Design & Emotion Blog

The workshop features insight into Psycho-Aesthetics, the RKS philosophy and framework for creating emotional connections which will be featured in the upcoming book by Deepa Prahalad and RKS founder and CEO Ravi Sawhney entitled “Predictable Magic” and published by Wharton School Publishing.

Interaction10 is the third annual conference hosted by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Each year, IxDA aims to gather the interaction design community to connect, educate, and inspire each other.

Interaction designers and businesses today have to respond to the rising aspirations of people. The diversity of users has made the design of interaction strategy far more complex. “Most corporations are now pursuing customers characterized by vastly different economic conditions, requiring them to look beyond traditional strategic frameworks,” explained Deepa Prahalad, co-author of Predictable Magic. “It’s is now widely understood that users engage interactively for emotional reasons and adopt designs based on rich and fulfilling experiences, yet few companies look at emotion explicitly as a starting point for strategy and design.”

“With Psycho-Aesthetics, it’s possible to systematically understand the emotional reactions of consumers to products, services, and interactive experiences,” says Harnish Jani, RKS Lead Strategist and Researcher. “This understanding creates actionable insight and more effective collaboration amongst cross-functional teams.”

Participants who seek to learn better ways to communicate interaction design proposals with executives and non-designers are especially encouraged to attend. “We’ll be using case studies, the framework from the upcoming book, and hands-on use of Psycho-Aesthetics tools to immerse attendees into this method for developing successful interaction strategy,” says Prahalad.
Workshop attendees will:

• Understand how to use Psycho-Aesthetics Mapping to identify design features that will allow them to emotionally connect with their stakeholders
• Mitigate risk by understanding their users and setting appropriate design priorities
• Learn, with fresh cases, how companies from Fortune 500 to start-ups have used design to create sustained organic growth
• Learn to frame the user experience through the Hero’s Journey for different interactions

If you’re interested in learning how to design interactions that make the kind of emotional connections that create business success, visit the Interaction10 website to signup.

download RKS press release (PDF)