Join us as HBO hosts the IA/UX Meetup with Brian Cugelman, PhD. He will discuss how to design technologies that are more satisfying and persuasive, through applying simple strategies based on psychology and neuroscience. You’ll enjoy a quick overview of Brian’s latest research on the neurochemistry of user cognition, emotion and behavior, with a focus on practical applications for websites, apps and digital campaigns. Brian will discuss the intersection between emotion and technology, and show you how to translate a few simple concepts from psychology and neuroscience into interactive design strategies and practices. Seattle Information Architecture & User Experience Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/SeattleUX/events/235001579/

1. The Psychology Behind
Emotional Design and IA
Seattle Information Architecture & UX Meetup
alterspark.comBrian Cugelman, PhD

2. Who’s this guy?
Brian Cugelman, PhD

3. Schemas of space and
information architecture
3

4. How is it, that people can understand information architectures
4
Danaher B.G., McKay, H.G., The Information Architecture of Behavior Change Websites. J Med
Internet Res 2005;7(2): e12. URL: http://www.jmir.org/2005/2/e12/
Hierarchical
Matrix
HybridTunnel

5. Ever wondered about the language of information architecture
5
You’re “on”
this page
You’re “in”
this page
You’re “at”
this page

6. How about processes
6
<< Backward Forward >>

7. Clues to understanding comprehension,
in the language of prepositions
7
In a survey of 53 languages Haspelmath found that all of them,
without exception, employ spatial expressions for temporal notions.
On
Under Behind
In front
Next to

8. Time is space metaphor (schema)
8
Space (3 dimensions) Time (1 dimension)
She’s at the corner She arrived at 1:30
Her book is on the table Her birthday is on Monday/October
6th
Her coat is in the closet She left in the morning/July/the
summer/2003
She left her keys somewhere around
her desk
She had dinner around 6:30
She planted flowers between the tree
and the bush
She likes to run between 4:00 and
5:00
She ran through the forest She worked through the evening
She hung the chandelier over the
table
She worked over 8 hours
She swept the crumbs under the rug She worked under 8 hours
She painted the picture in her studio She painted the picture in an hour
Kemmerer, David. "The spatial and temporal meanings of English prepositions can be
independently impaired." Neuropsychologia 43.5 (2005): 797-806.

9. Can the time-is-space metaphor help us understand IA
9
Space Time IA
She’s at the corner She arrived at 1:30 ?
Her book is on the table Her birthday is on Monday/October 6th ?
Her coat is in the closet She left in the morning/July/the
summer/2003
?
She left her keys somewhere
around her desk
She had dinner around 6:30 ?
She planted flowers between the
tree and the bush
She likes to run between 4:00 and 5:00 ?
She ran through the forest She worked through the evening ?
She hung the chandelier over
the table
She worked over 8 hours ?
She swept the crumbs under the
rug
She worked under 8 hours ?
She painted the picture in her
studio
She painted the picture in an hour ?

10. How users understand special relationships:
Egocentric V.s. Allocentric Spatial Processing
10
AllocentricEgocentric

11. Let’s borrow the language of space and time, to help users
understand virtual space and processes
11
AfterDuring
<<<
Previous
Prior
>>>
Next
Following
Starting Started Stopping StoppedProgressing
At this step
On this page
Before

12. Emotional design psychology
and neuroscience
12

13. Evoking emotion to encourage target outcomes
Intended
Unintended
Positive
Outcome
Negative
Outcome
TARGET OUTCOME
The outcome we are
trying to achieve.
DARK PATTERN
Practices that are illegal, unethical or
may be perceived as manipulation.
BACKFIRE RISK
Unwanted outcomes, including the
opposite behavior or other
negative consequences.
UNEXPECTED BENEFITS
Good outcomes that
emerge by luck, but which
are good accidents.
Stibe, A. & Cugelman, B. (2016, in press) Persuasive Backfiring: When Behavior Change Interventions Trigger Unintended Negative
Outcomes. PERSUASIVE 2016, LNCS 9638, Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. pp. 1–13, 2016. DOI:
10.1007/978-3-319-31510-2_6

14. Different perspective on human behavior
Black box
Infer
psychological
constructs
Input Output
Psychology
Tell me the psychological
constructs within the black-box,
based on theories about what
shapes behavior.
Black box
Ignore brain or
mind
Inputs Output
Behavioral science
Show me what has been
empirically proven to shape
behavior. But don’t tell me what
you think is in the black box.
Grey box
Observe brain
& biological
systems
Input Output
Neuroscience
Show me the neural structures, of
the nervous system, that have
some links to inputs and outputs.
Show me the structure of the
black box, even if it’s an
incomplete map.

