When a person’s mind opens to an experience, it’s like a floodgate opens–a river of meaning begins to flow into the mind. This meaning appeals not only to our cognitive sensibilities (how we think about things) but also to our emotional sensibilities (how we feel about things). In A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication, Dr. Richard Harris describes emotion:
"There are two components of emotion, the physiological, and the cognitive. When we are aroused, there are certain changes in our bodies, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and changes in electrodermal (skin) measures. We also think about our feelings and attribute causes and interpretations to them. The emotions we feel are a product of both our bodily state and our cognitive appraisal of that state."
01.03.01 It’s impossible to design effective Web experiences without taking human emotion into consideration.
Emotion is a big part of who we are and how we interpret the world around us. If an organization makes a Web enterprise easy to navigate, an individual might have a good experience. If an organization makes a Web enterprise easy to relate to, however, the way is cleared for an individual to have an even greater experience because he or she is able to participate emotionally with the Web enterprise. Dr. Harris continues:
"Emotions are an integral part of the appreciation of media…What we feel while watching or listening is a central part of the whole [experience]. If the emotional aspect is absent, we miss an important dimension of the experience."
In The Media Equation, Reeves and Nass state:
"Media have evolved to capitalize on fundamental human responses to them.… By trial and error, people who design media are gradually discovering the intricacies of how media work [on the human psyche.]"
It’s inevitable that Web enterprises will come to embrace emotional design sensibilities such as those that have evolved in television and in other media industries. In the case of the Web, however, it shouldn’t have to come through as much "trial and error" as has been the case with traditional media. There are well-established psychological principles in television, radio, and print mediums that, according to Dr. Richard Harris, "…apply equally well to all media." Dr. Harris concludes:
"Our relationship with the media is…profound. [This] is precisely because it meets some of our deepest psychological needs and contributes naturally to our ongoing psychological development."
01.03.02 The Web is a vehicle for emotional fulfillment.
The Web can help us complete tasks more efficiently, but what is perhaps of even greater significance is that it can make us feel more complete emotionally. We look to the Web to help us find this emotional completion in many ways:
- We’re empty and seek fulfillment.
- We’re overburdened and seek enjoyment.
- We’re under-stimulated and seek intensity.
- We’re underwhelmed with our own lives and seek catharsis.
- We feel ordinary and seek to experience the emotions of a life that’s more dramatic.
01.03.03 We seek to fill an emotional void on the Web.
All people who go online are seeking the same thing–every single one of us. Perhaps you’re thinking, "That’s not true! With all the possibilities on the Web, how can we possibly know what an individual person is seeking?" It’s true that there are variations in the primary needs, but there’s a commonality in the secondary need.
All people seeking a restaurant to spend an evening at, for example, are seeking the same secondary fulfillment. They may feel like eating steak, or they may be in the mood for good conversation–two very tangible and distinguishable desires. They do, none the less, have the same secondary desire–the emotional fulfillment that accompanies the process of satisfying these primary needs. Although many Web enterprises may represent restaurants that offer the sametangible opportunities for consumptive or social fulfillment–which are primary–the ones that speaks to the "feel like" and "in the mood for" components of the need will generate the greatest response.
The reason is that people go online to find more than mere tangible items like information about places that serve great steak or that provide environments conducive to good conversation. They go online to build emotional confidence that the choices that they’re making will lead to the fulfillment that they believe these tangible choices will bring them. It’s not merely a practical hunger that they’re trying to satisfy but an emotional hunger as well. They wonder, "If I choose this restaurant, will I have a good time?"
When considering Web experience design, it’s the quality of our effort to identify, amplify, and satisfy these emotional hungers that will ultimately lead people to choose our Web enterprises in the search to fill their primary needs.
01.03.04 We seek enjoyment on the Web.
These days, life is very stressful. We work our minds as hard in the information age as our forefathers worked their bodies in the industrial age. Our brains are very active analyzing, experimenting, problem solving, and reflecting (trying to make sense of things) all day long. It’s important to understand that, although our computers are great "business tools," when we go online our computers play more than just a business role. They suddenly become windows by which we travel through time and space to take in the experiences that the universe has to offer.
Although we may have practical tasks to perform, there’s a part of us that wants to transform these tasks into opportunities to have fun. We want to find, tap into, and pursue interests that are more than just practical, even if they are, well–practical. When we talk about the "entertainment value" of an online resource, we’re talking about the degree to which a Web enterprise makes routine operations rise above the level of the mundane–even if the purpose of the Web enterprise is not necessarily to entertain.
