Emotional Mapping

Designing for people means understanding their physical cabilities and needs, and cognitive abilities and needs. Emotional Mapping is a method that employs principles of cognitive psychology to undertand not simply what people think, but why. It looks beyond simple product-preference opinions to provide a design team with information about how people think. It dissects and maps thought patterns, using statistical methods to compare products, and defines the most meaningful qualities to edit out, or to add or enhance. And it does this in a way that allows us, or and extended design and marketing team, to understand how people think in time to do something about it. It directs the creative process in a way that forters new, meaningful ideas and ensures success.

First impressions of a product or service can be quite different from impressions following first use. When conducted pre- and post-purchase, Emotional Mapping shows specifically how and why a product may have met or exceeded expectations, or disappointed buyers.

Importantly this method also shows variations in thinking among different target groups - males v. females, varous age ranges, by country, occupation, or any number of other categorizations.

Emotional Mapping is being used by major corporation to develop successful products in healthcare, consumer goods, electronics, office furniture, food, packaging, and more.

Dan Formosa, January 14 2009