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 jw@brilliantexperience.com linkedin.com/in/johnwhalen

Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience