Great thoughts, Felix! I don't know if it's my Industrial Design training or my general outlook on life and products, but I've always thought along these lines, and you've expressed it perfectly!
Excellent post. I personally find myself often falling into the trap of trying to “humanise” design purely by visual and usability aspects. You’ve highlighted exactly what I’ve always felt was the missing soul in a lot of products that look and work great, but still feel off.
How can large tech organizations that were built for operational efficiency pivot toward measuring human feelings? This shift seems mostly political, and it raises another issue. Do we even have reliable tools for assessing the softer, less tangible aspects of experience?
Enjoyed this post! I like to believe we’re turning a corner on performance and growth at all costs. We’re building better tools, environments and products that make people better not turn them into dopamine addicts. I wonder if your org is doing something to optimize for this? Many people and teams are using your software to build tools. Is there a conscious attempt to provide output tools that are built on the supposition that tech should be kind? That’d be another groundbreaking move for Loveable. Consciously choosing to optimize your code generated for users with these design tenants backed in. Could be the next big wave, no giant apple style reveal needed. Just quite optimization of the next wave of startups.
Fully agree with you. I just wrote an article myself (on Medium) in which I propose a framework for how to adhere to the emotional needs of users in products: https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/providing-for-the-thrill-seeker-in-us-the-role-of-emotions-in-design-dc6f7c2ed92f (Sorry, not publishing on Substack - yet. But the article on Medium is freely available). You mention a lot of positive emotions, not so far from what Aaron Walter means when he talks about design for delight, but I think there are much more emotions involved when users use a product or what they expect of it, and some of them are mentioned in the article and organized in a hierarchy derived from Maslow's pyramid. Users have emotional needs and the more a product fulfills, or promises to fulfill those needs, the higher its perceived value.I have a background in game design and know that negative emotions play their part as well. For instance, feelings of achievement, closure and ownership (something you may want your work day with) are connected to frustration and anxiety: make things hard to make them more memorable.
Great thoughts, Felix! I don't know if it's my Industrial Design training or my general outlook on life and products, but I've always thought along these lines, and you've expressed it perfectly!
Excellent post. I personally find myself often falling into the trap of trying to “humanise” design purely by visual and usability aspects. You’ve highlighted exactly what I’ve always felt was the missing soul in a lot of products that look and work great, but still feel off.
Hi, Felix!
How can large tech organizations that were built for operational efficiency pivot toward measuring human feelings? This shift seems mostly political, and it raises another issue. Do we even have reliable tools for assessing the softer, less tangible aspects of experience?
Create a product that cares! I’m just curious about how would you track customer satisfaction?
Enjoyed this post! I like to believe we’re turning a corner on performance and growth at all costs. We’re building better tools, environments and products that make people better not turn them into dopamine addicts. I wonder if your org is doing something to optimize for this? Many people and teams are using your software to build tools. Is there a conscious attempt to provide output tools that are built on the supposition that tech should be kind? That’d be another groundbreaking move for Loveable. Consciously choosing to optimize your code generated for users with these design tenants backed in. Could be the next big wave, no giant apple style reveal needed. Just quite optimization of the next wave of startups.
Fully agree with you. I just wrote an article myself (on Medium) in which I propose a framework for how to adhere to the emotional needs of users in products: https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/providing-for-the-thrill-seeker-in-us-the-role-of-emotions-in-design-dc6f7c2ed92f (Sorry, not publishing on Substack - yet. But the article on Medium is freely available). You mention a lot of positive emotions, not so far from what Aaron Walter means when he talks about design for delight, but I think there are much more emotions involved when users use a product or what they expect of it, and some of them are mentioned in the article and organized in a hierarchy derived from Maslow's pyramid. Users have emotional needs and the more a product fulfills, or promises to fulfill those needs, the higher its perceived value.I have a background in game design and know that negative emotions play their part as well. For instance, feelings of achievement, closure and ownership (something you may want your work day with) are connected to frustration and anxiety: make things hard to make them more memorable.
Amazing and inspirational article. Thanks!
Things made with machine is working the same but just less beautiful.