15. Where do we get our strategies to describe interactive design
and UI
15
Psychological
Neurological
Behavioral science
Industry lingo
 Anticipating reward
 Feeling confident  Motivating goal
 Boosting self-efficacy
 Triggering the reward system
 No fight-or-flight reaction
 Value prop
 Trust bling

16. The Emotion-Behavior Model
16

17. Anatomical sub-divisions of the brain and pop psychology
17
Forebrain
Midbrain
Hindbrain
Spinal cord
Embryonic vertebrate brain Adult human brain
Intellect
Emotion
Survival systems
Communication network
Several pop-psychologists describe neural processes through
generalizations about the major brain divisions.
There’s some truth to these simplifications, but lots of distortion too.
We’ll introduce a model that describes the major neural processes relevant to emotion and behavior.

18. 18Leonardo Restivo - hippocampal picture, in the Frankland Lab, Hospital for Sick Children
Let’s look at interactive design and
marketing, from a neurological perspective

19. The Emotion-Behavior Model (simple linear version)
By Cugelman and Restivo
19
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)
Decision making
Glucose consumption
Trigger
event
(external or
internal)
Fast
Effortless and pre-conscious
Low glucose consumption
Slow
Requires conscious effort
High glucose consumption

20. Trigger events and sense perception
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Trigger events are
perceived through
our senses. People
may have up to 20
senses.
Eyes will focus
on the most
prominent parts
of the page

21. Perception, interpretation & association
21
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)
Information is classified and compared with
schemas
Schemas simplify the world, enabling us to
deal with a vast amount of information, in a
compact format
Without schemas, our senses would
overload our consciousness with too much
information
Prior associations with the schemas, prime
users for their response

22. Schemas help users understand UI elements,
shaping their UX
22
Concepts learned in one part of life…. …aids comprehension in another.

23. Emotional reaction
What is an emotion?
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)

24. Emotional rewards and punishments
Kenrick, Douglas T., et al. "Renovating the pyramid of needs contemporary extensions built upon ancient
foundations." Perspectives on psychological science 5.3 (2010): 292-314.
Loss aversion (-=)
What we avoid
Incentives (+=)
What we desire
Pleasurable
opportunities
that I must
pursue!
Painful threats
that I must
avoid!

25. Biology of personality and motivating emotions
2525
Serotonin
Oxytocin
Endorphin
Vasopressin
Testosterone
Dopamine
Cortisol
Norepinephrine
Glucose
Prolactin
Each chemical impacts user emotion, cognition & behavior
Estrogen

26. Emotional reaction
Lally, P., Van Jaarsveld, C. H., et al. (2010). "How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world." European Journal of Social
Psychology 40(6): 998-1009.
Walking for 10 minutes
after breakfast
Habits (automaticity) forms in roughly 2-months
It takes from 18 to 254 days to form a new behavior
to feels automatic, averaging 66 days.
Automaticity
Attempted
behavior
Trigger
(or conditioned
stimulus)
Reinforcement
Days
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)

27. Perception,
interpretation &
association
Change the schemas
Emotional reaction
If we can catch an emotion before it takes over, we can change its impact by
changing the way we look at a situation.
If you can’t change a situation, you can change how you feel about it.
Cognitive
appraisal
1. Act on the
impulses without
awareness
2. Consciously
reassess
impulses
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)

28. Decision making and neurochemistry
28
Serotonin
Dopamine
Cortisol
Threat (-)
What we avoid
Opportunity (+)
What we desire
 Cognitive learning based
on past positive outcomes
 Emotional driver of
behavior through
anticipation of reward
 Cognitive learning based on
past negative outcomes
 Cognitive learning of schema
violations
 Emotional inhibition of risky
behavior
 Emotional booster:
amplifying fear of a threat
 Emotional booster:
amplifying fear of losing
an opportunity

29. Emotional reaction
Glucose = fuel for cells
Sense
perception
Schemas &
Learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal &
Cognition
Behavior
(deliberate)
Glucose consumption
What interactive
design practices
can speed-up or
slow-down
glucose depletion?

