Adam Jaworski — Transformation Advisor adamjaworski.com and Dell Technologies at Independent
I used to be UX… Navigating tough, complex, unpredictable changes: handbook for leaders
September 20, 2024
9:55
Relation Management
🇬🇧 English
Relation Management
Managing emotions in design (systemic approach)
About
Bartek will present a holistic, systemic view on individuals, groups, organizations, products and of course users of these products and clients of these organizations. He will take us for an intense ride through different layers of emotional design and emotions management, based on his experience and situations that he found difficult to face. The talk will include designing for users' emotions, analysis of different layers of designers emotions (resulting from: engagement, responsibility, stress, relationship with others), company emotions management (managing expectations, managing crises, understanding users emotions), different types of designers self emotions (personalities, backgrounds, experience, personal situation), dealing with organization culture emotions, following the leaders or doing against all odds, finding motivation, dealing with different types of ego.
Last but not least, Bartek will remind us of some ground rules of emotional design. How often do we forget about it while focusing on business outcomes and deadlines? And is there still a space for emotions in experience design?
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From the recording
Talk in brief
At WaysConf 2024, Experience Design Lead and Consultant Bartek Lenard presents a systemic approach to managing emotions in design, shifting the focus from designing emotional triggers to managing human behaviors within complex ecosystems. Drawing on Don Norman's emotional design framework, Lenard distinguishes between visceral, behavioral, and reflective emotions, highlighting how reflective emotions—which govern long-term user relationships—have the most significant systemic impact. Through three distinct case studies, including a large-scale digital redesign, a physical product launch, and a massive corporate employee experience initiative, he illustrates how launches and organizational changes trigger massive, unpredictable 'emotional clouds' affecting users, media, and internal teams. Lenard argues that while automatic emotional reactions cannot be directly controlled, their behavioral outcomes can be managed through predictive mapping, scenario planning, and clear communication. Ultimately, he advises design leaders to establish clear operational boundaries in complex systems, prioritize collaborative processes to foster internal team well-being, and avoid taking public criticism personally.
Key takeaways
- 01
Manage Behaviors Instead of Automatic Emotions
Because emotions are automatic biological responses triggered by events, they cannot be directly controlled. Instead, designers and product managers must focus on predicting and managing the behaviors and effects that follow those emotional reactions.
Watch from 4:27 - 02
Reflective Emotions Have the Greatest Systemic Impact
Unlike visceral reactions that fade quickly, reflective emotions involve deep user engagement and long-term relationships with a product. When a product is redesigned, these reflective bonds can trigger intense public reactions, both positive and negative, that ripple through social media.
Watch from 8:21 - 03
Map Emotional Scenarios Before Launching Redesigns
Before releasing major product updates, teams should build emotional impact maps and prepare for multiple reaction scenarios. This predictive analysis helps prepare internal stakeholders and designers for the inevitable emotional backlash or feedback, allowing them to respond rationally.
Watch from 13:13 - 04
Define Boundaries in Overwhelmingly Complex Systems
When dealing with massive organizational changes or global ecosystems, it is impossible for any single person to comprehend the entire emotional landscape. Designers must establish clear boundaries, focusing only on the specific areas and teams they can directly influence.
Watch from 19:48 - 05
Prioritize the Design Process to Foster Internal Positivity
In continuous, endless projects where the final state is constantly shifting, focusing solely on the product can lead to team burnout. Prioritizing a fun, highly collaborative methodology and enjoying the daily process helps naturally inject positive emotions into the working environment.
Watch from 21:02
Read edited transcript highlights
These concise notes were edited from automatic captions and checked against the talk structure. They are not a verbatim transcript.
The Crucial Distinction Between Emotions and Feelings
It is vital for designers to understand that emotions and feelings are not the same. Emotions are automatic, biological responses that occur instantly and cannot be stopped or directly controlled. In contrast, feelings represent our cognitive interpretations of those underlying emotions. While we can directly observe physical emotional reactions in others, we must ask people directly to understand their feelings and how they are interpreting their internal states. Because multiple layers of emotions can blend together, they remain highly complex to define, measure, and navigate within product design.
Watch from 2:11Why Reflective Design Triggers Massive Systemic Reactions
When designing for user experience, we must consider visceral, behavioral, and reflective emotional levels. Visceral reactions, like smiling at a clever micro-animation, are immediate but have almost no lasting impact on the broader system. Behavioral reactions occur when users interact with new features to achieve goals, carrying a medium systemic impact. Reflective emotions, however, are deeply tied to a user's long-term relationship with a product. When a company redesigns a familiar tool, it disrupts this reflective bond, often triggering intense annoyance that prompts users to share their negative experiences widely on social media.
Watch from 8:21Predicting the Emotional Cloud of a Product Release
Before a major product release, the emotional energy of a project is typically contained within the internal team of designers, product managers, and organizational stakeholders. However, the moment the product goes live, a massive emotional cloud erupts. This cloud extends far beyond the immediate users to encompass the media, the designers who feel personal responsibility, and even their families. Because change always triggers strong reactions, product teams must use predictive analysis and scenario-based modeling beforehand to prepare stakeholders for this chaotic emotional wave and manage the resulting behaviors effectively.
Watch from 12:14The Evolution of Public Criticism and Creator Vulnerability
Reflecting on a personal project where my co-creator and I launched a physical beer glass, our initial goal was simply to have fun and make our friends and family happy. While the project was highly successful and secured funding, we were completely unprepared for the wave of negative feedback from industry experts and online media. This experience highlighted how devastating public criticism can be for creators. Furthermore, the emotional landscape has shifted dramatically over the years; online discourse in 2017 was far more polite and conversational compared to the highly intense, aggressive commentary we see today.
Watch from 16:27Managing Employee Experience in Half-Million-Person Organizations
Transitioning from product design to employee experience at a massive global corporation revealed a system of staggering complexity, featuring hundreds of interconnected sub-systems. Attempting to drive organizational change across half a million employees with diverse cultural backgrounds and regulatory environments is an overwhelming task. In such massive ecosystems, trying to map or control the entire emotional landscape is impossible. Instead, design leaders must establish clear boundaries, defining a manageable range where their team can realistically make an impact, rather than getting lost in the chaotic whole.
Watch from 19:02Protecting Teams by Shifting Focus from Product to Process
When working within highly complex, endless corporate programs where goals and structures constantly shift, teams can easily become frustrated, confused, or bored. To counter this, leaders should shift their focus from the product itself to the design process. By emphasizing a great methodology, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the team has fun, you introduce positive emotions directly into the system. This internal positivity naturally radiates outward, helping team members manage their own stress and maintain a healthy, long-term perspective without taking professional setbacks personally.
Watch from 20:46Explore WaysConf 2026
