Tragic Design

Chapter 4. Design Can Sadden

There’s a wide array of emotions to take into consideration when designing. Most are a lot more subtle than the anger and frustration we discussed in the previous chapter: sadness, self-blame, humiliation, exclusion, sorrow, grief, discomfort, heartache, boredom, etc. Yet, we rarely hear about any of these. Why are anger and frustration often the only emotions being measured by companies? First, the tools and scales generally used to collect information on users’ behavior are not appropriate: they don’t allow for proper emotional data collection. Second, the best way to understand how people feel is, well, by actually asking them. Unfortunately, this qualitative information is often considered less important and significant than hard quantitative data.

In this chapter, we will explore the different ways we can cause emotional harm to our users by making poor design decisions. Later, we will look at tools to avoid making these errors and to successfully convince all stakeholders in our projects that the emotions felt by our users are important.

The “Dribbblelisation” of Our Users

In the experiences we create, our aim is to delight, to bring joy and value—the goal is always a positive one. That’s why designers need to be optimistic to do their jobs. So it’s no surprise that we often fail to design for user failure when designing for real users and their very real lives. For examples of this, just take a look at all the concepts on popular websites that showcase ...