Importance of Feelings in Web Design

“Communication is key” — You’ve heard it before. Whether you’re thinking about your last relationship, current friendships, or that fight you got into with your mother ages ago, a quick reflection can probably bring you to the resolution that communication is in fact key.

The reason for this is that everyone perceives situations, ideas, and actions differently. One thing that may seem amazing to you, may look horrible to someone else. Therefore, as humans, it’s important that we not only communicate with one another but also work to understand the reasoning behind each of our perceptions.

A designer’s job is to create solutions that not only look appealing but also serve a greater purpose. As discussed previously, the first step in the design process is Empathize.

Empathizing allows you to level with your clients/users and sense a greater understanding of their needs. This step is vital because it helps you create a solution that will not only be visually appealing but also be effective, which is arguably more important.

Let’s take a closer look…

Starbucks V.S. Dunkin

These are two leading companies in the coffee industry and they have been competitors for dozens of years now. In order to understand how effective a company’s user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) is, we can compare them by seeing how a user feels when using the site. We can do this on our own with these very sites.

In the above presentation, I deeply analyzed both the Starbucks and Dunkin websites and observed how I felt looking at and using their sites.