Using Emotional Design in Developing Economies

Since a child, I faced a lot of trouble in learning English. Being raised in the border, at Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, my parents decided to enroll me in an American school in El Paso, Texas at age nine, without any prior knowledge of English. I commuted everyday from one country to another.

Observing the cultural differences between the neighboring countries, I began to take an interest into multicultural activities and habits, which marked my professional career.

After 3 years of working in the US, I returned to México in 2014. I started to work for a Latin American consultancy where I was placed on a financial project in México.

I want to share my experience of transitioning from designing in a developed country to an emerging one.

It is no secret that technology, along with user experience, is expanding globally. Therefore, designers who create the interfaces should be aware of cultural differences, not just with regard to the preferred technological platform in a specific region, but should also consider the cultural characteristics, such as custom, values and interests.

Like all tangible products, such as automobiles, the way we interact with a website or mobile application is in a large part defined through our culture, which affects the way we think, communicate and consume information.

I thought that this project would be a piece of cake since I had previously worked on complex financial projects in the USA. However, when I started to look into the users, I noticed that the users in México don’t have any prior financial knowledge. They do not even understand how a “credit” works nor they understand what the interest rate is. That is why this project made me switch my methodologies in order to create the best user experience.

Here, you can notice how the big differences in financial knowledge and technological usage from a developed country such as the USA and an emerging one like Mexico.

EMPATHY, GET TO KNOW THE USER

Going back to the project, I noticed significant differences between the users’ pain points, compared to the ones I had previously worked on in the USA.

Researching on the cultural differences between México and the USA, I found Hoffstadels cultural dimensions. He created a theory with 6 dimensions on how the society’s culture affects the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior.

I started to notice how these differences impact my information architecture and interaction design.

These are 3 main dimensions that impacted my designs.

1. México is family-oriented

2. México is a high power distance country

3. México is a high uncertainty avoidance culture

México is a Collectivism Culture

In reference to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension of Collectivism vs. Individualism, México falls under the category of collectivism. Family is the most important thing in Mexican culture. For example, me a 27 year old and my brother a 29 year old, still live with our parents. it is a cultural norm for people to live with their families until they get married.

From a design perspective, it’s important to understand these cultural nuances. In this culture, people make decisions based on the opinions of family members and friends. They place great importance on validating decisions and taking advice from friends.

On another account, in the USA, personal and instant gratification is valued. It is an individualism category. It is an “I” society vs. a “We”. They like to make their own decisions and explore all the information available before making their decision.

México is a High Power Distance Country

This dimension demonstrates how members of a society handle unequal distribution of power. México, being a high power distance country, for example, tends to accept a hierarchy in which everybody has a place, with no need of justification for inequality of power. Being a developing economy, the education and literacy rate in Mexico is less as compared to that of a developed country.

For instance, according to México Social 2013 Statistics, only 64 out of 100 boys and girls attending elementary school will graduate within 6 years of enrollment.

Out of those 64, only 46 will finish middle school. 24 from these 46 will graduate from high school, and only 10 of those high school grads will attend college.

A HPD country such as México, should have a stronger focus on expertise and certifications since they need to trust you as the expert who will guide them through the necessary information. This is why limited choices and restricted access to information is preferred. Make sure you don’t give them too much information as it can lead to confusion.

México is a High Uncertainty Avoidance Culture

The Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension demonstrates how a society feels about uncertainty and ambiguity. The society in México is very conservative. They accept ideas that are in conformity with their belief system. They are unlikely to adopt new radical ideas. Mexicans tend to be more emotional and resist changes in rules, laws and regulations. Empathy, clear metaphors, limited choices and restricted amount of data is preferred.

The USA is more pragmatic. They prefer practice over principles and are open to new ideas. They are willing to try something different and take risks. They are spontaneous, which means they can easily adapt to new situations.

With these insights, I was able to amend my approach and put the users’ perspective forward. As a patriarch or matriarch, how can they trust these financial services since they do not understand the content? What do they need in order to get one of these services? How does it benefit them and their family members?

HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge”

Plato

Creating simple experiences for complex financial products and at the same time creating trustworthy ties with the user was quite a challenge. I started by contemplating on how the users’ can trust the financial webpage, given that they have even trouble in trusting their own banks online. The majority of people still prefer direct banking, since there is so much insecurity in the country overall (crime rates, corruption, economic strife, etc.).

Through transparency, empathy, friendliness, and a simple learning process for the users, you can create emotion and the trust needed for the users to use the financial products.

“Designing for Emotion” by Aaron Walter became my guide. I created this methodology based on the book.

