As humans, we socialize and communicate with emotion, we create meaningful relationships with those who bring value and evoke strong emotions within us. It is possible for us to form these relationships and emotional ties with products and objects we love. The following scenarios demonstrate how products can evoke certain emotions out of their users.

• Remove the connectivity from Facebook and ask yourself why would you still use it.

• Nike sold out of their Kaepernick ICON shirts in a matter of hours, why would they sell out of this shirt that is made just like any other shirt?

• Why do I still buy iPhones? A Google Pixel is just as capable as an iPhone.

Product design is becoming deeper than providing value, utility or creating something habit-forming. As product builders, we can use empathy and data to evoke an emotional response from users and build limbic resonance. We’re here to talk about how to use LRUX to identify and trigger emotions as well as the effects that it can have on your product.

What is LRUX?

In order to understand LRUX, you should try to understand what Limbic Resonance is first. Limbic Resonance is the idea that the ability to share deep emotional states comes from within the limbic section of the brain. A non-verbal connection that is present in humans and forms the basis of our social connections. Our nervous systems are not self-contained but in-sync to those around us with whom we share a connection, whereby multiple mammals become in-sync to each other’s emotions.

“a process in which a person or group influences the emotions or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes” Gerald Schoenewolf

LRUX is the theory that by using human-centered design methodologies when building or marketing a product; it can manifest limbic resonance with users, which in turn, has the potential to create behaviors, build lifetime relationships, and increase advocacy.

LRUX is not a design process itself, it is a mindset that can be applied to any design process or methodology. LRUX begins with having a hypothesis that if your product can provide emotional value to your users then it will lead to a positive outcome. It is up to you to decide what the emotion is and what the conclusion could be. You achieve LRUX when your product can build an emotional relationship with users. When the relationship is formed it drives user behavior because your users not only use your product for what it does, but also for the feeling it gives them. If a product does not provide any emotional value to you, what is stopping you from using an equally or more capable competitor product?

We are all subjected to our biological limitations. Simon Sinek articulated limbic resonance very well in his well-known TED Talk, How great leaders inspire action. Sinek explains how the limbic system is the oldest part of the human brain and processes all emotions and behavior, however, it is incapable of processing logic or language. Humans are not computers, we do not make decisions with pure logic. Emotional processing is involved in our decision-making process and behavioral patterns.

• Build products with empathy that create emotional value for users.

• Users attach certain emotions with your product; this is the tradeoff that builds Limbic Resonance.

• When the tradeoff is consistent and positive users build a lasting relationship with your product. When the tradeoff is negative, work to identify the low points in the experience so you can turn those negative points into high points.

• LRUX can lead to an increase in customer loyalty, brand loyalty, customer lifetime value, competitive advantage, product-market fit, and improved overall user experience.

Four Pillars of LRUX

Holism

To achieve LRUX we have to be able to maintain a holistic view of the entire experience of the product/service. When you design with empathy for a specific user persona you run the risk of limiting yourself to the experience of that persona. When you design for limbic resonance, you design for humans. This will give your product the potential to gain users from outside of your target audience. As designers, it is difficult to have a holistic point of view if we are consumed by the visual experience and interactions of the product. At the start of projects or when you feel stuck, it’s helpful to go back to the basics. What problem are you solving? How will this solution solve the problem? What emotional value will this solution provide? These three simple questions can help everyone on your team maintain a holistic mindset.

“It helps understanding the user experience of a product as a whole; not purely as Interaction- and Visual- Design of features. It makes sure designers tackle real user problems and herewith reduce the risk of building something nobody wants.” — Nikkel Blaase

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is about understanding the role your product plays in users lives from an emotional perspective. Being emotionally intelligent as a whole is one of the most important steps to achieving LRUX. For a deep dive into the concept of emotional intelligence, I recommend watching Emotionally Intelligent Design by Pamela Pavliscak. It is best practice to try to measure user behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, and emotions during their path throughout your product in relation to their true emotions. The reasoning behind this is when you ask people about their past experiences or products they have used, it’s possible for them to forget about the emotion felt at the time. They can assign their general emotions into generic categories like “good” or “bad”. True emotions are easier to identify and communicate at the moment. This is why it is important to ask users how they feel about your product in real time. Identify the negative emotions your users go through in their journey so you can come up with solutions that turn them into positive emotions.

Intrinsic motivators are behaviors driven by internal rewards. It’s important to identify key intrinsic motivators of your users. Is there a common group of intrinsic motivations that your users share? If so, how can you relate those back to your product and use them to improve the user experience? Emotions can be broad and complex. Intrinsic motivators are easier to understand, share, and consolidate. If you’re following the four p’s, you can consolidate feedback into corresponding intrinsic motivators:

“I bought this because it is the best thing on the market”

“more people are going to like me because if I have x product”

“I want to show this off to my friends”

You could group these answers into the Prestige motivation because all three say that they feel they’ll be viewed as more credible, luxurious, seen as a winner, etc. Understanding the intrinsic motivations of your customers can give you additional direction after you identify emotional value.

Brand Identity

If your product/company were a person, who would they be?

Connecting the UX to the holistic brand identity of your company is vital. You can lose emotional value if your UX is inconsistent with the holistic brand. It’s important to ask yourself the following questions to understand how a product or service would provide emotional value in users lives.

• Why would you interact or have a friendship with them?

• Who would they be to you?

• What would your relationship be with this person?

• How do you want the customer to identify your brand?

All of these identifiers can be received differently depending on the individual user. This is why it is best to create a concise message that is open to interpretation. Trying to be too specific with your targeting or trying to please all users with multiple messages can create confusion and will have the perception of being contradictory.

Let’s look at Zune as an example. In 2006 Microsoft released what they hoped to be a competitor to the iPod. Although the Zune was an equally capable piece of technology, it failed to compete with the iPod. It did not achieve any LRUX with its users where the iPod did.

“I think our marketing message was very confused. I don’t think people walked away saying, this is what Zune is and this is why it’s different. This is why I have to have it. We did some really artsy ads that appealed to a very small segment of the music space, and we didn’t captivate the broad segment of music listeners.” — Robbie Bach former Microsoft executive

Personalization

Netflix is a great example of using personalization in their user experience to achieve LRUX. Netflix believes if they present the perfect imagery and artwork on your homepage, then it acts as a gateway into that title and gives you some visual “evidence” for why the title might be good for you. Netflix was able to draw qualitative and quantitative conclusions from this test and validate their hypothesis.

“This is yet another way Netflix differs from traditional media offerings: we don’t have one product but over a 100 million different products with one for each of our members with personalized recommendations and personalized visuals.” — Netflix Technology Blog

Looking Ahead

LRUX is the emotional value you can apply to any product design process. In the current competitive digital space, it is difficult to set your product apart from the rest. Regardless of how innovative you are today, competition can always come along tomorrow and build on top of your ideas. Although Limbic Resonance is not something that can be directly measured or quantified, the positive long-term effects of achieving LRUX can be translated into business terminology. These positive effects include brand loyalty, reduced attrition, task interdependence, competitive advantage, product-market fit, and increased customer lifetime value (CLV). Finding ways to set yourself apart outside of the features and utility of your product is where LRUX shines.