Presented in New York at IXDA-NYC 03-20-2015 Startups and large organizations alike have to be nimble and react to market change faster than ever. The entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs within these organizations know that, but don’t always have the right methods at their disposal to be successful. Our team has increasingly been asked to support these innovators and their teams to create exceptional User Experience Designs and gain organizational support of the process. Emergent UX is a process we use to (1) deeply understand the users’ currently unmet needs on a cognitive, behavioral and emotional level, (2) create an open platform for innovation using the best of User-Centered Design, Design Thinking, and Lean Startup, and (3) gather critical insights about stakeholders and harness persuasive psychology to positively align the team on goals, ultimately nurturing both the product and the team behind it.

1. Emergent UX:
Seducing the six minds
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience
John Whalen, PhD
UX Lead, Brilliant
President, UXPA-DC

2. Introduction

3. 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

4. Brilliant Experience Psychology + Innovation + Design
User Psychology Research UX Strategy + Innovation UX Design

5. Brilliant Experience Psychology + Innovation + Design

6. Why care about user experience design?

8. 18,000%
more
sold

9. Don’t even
ask!

10. Why keep innovating the user experience?

13. What defines the user experience?

14. Responsive Page Layout?

15. What is User Experience?
The look and feel?

16. What is User Experience? The interaction
design?

17. NONE OF THESE
UX doesn’t happen on a screen.

18. UX happens in the mind.

19. UX is multi-dimensional and multi-sensory.
Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory / SemanticsEmotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making

20. Introducing:
Emergent User Experience

21. 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/

22. 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.

23. Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory / SemanticsEmotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making

24. Vision / Attention
‣ What visual features are drawing attention?
‣ What words or objects are they searching for?
‣ What is the visual flow?
Vision / Attention

25. Where do the eye’s go first on this page?
[Not clear to me either!]

26. Do you want to give them your credit card?
[I did! The things you do for your kids!]

27. Don’t adjust your TV set. This is a Gaussian blur
to show you what your visual system uses…

28. …to decide where your eyes move to next. A good
test for your site too.

29. Where do you look first on this site we designed?

30. We used the visual features to draw you to the
picture and the primary message (and sign up)

31. Wayfinding
‣ What is cuing spatial “you are here”?
‣ How do they expect to “move in space”?
‣ What are the expected interactions?
Wayfinding

32. Which site has the clearer interaction model for
picking a flight?

33. What is each asking you to do? Which is simpler?
More engaging?

36. We made it very clear what was on the page, and
where you could go. We like persistent navigation

37. We measure behavior in order to really understand
how users will interact with a site.

38. Memory / Semantics
‣ What mental schemas are being activated?
‣ What to they think of when thinking of ______?
Memory / Semantics

39. Maybe you thought your colleague would take you
here for a drink.

40. If you were thinking here, you might think
something very different might happen…

41. Luxury
RoyalTreatment
Willingtopaymore
WhatyouwantwheneFlyawayatwhim
DefineLuxury
LimoatAirport
MassageShoeShine
BestRestaurants
Everyoneatatouchofabutton
ExoticFoods
Pam
pered
First Class
Cabin
Elite Status
Love it. Easy to get spo
Love it
Feel special
Well treated
Aspire to do/get
Travel aroun
Surfing
Seaboard
Life Style
Non-Travel
Crossfit
Volunteer
Triathlon
Symphony
Opera
nner with Friends
Movies
Brands
Virgin
Am
erica
Ritz
M
arriott
M
andarin
Shangri-La
Mercedes
NeimanMarcusFerigammo
Services
Housekeeper
Gardiner
Contractor
Lazy,SleepIn
This is why we measure semantics and understand
what each person thinks something means…
Gardener

42. This works great for consumers, but businesses
want to see “duty cycle.” Very different semantics!

43. Emotion
‣ What responses are being triggered?
‣ What are their biggest fears?
‣ How can we allay those fears and produce positive
experience?
Emotion

44. If you were a bit fearful of this…I wouldn’t blame
you and its an automatic reaction.

45. What concerns and fears do you need to overcome
before buying this $6,200 chair and ottoman?

46. 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!

47. Language
‣ Which terms are being used?
‣ What level of expertise does this imply?
‣ What is the right tone for our product?
Language

48. By analyzing transcripts, we can see very different
patterns of ideas across groups and design accordingly.

49. On this site we helped design, it helps beginners:
“everyone should try”…

50. …but this page for experts looks like there was a
nuclear winter with the “UNBREAKABLE”!

51. 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

52. Ever try to order at Cheesecake Factory?

53. This is just the menu for Cheesecake…
overwhelming! We take short cuts to decide.

54. Decision Making
Here we made it easy for people to decide. The
pictures tell the story of easy, medium, hard races.

55. Putting it all together…
Vision / AttentionLanguage
Memory /
Semantics
Emotion
Wayfinding
Decision Making

56. Decision Making
Language
Emotion
Vision / Attention
Memory & Semantics
Wayfinding

57. Summary - 3 Things to remember

58. UX doesn’t happen on a screen.

59. The unspoken is often the most seductive.
Emergent UX reveals what they can’t tell you.

60. Brilliant Experience
Design for the six minds

61. Thank you!
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience

62. John Whalen
jw@brilliantexperience.com
linkedin.com/in/johnwhalen
Psychology + Innovation + DesignBrilliant Experience