titled “Risk & Reward”. The chapter emphasized the “go big or go home” mentality, because the author wanted to emphasize the need to experiment risky content to grab attention and develop your brand. He talked about how sometimes even when certain publics may be talking negatively about your brand, they may be fueling a discussion that brings in a bigger audience and widens your audience reach. You cannot please every public, but you can stand out and highlight your brand through creative, transparent tactics that will engage your audience and give them the keys to start the engine if they desire.

Something I didn’t agree with in this chapter is his statement about the eventual result of generating audience response to your brand. “The people who don’t understand you will come around as the passion for your brand increases” (82). Hmm. I had to analyze this for a while. It certainly encourages you to generate engagement through the “everybodys doing it” mentality. Personally, I don’t agree with this. I don’t think just because a large audience of people feel positive about a brand that everyone else can’t escape the domino effect. In my generation especially, I think there is an increasing “trend” for individualism (punny, right?). Seriously, though, while peer pressure is still a rampant problem, there is an increase in conversations about making your own choices, knowing who you are, and not being the bystander. Social media especially is the territory where even the shyest of people seem to unleash their most passionate thoughts. I think that taking bold measures through design is very important, but I also think research/education should be the primary go-to that we highlight. The author does talk about the importance of research in other chapters, but I feel it must be the most valued part of the design process. We need to respect, not always please, the people we are talking to, but respect starts with choosing to understand where they are coming from first..not being fueled by their emotions.

Towards the end of the chapter he made a suggestion that I think is key to apply as a designer. “Rather than trying to revolutionize everything on the site at once, pick one key metric you’d like to improve, such as average time on the site, or the number of sales inquiries” (91). As a PR Pubs Padawan I quickly realized how easy it was to accidentally over-engage in the software we used. It was my first time using most of the design software, and if I tried to implement every tool available to me I would easily get overwhelmed and lose my ideas along the way because I would constantly get distracted by something else. I also know, as the author said, taking a single tool or piece and applying creative concepts is more vital than trying to redesign everything as a whole. I wrote a blog post reflecting on my personal domain/blog, and my professor asked me to think about if I would change/add certain aspects to the domain, recreate it from scratch or continue and keep everything the same. My answer was the first option and further develop specific posts/pages/tools rather than my whole website. I can take pieces one by one and eventually my whole website will have undergone a creative transformation, but through a process that was targeted and less overwhelming.