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Emotional Design How can a visual communicator use devices in their work to evoke certain emotions from the viewer?
Chapter Ideas for Dissertation 1. 2. 3. 4.
how context changes the emotions evoked how colour changes the emotions evoked how layout changes the emotions evoked how symbolism/memory changes the emotion evoked 5. how culture changes the emotions evoked
Research Emotion is important to design because virtually all the decisions we make are made because of either how we feel, or how we anticipate we’ll feel. Recent research in neuroscience has shown that without the feedback provided by our emotions, we have difficulty making even simple decisions, like what clothes to wear in the morning. (Damasio 1995) Emotional Design, Norman describes why “attractive things work better.” He explains how attractive products trigger our creativity and ultimately expand our mental processes, making us more tolerant of minor difficulties. What he is saying is that attractive products(or images) make problem-solving easier, which makes them absolutely essential. Studies show better looking products actually work better.
Things that can make good design and bad design Visual Cues: Color Sound Big words Texture Usability Readability ‘Style’ Shape Overall engagement Entertainment and engagement Humor and lightheartedness Patterns and dissonance Recognition and familiarity Relationship and tone
Research ROBERT PLUTCHIK He suggested 8 primary bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. Like colors, primary emotions can be expressed at different intensities and can mix with one another to form different emotions.
Anticipation Interest
Suprise Amazement
Colour/Symbolism Sunshine- Happiness, excitement, freedom. Rain- Dreary colour palette, evokes sadness and loneliness. Fog & Mist- Mystery, fear anxiety. Vivid colours- Cheerfulness and happiness. Vivid colours that contrast can create tension and excitement. Muted colours- Calmness, peacefulness. More shadows and darker colours- Mystery, suspense, gloom or fear. Less contrast and shadows- Calmness and serenity.
Layout Busy backgrounds- conveys a sense of urgency, tension or confusion. Lots of negative space- peacefulness and sometimes loneliness. Far away subject- isolation, loneliness and unfamiliarity. Subject at eye level- natural familiar feel, connection. Subject from lower angle- ominous, powerful. Subject from higher angle- Smaller and more vulnerable.
Layout Tension can be created through exaggerated forms, colours and textures. Broken expectation creates tension. Narrative triggers stories in viewer’s mind. Emotionally connects them. Unfamiliar or out of context things captures attention and evokes interest. The greater the intensity of an emotion, the greater the interest and attention. Inconsistency requires processing to understand and provokes resolve. Symmetry = order, predictability, completeness, attraction. Obscure/asymmetrical = chaos, unrest.
“Often a person’s most loved object may well be inexpensive trinkets, frayed furniture, or photographs and books, often tattered, dirty or faded. A favourite object is a symbol, setting up a positive frame of mind, a reminder of pleasant memories or sometimes an expression of oneself. And this object always has a story, a remembrance, and something that ties us personally to this particular object, this particular thing.� (Norman, 2004)
“Your brain naturally adapts to repeated experiences. People tend to pay less attention to familiar things. Scientists have shown that the biggest responses always come with the least expected event “He picked up the hammer and the nail” gives a tiny response; change the last few words “He picked up the hammer and ate it” and you’ll see a much larger one.”
Context Changes The Emotions
People think using pictures.
John Berger writes in Ways of Seeing (Penguin Books, 1972), "Seeing
comes before words.
The child looks and recognizes before it can speak." Dr. Lynell Burmark, Ph.D. Associate at the Thornburg Center for Professional Development and writer of several books and papers on visual literacy, said,
"...unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory where we can only retain about 7 bits of information. Pictures interact with text to produce levels of comprehension and memory that can exceed what is produced by text alone."
Propaganda
Product in response The practical element could be a guide for visual communicators on how to evoke certain emotions in their work in reference to colour, layout, texture, pattern, symbols, signifiers and usability. Or a set of posters that have been informed by my research each evoking different emotions.
Difficulties Is it specific enough? How could I do primary research?