Emotional Experience Design

Ron Rogowski, Prinipal Analyst with Forrester Research, was a session speaker at Yahoo's "Clicking with the Human Mind" series at Advertising Week in Toronto.  His talk, entitled, "Emotional Experience Design", centered around the premise that online content must address real goals.  Ron argued that a company that has a website must employ a number of things within an overall strategy in order to succeed online.

To begin, the site must have a personality.  In other words, one should ask themselves, "Is this a cool site to visit? Do I have fun on this site? Do I get the information I need from this site?"  According to Ron, a site must engage as many senses as possible to ensure that the user's experiences on the site are emotional ones.  And only when this is established can the site properly communicate the company's brand.

To do so Ron suggests three steps to turn casual visitors into engaged online customers:

1. address the goals of the visitor. (ie why are people coming to our website?)
2. develop a brand and a personality
3. use audio and video on the siteto engage in people's emotions

One site Ron refered to as accomplishing these steps is StrongMoms.com.  A Similac-branded website, StrongMoms has baby formula products for sale to new moms.  However, because Similac understands that Moms are ultimately concerned for the health and well-being of their child, the site also includes a prominent and popular breast-feeding section.