These are the biggest points of the new method:

1. Creating trust

2. Informing the user & creating awareness

3. Motivating

4. Triggering

1. CREATE TRUST

Let’s remember the user. It is hard to trust a financial service. We never stop being human when we go online. As designers, think about how people might feel using our products. It should come across as a conversation to a friend.

By providing the user with business and product transparency, caring about the user’s need, and giving them the necessary information to complete their task, we can create the emotional experience we want. When we create such touching heartwarming emotional experiences, they remain in the user’s long-term memory. This makes them think about your product. It engages the users, and makes the designing experience feel like having a chat with a friend or a trusted confidant.

Become their friend

In “Designing for Emotion”, the author talks about an emotional connection which can be created through cuteness. Having a brand that creates cuteness and friendliness can be very beneficial. Just like real babies, cuteness helps a brand strive.

Designers can use this principle, called the baby-face bias, to their advantage. Can you think of any website that uses a cute mascot to create connections with their audience?

Content Structure

“Beyond our ability to express emotion, we also share the instinct to search for patterns.” When it comes to users, we need to give them a sense of comfort especially with high non-avoidance cultures. The more patterns, the more they get used to the process and feel comfortable.

Tone of Voice

Personality is, by itself, a powerful way to engage your audience. It helps people understand who you are and shapes the way people interact with you. It also sets the tone for the voice, aesthetic, and interaction design of your site.

Personalities promote friendships

Personality is what attracts us to certain people and repels us from others. Our brains are hardwired to detect things that are good or bad for us. If your personality is unique and authentic, the users will be intrigued and will want to create a relationship. Personalities can create friendships and serve as platform for emotional connections. Because personality greatly influences our decision-making process, it can be a powerful tool in design.

Informality

The informality makes it easy to open a dialogue box with our users. We’re like their heartwarming friends who want to help them make better financial decisions.

2. INFORM THE USER

“As designers, we help users consume information.

We’re in a unique position to help users follow their gut instincts. Using common design tools like layout color, line, typography, and contrast, we can help people consume information more easily.”

Emotional Design goal: human to human communication

Give people the tools to make an informed decision. Give them the main reasons why to select your product, as well as inspiring conversation.

Contrast & hierarchy

If you have too much content in which everything yells for your viewer’s attention, nothing will get reviewed. You will only create confusion. By creating contrast and hierarchy, you can guide them through the information. This holds true for a high power index audience, where they rely on you as the expert. They need detailed information in how to access the product.

I created a content layout that always gives the 3 reasons why to continue the task.

3. MOTIVATE

The right messaging creates excitement

Create a feeling of excitement means giving the users a reason of a quick gratification. Focus on how will they benefit from using these financial services? We concentrate on messages, depending on the information we know about the user. If he/she is married with children, we create messages that include the entire family. If he/she is single, how can those saved pennies help them achieve a goal?

Anticipation

I included the steps of the process so the user’s can know what to anticipate. What information will be needed to complete the task? Anticipation creates images to the upcoming events.

4. TRIGGER

Surprise

Intuition drives so many decisions we make each day.

A moment of surprise frames our attention, which blurs all other elements and brings the attention to the important thing. Surprise is always followed by an emotional response. After the brain detects a surprising contrast, it has to figure out how to respond quickly. The brain relies on emotion to provide a “gut reaction”. I placed buttons such as “Apply Now” large with enough contrast and messaging, so the users simply cannot afford to loose these deal. This leaves the users with little time to think, and makes them act quickly.

Priming

“These moments of surprise and delight prime user perceptions, making the site more relatable and easier to trust. Priming works by activating parts of your memory. After some time, your brain is more likely to build associations.”

By applying this new methodology and with many revisions, the project came out amazing. It is still in the development phase, but I believe that it is going to be a huge success. It came out more relatable for the user and creates motivation to use the tool. Using these 4 steps, lets find a way to understand emerging countries and lets create great products/services.

CONCLUSION

In designing these applications, the fundamental principles of usability — such as simplicity and consistency — are universally essential. As designers, we need to pay attention to certain design characteristics that might affect the local experience.

It is important to consider several factors that may influence the local audience’s perception of the company we are designing for. Creating and offering a standardized website, or mobile application, that simply translates the text and utilizes the same images, layout and color is not enough.

A designer should account for UX and cultural nuances by relying on market and user data for that country. We should not only be able to maintain diversity, but also find a solution to incorporate the brand and all the different ways of thinking.

We need to understand why cultures are different and identify the differences in our solutions. Using emotional design as a guideline help designers cherish and understand unique cultures, how they differ and how to create the best innovative solution for the users.

Use this methodology in order to create a successful product.