Design for Humans

A book about emotions, design and startups

I find the request of making a design be personal and have a ‘human element’ to be pretty frequent at both my full time work and in freelancing. It’s interesting how some startups can have this said human element that grabs your attention quickly; it’s a pretty powerful element to have. With that said, I’ve done some thinking and researching in order to put into words what it takes to design with human beings in mind.

In this book I will break apart what it takes to create emotional design on a personal level. Keep in mind that his book will deal a lot of what it’s like to work as a design at a start up too and what you can incorporate in your design process to leverage emotional design.

What will you learn?

1.Humans always come first

Way too often I hear that a design needs to be personal. Designers are often asked to implement a human connection within a design. Okay fine, but how does one do this?

2. Why are emotions important?

Emotions are how connections are made; it’s how we humans make relationships. Therefore, emotional design is there to foster a relationship between the audience and the product.

3. Social psychology online

We have an innate desire to belong, to be part of a social group. Let's explore what that means for online products.

4. Simple is always better

Stick to one message and one emotion. The simplest of designs have the biggest impacts.

Table of content

• What does it take to connect with your audience?
  The concept of emotional design
• Emotions are how humans build connection
  Emotional design is underrated
  With or without emotions
• Psychology of simplicity and expectation
  Cognitive fluency
  Affordance in digital interfaces
  Clarity above all else
  The hallmark of good design
• Social psychology uses in design
  Explicit versus implicit norms
  Salting your own tip jar
  Waiting lists and hazing
  The bestselling and the most popular
  Testimonials
  Immediate vs anticipated emotions
  The ease of selling to existing customers
• Humans like to look at other humans
  Draw attention
  Helps us relate
  Guide line of sight
  Create trust and authority
  Visualize emotions
  Using a mascot and resembling a face
• The personality layer
  404 pages
  FAQ/Support
  Loading screen
  Signup flow
  Search bars
• Selling feelings over products
  We don’t care for things
  Selling one emotion at a time
• Finding emotional design at a start up
  Work as a team
  Reflect on company culture
  Be the designer
• What makes your team great?