30. Emotional reaction
Sense
perception
Schemas, &
learned
associations
Emotional
reaction
Behavior
(habitual)
Cognitive
appraisal
Behavior
(deliberate)

31. Triggering emotions
31

32. Hello
32

33. You look
wonderful
today
33

34. I’m so
happy to
see you
34

35. How do you feel about a
slide deck that welcomes
and flatters you?
35

36. Oxytocin

37. Oxytocin
37
• How to trigger: Facial
recognition, social bonds,
interaction with others, physical
touch
• Emotional impact: Feeling
trust, friendly, connected,
jealous, territorial, possessive
• Behavioral impact: Acting on
trust, loyalty behavior, or
distrust, jealousy and defensive
hostility
BACKFIRE RISK
The pain of oxytocin is felt physically,
and may trigger jealousy, territorial
behavior, and the pain of social loss.

38. Oxytocin and personality/emotional associations
Social perception
• Empathy (Reading other people’s emotions)
• Social memory of faces
• Social memory of words
Relationships
• Attachment
• Attachment anxiety
• Separation pain
Tribal behavior
• In-group trust and cooperation
• Out-group distrust and antagonism
Social comparison
• Jealousy
• Envy
38

39. Authenticity and Nielsen Norman Group’s eye tracking study
People Photos = Good
(If They're Real People)
• Pictures that are ignored:
Typically for big feel good types of
images that are purely decorative
• Pictures that are scrutinized:
Photos of real products and
people (as opposed to stock
photos of models)
39
Can your users spot an
authentic smile in you images?

40. Source effect where the psychology of branding
and human-computer-interaction merge
40
Social psychology applies to humans, brands and technology
Hypothesis: Oxytocin help explain the media equation phenomena

41. Users can interact with many types of sources
Companies
Technology
People
Pets
Brands
Embodied agent
41

42. Levels of brand humanization
42
Human brand
Human at forefront
Semi-human brand
Human & corporate paring
Non-human brand
Corporate identity

43. Oxytocin’s impact on human-brand relationships
43
Commitment
Intimacy
Satisfaction
Self-
connection
Trust
Loyalty
Warm and sociable personality
Lower autism quotient scores
Oxytocin increases these brand traits
Scientists & engineering personality
Higher autism quotient scores
Oxytocin decreases these brand traits
Fürst, Andreas, et al. (2015). The neuropeptide oxytocin
modulates consumer brand relationships. Scientific reports 5

44. Oxytocin and brand relationships
(high/low autism-spectrum quotient)
44
Fürst, A., Thron, J., Scheele, D., Marsh, N., & Hurlemann, R. (2015). The neuropeptide oxytocin modulates consumer brand
relationships. Scientific reports, 5.
Mathematicians, scientists and engineers

45. 45
AlterSpark and Kanetix study

46. Conversion pipelines in practice
Home page Quoter
Pg. x
Quoter
Pg. y
Quoter
Pg. z
Quote
retrieval
Quote
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad

47. Flo from Progressive

48. Little Knight from BelairDirect

49. Source psychology strategies
Sociable
Confidence
Eye Contact
Directional
Cues
 Friendly and approachable
 Expression of confidence. Flo with her hands on the hip.
Little Knight with his shield/sword
 Making eye contact to pull in users
 Using body position or pointing at the Call To Action
 Directing users to answer the question “What do I do
next?” or “What is the main goal of this page”
Pronouns
 Lots of “you” and “we” language used to strengthen the social
bond
Positive Social
Endorsements
 Brand mascots uses facial expressions and body
language to encourage and endorse user behavior. e.g.
ok and thumbs up

50. Thanks so much
50
Stay in touch:
www.alterspark.com
brian@alterspark.com
(416) 858-2055