Emotions provide incredibly valuable information
about the world to help us prioritize our attention
and to be efficient about decision-making.
Identifying what feels "good"
and what feels "bad" has major utility
from an evolutionary perspective,
which is why you can find emotional responses
in both human and non-human organisms.
Don Norman defined how designs
can influence people's emotions
and identified three different levels
of emotional processing.
Each level reflecting increasing complexity
in cognitive development and intelligence.
The first, most basal level of emotional processing
is the visceral level, which consists of unconscious,
instinctive affective responses to external stimuli,
completely unrelated to reasoning.
Many life forms experience this emotional processing,
including algae, which will gravitate
toward favorable living conditions like sunlight
and will avoid less favorable living conditions
like low light areas.
Some human examples include
when you smell freshly baked cookies,
you might feel cozy or start to get hungry
at the promise of tasty food
or, a really loud noise goes off nearby (horn blowing),
it might startle you, make you anxious
or make your heart rate go up.
It's important to note while the word "visceral"
is often used to describe the intensity of an emotion,
visceral in this case is independent of emotional intensity
and more focused on the source of the emotion,
instinct and involuntary responses.
The next level of emotional processing
is the behavioral level,
which is an analysis of an experience,
translated into an action or a response
to the use or experience of a product or service.
Some non-human life forms that experience this, dogs.
My dog Finley loves to hang out in our dining room
because the windows are at perfect dog height
for him to sit and watch the birds and squirrels go by.
No stairs, no jumping, what a life.
So the behavioral level is all about comfort
or ease of use or negative consequences.
For example, if the self-checkout line
at a grocery store happens quickly and seamlessly,
I might be pleasantly surprised
by how easy that was and come back
to that checkout line next time.
Or a scarier example,
if my computer crashes and I lose hundreds of hours of work,
I might be appalled, furious, panicked
that I have to redo all that work again.
See?
Intensity of emotion is extremely high
but happening at the behavioral level
because I'm analyzing the consequences of that experience.
Finally, the highest level
of emotional processing is the reflective level,
which consists of conscious thought,
interpretation and reasoning.
Usually a statement of self-image.
This is where self-awareness,
consciousness of ourselves and our surroundings
and what we want other people
to think of us comes into play,
where we examine who we are in relation to others.
For example, if I get upgraded to first class
and I get to board the plane before everyone else,
yeah, now everyone else gets to watch me make my way
to this well-deserved seat that I earned.
I might feel very important as a customer,
perhaps more important than other customers
and think others find me important.
On the other hand, if my boss realizes
my unread email account in my inbox
has surpassed socially acceptable levels.
Wow, did I really just say that on an NN/g video?
Now, my boss will think I'm incredibly irresponsible
and have poor email hygiene, awkward.
Anyway, you get the point.
Reflective processing refers to the ability
to reflect on your experiences
and how they relate to you and your self-image.
Why is it useful to know these?
For starters, they can help you identify the best way
to mitigate negative emotions or enhance positive ones.
If we know an emotion is happening at the visceral level,
no amount of reasoning with
or providing contextual information
will help us avert or enhance those emotions.
Instead, our time might be better spent
on helping avoid triggers
of negative responses altogether,
or simply enhancing the stimulus
that cause the positive emotion.
If an emotion is happening at the behavioral level,
we know that it's a matter of managing expectations
or adhering to standards and conventions.
And we can influence that
by providing usability improvements.
The reflective level might have less to do
with usability improvements and more to do with messaging.
Maybe we can remind people what their behaviors
are helping to accomplish or why certain steps
must be taken to ensure the well-being of others.
In short, understanding how emotions are processed
can help us come up with solutions that work
with the way people think and not against it.