How emotional design builds trust, loyalty, and growth online

Why designing for emotion outperforms aesthetics and function alone.

Digital users today are distracted. They face countless interruptions and are overwhelmed with information. Breaking through the noise to bring attention to your brand’s website requires bold design that evokes an emotional response.

Sure, the price and convenience of your offering matter. Rational decision-making plays a role. But the truth is, emotion drives action — especially in digital environments, where brand experience often replaces human interaction.

In fact, Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman suggests that 95% of purchase decisions happen in the subconscious, driven more by feeling than by fact.

This has profound implications for digital experience leaders. If you're designing only for usability and function, you're ignoring what actually tips the scales: the emotional connection between your brand and your user.

As AI tools are entering every corner of brand building, empathy is still what transforms transactions into relationships. Human creativity, strategic thinking, and deep research come together to develop emotional design, building connections with intention.

Emotional design is not new — but it’s never been more relevant

Don Norman introduced the concept in Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. He argues that design isn’t just functional — it’s psychological.

Whether we intend it or not, every digital product triggers emotion. Good emotional design ensures those feelings support your goals: connection, trust, loyalty, and yes, conversion.

Aarron Walter, author of Designing for Emotion, put it best: emotional design makes users feel like there’s a person on the other end — not a machine. And in AI-powered digital ecosystems where most transactions happen without a single human interaction, that feeling is what differentiates brands.

The case for designing with emotion

The default state of most websites is transactional: Buttons, forms, data, processes. But the best digital experiences? They engage the senses. They reduce cognitive load. They feel designed for me.

That kind of emotional resonance pays off:

• According to Adobe, 38% of people will stop engaging with a site if it’s unattractive.
• Another study found 94% of negative feedback is design-related — not about the content, but how it's presented.

But this goes deeper than aesthetics. Don Norman's research shows that attractive things actually work better — or rather, people believe they work better, and are more forgiving when they don't.

Emotion shapes perception. Perception shapes behavior.

Why emotion must be baked into UX strategy

We forget: the web is a relatively new human experience. It’s clunky by nature, loaded with complexity under the surface. Even the best sites can’t avoid technical hiccups, loading delays, or imperfect logic.

And most users won’t settle for friction-filled experiences. If they hit a dead end or get confused, frustration sets in quickly. And that negative emotion doesn’t just cloud the interaction — it stains the brand. A CX Trends report shows that 88% of consumers say they won’t return after a poor digital experience.

That’s why visual appeal, intuitive flow, and delightful microinteractions aren’t fluff — they’re friction reducers. They’re safety nets for when things don’t go perfectly (which they rarely do).

A beautiful, emotionally engaging experience buys you grace. It builds trust. It makes the difference between abandonment and conversion.

The three levels of emotional design

At Modus, we build emotional design into every project by using Don Norman’s three levels of cognitive response:

1. Visceral – “How does it look?”

This is the gut reaction — the aesthetics, the mood, the visual language. It’s about sparking interest and desire immediately. First impressions matter.

2. Behavioral – “How does it work?”

This is the accessibility and usability layer. Is it intuitive? Is the experience smooth and satisfying? Users may not notice good interaction design, but they always notice bad.

3. Reflective – “What does it mean to me?”

This is the long-tail emotional layer — how the experience aligns with personal values, goals, or self-image. When brands connect with people, they create loyalty that survives friction, price wars, and even mistakes.

How to design for emotion in practice

Creating an emotional connection isn’t about slapping a heart emoji on your homepage. It’s about crafting an intentional, holistic experience. Here’s how that translates:

• Design for visual storytelling. Use imagery, motion, and brand voice to evoke feeling — not just convey information.
• Prioritize meaningful microinteractions. Every click, hover, and transition is a chance to delight or frustrate.
• Create space for user success. Remove unnecessary friction. Celebrate progress. Reward engagement.
• Speak like a human. Tone of voice matters. Emotional resonance can come through copy as much as layout.
• Personalize where it counts. A well-timed, context-aware experience makes users feel seen — and valued.

Emotion is the experience

Ultimately, digital experiences don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re part of people’s lives — shaping how they think, feel, and decide.

That’s why emotional design isn’t a creative luxury. It’s a business requirement.

It’s how you turn users into believers. Buyers into loyalists. Interfaces into relationships.

Because in a world where most digital experiences feel cold and mechanical, the brand that makes you feel something wins.