How Emotional Design Shapes User Relationships and Behavior

Whether designing a website or a physical object, the relationship we form with a product depends on how useful, usable, and delightful it feels, mirroring how we build relationships with people.

As user‑experience professionals, we aim to create engaging experiences that foster strong bonds between users and the products they use.

Delightful products are attractive and make us feel good, just like charismatic people.

Usable products are easy to interact with and understand, similar to talkative individuals.

Useful products meet our needs and provide long‑term emotional satisfaction, fulfilling physiological, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs.

What Is Emotional Design?

Emotional design seeks to capture user attention and trigger conscious or unconscious emotional responses to increase the likelihood of a desired behavior, such as clicking a button, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase.

For example, a bright‑colored button can subconsciously attract attention by raising arousal levels, prompting the user to act.

Attention

Attention is a form of psychological energy; without it, no work can be done, and work consumes it. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) described a state of complete focus on the current activity as “flow,” a highly immersive experience that narrows user attention.

Designs must use appearance and sound to attract users, persuade them toward or away from actions, and communicate with them. Properly designed interactions guide users through a sequence of actions while giving them a sense of control.

These moments mark the formation of a relationship between the user and the product or application.

Emotional Dimensions

Emotions can be described along two underlying dimensions: value (positive‑negative judgment) and arousal (physiological activation). Value reflects whether something feels pleasant; arousal reflects the level of unconscious activation, measurable via heart rate, breathing, etc.

Because arousal is largely unconscious, designers can manipulate it to control attention and behavior. Large images, bright saturated colors, and high contrast raise arousal, narrowing attention to the most salient elements—much like a bright red stop sign catches drivers’ eyes.

In product development, this often creates tension between design, marketing, and usability: marketers boost arousal with vivid visuals, while usability analysts aim to keep arousal at a level that supports task completion without negative emotions.

Behavioral Dimension

The value dimension influences whether we approach (pleasure) or avoid (pain) an object, while arousal influences our motivation to act. Both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli can raise arousal; higher arousal intensifies emotional experience and demands more attention, affecting motivation.

In the SUV example, the annoying beeping is a negative value stimulus that triggers avoidance. Increasing its volume or frequency raises arousal, strengthening the motivation to stop the sound.

Emotion and Personality

Humans perceive emotional expressions in any object, including products and websites. Over time, repeated emotional cues become perceived personality traits of the product. A product’s “personality” is the long‑term expression of specific emotions.

We assign personality traits based on visual, auditory, and interactive cues, even though we know inanimate objects lack consciousness. This perceived personality influences how users feel—happy, angry, relaxed, motivated—when interacting with the product.

Personality Traits and Relationships

Personality impressions are formed quickly and unconsciously from sensory inputs such as layout, color, typography, and sound. These impressions guide users’ attraction to or avoidance of a product, similar to interpersonal relationships.

Unlike human personalities, product personalities can be deliberately designed, making them more consistent, recognizable, and easier to align with user expectations.

Dimensions of Personality

Psychologists often map product personality onto two primary dimensions: dominant vs. submissive and friendly vs. unfriendly.

Visual cues such as sharp, dark, heavy elements suggest dominance, while round, warm, bright elements suggest submissiveness.

Designing Personality: Dominant or Submissive?

Dominant visual traits include angular, direct, cold, dark colors; submissive traits include round, warm, bright, soft designs. Users tend to perceive products lacking strong dominant cues as more submissive.

Designers can match a product’s visual personality to the target audience’s own personality to increase attraction.

Friendly vs. Unfriendly

Friendly designs convey positivity through both content and tone, while unfriendly designs convey negativity. Visual weight, color, size, and typography can alter the perceived meaning of the same message.

Similarity and Complementarity

Similarity theory suggests people are drawn to others (or products) with similar personalities; complementarity theory suggests attraction to those whose dominant/submissive levels complement one’s own. Both play roles at different relationship stages.

Conclusion

Emotions control attention, and emotional design deliberately captures attention and triggers emotional responses to increase the likelihood of desired user actions.

The value dimension of emotion influences approach or avoidance behavior, while the arousal dimension drives motivation. Over time, emotional expressions are perceived as personality traits, shaping how users view friendliness and dominance.

Ultimately, useful, usable, and delightful experiences foster strong relationships between users and products.