Feeling Over Function
For a long time, “good design” was defined by how easy something was to use. Clean interfaces, intuitive buttons, and logical layouts were considered the standard of UX. But usability alone doesn’t guarantee a meaningful experience.
Because in the end, user experience isn’t about what people do on a screen, it’s about how they feel while using it.
Design That Feels, Not Just Functions
In Design Is Storytelling, Ellen Lupton explains that design is emotional storytelling. Every interaction has a rhythm of anticipation, delight, and resolution to create a balance of usability and memorableness.
Donald Norman’s three levels of emotional design capture this perfectly:
Visceral: the instant sensory reaction or the “wow” factor of color, sound, or texture.
Behavioral: the feeling of control and flow when everything just works.
Reflective: the pride or identity we attach afterward, when we think ‘this feels like me’.
Norman reminds us that designers can’t directly create emotion, but they can offer small moments that invite connection, satisfaction, or surprise.
More Than Buttons and Menus
Great UX goes deeper than functionality. It’s not just about completing a task, rather it’s about crafting an emotional journey.
Think about the joy of opening Spotify Wrapped. The bright gradients, upbeat motion, and personalized stats make users feel seen and celebrated. That’s emotional design at work, turning data into a feeling of joy and nostalgia.
Color and tone play a huge role here. Psychologist Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions shows how core feelings like joy, trust, and anticipation blend to create complex moods. Designers use this emotional “palette” to decide how an interface should feel, not just how it should look.
Experiences Over Services
Pine and Gilmore’s Welcome to the Experience Economy describes how businesses no longer just sell products, rather experiences. For instance, Starbucks designs comfort and community, while Apple designs curiosity and connection. In both cases, design transforms something ordinary into something emotional.
True emotional design starts with empathy. It means asking, ‘what should this moment make the user feel?’, rather than, ‘what should they do next?’.
While usability solves problems, experience creates lasting meaning.
Where UX Is Headed
As technology becomes more automated, emotion becomes the most human advantage we have left. Usability is the baseline. What sets designs apart are the feelings they evoke such as trust, joy, pride, or community.
Designers today are not just making interfaces; they’re crafting experiences. The goal isn’t only to reduce problems, it’s to design moments worth feeling.
Usability gets someone through a task, but emotion brings them back. People don’t fall in love with interfaces, they fall in love with how those interfaces make them feel.
Hey, I’m Ashley!
I am a graphic & interactive designer passionate about creating purposeful, fun, and engaging design. Whether it’s a brand identity, a responsive website, or a social media campaign, I love connecting ideas with strategy to make work that’s not only beautiful, but effective.
