Charismatic design, or using empathy to engage the user

There is a growing tendency for companies and services to have in their armament not just a functional website that performs tasks, but an aesthetically pleasing product with a pleasant design. Not so long ago, a website with a well-designed UI / UX was already an advantage and stood out among the competitive mass of companies. At the moment, almost everyone has acquired this, only the design changes, which is also quite difficult to surprise the user with. Although this aspect touches more on the field of marketing than design, it is becoming more and more difficult to break through to the user's consciousness, so this area is a must for designers as well.



Using empathy in design and building site structure is a relatively new mechanic. Far from many people decide to use it in full, because according to business whales and staff bosses it often looks childish, namely: “The site should be serious, only the most important and nothing superfluous”, but in reality it turns out that in this company also on the site an application form pops up every 5 seconds, a callback jumps, reviews are written to themselves and in general there are 5 quiz sites in each subpage. This would be partly true if these techniques are not out of date and have not only started to scare away the user. But what if it will work for the benefit of the business due to its originality, the involvement of the buyer in the product and immersion in the user's problems specifically in your performance?



At the moment, one of the key engagement mechanics is playing on the user's emotions.



Empathy - empathy, management of emotions and attention of the user, when, like typical sites, they try to sell the service as much as possible by presenting themselves as experts in their field. You can go the other way and not try to sell directly, but try to stay in your memory, get closer and imagine yourself in the client's place. With the right empathy, it brings decently more results. It is important to penetrate the user's experience, find out his experiences, problems, reflections and background, for further use of empathy in building a product.



If you look closely at the existing cases, vivid examples of empathy in sites are used in most by large companies and companies that do not fight to turn every visitor into a lead at any cost.



The site does not have to be perfect, it should be closer to the user due to emotions, which can be expressed not only in unique formulations, but also through media, pictures and rethinking standard approaches to presenting information.



“Kitchen in the neighborhood” - the conciliator is more empathic than standard naming. The food delivery company promotes its packaging alongside the main product, coupled with an unusual presentation, relatively unique mechanics and high-quality design. A well-designed visual is immediately visible instead of throwing characteristics and stories about how long food can be stored in them and how convenient it is for moving, storing, and in general how you used to live without this box.





“Point Xs”



It seems the case smells like an 18+ store, a movie for adults or a new iphone, a cherry on which an extraordinary color scheme becomes. site and its meanings. This technique plays precisely on the ambiguity and ambiguity of the meaning of the title, thereby becoming unique and memorable.





At the moment, the user has seen everything, show him what he could not see



Sometimes out of the ordinary can play the role of empathy in design, because it forces you to interact with the site differently, perceive and use it differently. So is the creative studio "B-rell", which works with the largest customers around the world. I decided to stand out due to the originality of the site in the form of minimalism with scattered almost hierarchical information, but at the same time harmoniously located within the entire site.



Everyone can say that these are jerky animations and torn-eyed texts, but in this case the design fulfills its specific function - it presents information that is remembered and, more importantly, the site itself is remembered, remaining in memory as an unusual solution of a creative studio.





Twitch's promo site is a brutal minimalist typography with comic clippings from streamers on board, which by the way can be used to play the analogue of Flappy bird. Clean typography not only allows you to focus on the meaning of the texts, but also makes the site stand out. The site has earned awwwards and css design awards due to the innovativeness of its mechanics and design.





Summing up



The use of empathy and, in general, compliance with the requirements of the target audience can be expressed not only in the selection of colors that are emotionally relevant to the topic, design forms that are established in a certain area and for a specific target audience in their segment, but also in texts that are attractive. Use of humor as much as possible, original wording and offers, in conjunction with high-quality visual data, site structure and user path.