emotion, design, and autonomy: a tangled web

Photo by Frances Gunn on Unsplash

Emotion has been in my feeds a lot, recently. To be honest, I’m having a bit of a visceral reaction to these stories, which seem to follow a common template:

1. Emotion is important
   Emotion drives our decisions (often at an unconscious level), affects our memory, increases our engagement, and keeps us coming back for more. It unites us and divides us and it literally shapes our worlds.
2. Emotion-driven design is the future
   Given the vital power of emotion, products/services/spaces/companies etc. that fully understand the emotional landscape and journey of the user/our staff (and inject delight) will be the ones to really succeed. Emotionally-aware designs and workplaces aren’t just inevitable — they’re essential.
3. Emotional monitoring is a given
   We need to use every tool at our disposal to create these top-level experiences/performances, which means systems that can capture, classify, and react to our user’s/staff’s emotions, in real time. It will create a seamless relationship where we really do know the user/worker, and therefore we can give them exactly what they need, before they know they need it, or help them to be their best (most productive) selves.

I agree with #1, I start to get queasy at #2, and I’m ready to run out of the room screaming at #3.