Emotional Design: Design to people

Emotion. From the Latin 'emotio' Emotion. A movement or impulse that moves a person toward something.

Many of the things we buy every day are not necessarily the best on sell. In fact, most of us acquire them because of the emotions they convey, and that is the Emotional Design.

There are many elements influencing how we enjoy a product, and some of them goes far beyond the product itself. Imagine that you have a bottle of a Grand Cru Pinot Noir, and you are given a choice between a Burgundy glass, with a voluminous calyx and a wide neck, from which the wine breathes, allowing us to shake it, opening it to enjoy all its different aromas that evolve with each drink… or in a common glass. What do you choose? Obviously, most people would choose the first option. These glasses are designed to help us establish an emotional connection with the object.

There is a lot of talk about Design, Aesthetics and Functionality, but not enough about how emotions affect people. The great master of Emotional Design, Donald Norman, defines it as a design that is focused on the relationship that people establish with objects, in the creation of products that besides fulfilling their practical functions, can provoke an emotional response in people, generating a more intimate user experience and creating a link beyond functionality.

El Môderne Hotel — Foto Salva López

To create emotional links telling stories

Treating things with care, ‘simmering’, focusing on details and creating emotions, make our projects more than just a Brand Identity or a Website. We tell stories, and in doing so, we also create emotions. By telling a story, we make customers feel closer and more interested in the projects. It is not enough to have functional ideas to make them work. It is essential, in order to be effective, that users feel themselves to be special when interacting with the specific project or service. Not by limiting them to simply using it, but by helping them establish an emotional connection with it. We are talking about the quality that the product can have and the satisfaction that it can generate when people interact with it.

A clear example of this is one of our latest projects, the web design for Cap Rocat. Beyond an aesthetic website, there is a project where we have worked on a more pleasant, intimate and personal experience. In this way, users create a link to the website that goes beyond its functionality or aesthetics, they enjoy surfing through it, entering the ‘Cap Rocat world’ and letting themselves be carried away by the essence of the hotel from the first moment they enter the website. Analyzing the experience of use as a process, which lasts from the moment they come into contact with the web, while they navigate and until they stop being on it.

Proyecto web para Cap Rocat

Design must be enjoyable and a design that arouses emotions makes your product better, since emotions affect the valuation, perception and memorization that we can have of it. Let’s not forget that we form mental images of things according to the emotions they generate in us.

Should we then reflect on the extent to which we use design as a marketing tool? Perhaps design goes beyond developing a product with an attractive aesthetic to generate more demand. Design can be much more than that, design must also be able to move people. It is our responsibility to think about the emotional impact of our designs. And we should treat it as a way to improve the relationship between people, products and services.

Juan Gavilán
Juan Gavilán
Director de arte
Mandarina Brand Society Mandarina Brand Society

We are in Palma, we are in San Sebastian, Ibiza, Madrid, or Barcelona…
We are on the other side of the telephone, or replying you an email. Because what it really matters is to be where you are and whenever you need us.




    I have read and accept the legal terms of this website.