Emergent UX: Seducing the six minds
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience
John Whalen, PhD UX Lead, Brilliant
President, UXPA-DC
Introduction
About John
PhD Cognitive Science Johns Hopkins University
Cognitive Neuroscience
Vision Science
Linguistics
John Whalen, PhD CEO, UX Lead
Post Doc. at UCLA during dot.com boom
Professor in Psychology
CEO, UX Lead Brilliant Experience
President, UXPADC
User Insights
Strategy
User Experience
Brilliant Experience Psychology + Innovation + Design
User Psychology Research UX Strategy + Innovation UX Design
Brilliant Experience Psychology + Innovation + Design
Why care about user experience design?
18,000% more sold
Don’t even ask!
Why keep innovating the user experience?
What defines the user experience?
Responsive Page Layout?
What is User Experience?The look and feel?
What is User Experience? The interactiondesign?
NONE OF THESE UX doesn’t happen on a screen.
UX happens in the mind.
UX is multi-dimensional and multi-sensory.Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory / SemanticsEmotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making
Introducing: Emergent User Experience
noun
Emergent user experience is the intersection of psychology and user experience innovation. It delivers a more in-depth understanding of human attention, memory, language, semantics, emotion and decision making to improve research, strategy and design. Emergent identifies and solves for optimal human experiences.
e⋅mer⋅gent us⋅er ex·pe·ri·ence/əˈmərjənt ˈyoozər ikˈspirēəns/
noun
Emergent user experience is the intersection of psychology and user experience innovation. It delivers a more in-depth understanding of human attention, memory, language, semantics, emotion and decision making to improve research, strategy and design. Emergent identifies and solves for optimal human experiences.
e⋅mer⋅gent us⋅er ex·pe·ri·ence/əˈmərjənt ˈyoozər ikˈspirēəns/
Translation:
The unspoken is often the most seductive.
Emergent UX reveals what they can’t tell you.
Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory / SemanticsEmotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making
Vision / Attention‣ What visual features are drawing attention? ‣ What words or objects are they searching for? ‣ What is the visual flow?
Vision / Attention
Where do the eye’s go first on this page?[Not clear to me either!]
Do you want to give them your credit card?[I did! The things you do for your kids!]
Don’t adjust your TV set. This is a Gaussian blur to show you what your visual system uses…
…to decide where your eyes move to next. A good test for your site too.
Where do you look first on this site we designed?
We used the visual features to draw you to the picture and the primary message (and sign up)
Wayfinding‣ What is cuing spatial “you are here”? ‣ How do they expect to “move in space”? ‣ What are the expected interactions?
Wayfinding
Which site has the clearer interaction model for picking a flight?
What is each asking you to do? Which is simpler? More engaging?
We made it very clear what was on the page, and where you could go. We like persistent navigation
We measure behavior in order to really understand how users will interact with a site.
Memory / Semantics‣ What mental schemas are being activated? ‣ What to they think of when thinking of ______?
Memory / Semantics
Maybe you thought your colleague would take you here for a drink.
If you were thinking here, you might think something very different might happen…
Kelly
Luxu
ry
Roya
l Tre
atm
entW
illing
to p
ay m
ore
Wha
t you
wan
t whe
neve
rFl
y aw
ay a
t whi
m
Defin
eLux
ury
Limo
at A
irpor
tM
assa
geSh
oe S
hine
Best
Resta
uran
ts
Every
one a
t a to
uch o
f a bu
tton
Exotic
Food
s
Pampe
red
First Clas
s Cab
in
Elite Status
Love it. Easy t
o get spoiled
Love it
Feel special
Well treated
Aspire to do/getTravel around the world
Surfing
Seaboard Cruise
Cards & Money
VacationSpend On
TennisCross FitHome ImprovementClothing
Eating Out90% Card UseDiscoverUnited Club Card
Amazon VISACostCo AMEX 5% Cash Back Holidays
Wor
ld V
iew
Most Important
Health & Family
Work-Life Balance
Relaxing on Vacation
Peace of Mind
Successful
Lucky to Have Job
Have Piece of Mind
Fortunate + Hard Working
Be Promoted
Afford Home
Improve Health
Mad
e It
Fina
ncia
l Goa
ls
Two
Hom
es, R
enta
ls
No W
orry
ing
Abou
t Bills
Wor
k-Li
fe B
alan
ce
Char
ities
Child
Can
cer
Mea
ls on
Whe
els
SF S
ymph
ony
Parki
nson
's
5-Yea
r Goa
ls
Vacati
on H
ouse
Intern
ation
al Tra
vel
Retirem
ent S
aving
sNew Car
New Home
Life Style
Travel
Palm SpringsLas VegasWine Country
Cars
Infinity G25Audi A4
MB C-ClassMB SLK
Non-TravelCrossfit
Volunteer
Triathlon
Symphony
Opera
Dinner with Friends
Movies
Brands
Virgin America
Ritz
MarriottMandarin
Shangri-LaMercedes
Neiman M
arcusFerigam
mo
Services
HousekeeperG
ardinerContractor
Lazy, Sleep In
This is why we measure semantics and understand what each person thinks something means…
Gardener
This works great for consumers, but businesses want to see “duty cycle.” Very different semantics!
Emotion‣ What responses are being triggered? ‣ What are their biggest fears? ‣ How can we allay those fears and produce positive
experience?
Emotion
If you were a bit fearful of this…I wouldn’t blame you and its an automatic reaction.
What concerns and fears do you need to overcome before buying this $6,200 chair and ottoman?
She’s looking at you. A little hair in her eyes. Bee-stung lips. Is her shirt buttoned all the way? Oh, but of course this page is about jewelry! No emotional content here!
Language‣ Which terms are being used? ‣ What level of expertise does this imply? ‣ What is the right tone for our product?
Language
By analyzing transcripts, we can see very different patterns of ideas across groups and design accordingly.
On this site we helped design, it helps beginners: “everyone should try”…
…but this page for experts looks like there was a nuclear winter with the “UNBREAKABLE”!
Decision Making‣ What is the problem space this person is working in? ‣ How taxed is their working memory? ‣ How much will they “satisfice”?
Decision Making
Ever try to order at Cheesecake Factory?
This is just the menu for Cheesecake…overwhelming! We take short cuts to decide.
Decision Making
Here we made it easy for people to decide. The pictures tell the story of easy, medium, hard races.
Putting it all together…Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory / Semantics
Emotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making
Decision Making
Language
Emotion
Vision / Attention
Memory & Semantics
Wayfinding
Summary - 3 Things to remember
UX doesn’t happen on a screen.
The unspoken is often the most seductive.
Emergent UX reveals what they can’t tell you.
Brilliant Experience
Design for the six minds
Thank you!
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience
John Whalen [email protected] linkedin.com/in/johnwhalen
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience
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