Hey, look at us – who would’ve thought – approaching the final blog post on this site! In the previous articles I briefly gave you a glance at the basic principles of neurodesign, some practical examples as well as several principles that could be expanded in the future.
Speaking of future – when it comes to the implementation of neurodesign we are still in the beginning stages hence why most examples and studies have been created in a controlled environment. But what happens if we go the other way? While diving into this topic again I gained another perspective to it, that I didn’t have before when I wrote my thesis. In my thesis the focus was mainly the analog approach to neurodesign and how we could use it to give books a new form of excitement. This time around I would like to go the digital route. How could the presented principles be creatively implemented into the digital world? Could they be responsive? Not in the typical way, but more responsive to the users behavior while scrolling through a website for example? How can we be innovative with the knowledge we have?
As we approach this conclusion, let our imagination run wild, because here’s the thing: Neurodesign is just getting started. The future? Well, that’s where things get really exciting.
Imagine a future where websites aren’t just static pages filled with well-placed elements, but living, breathing organisms that respond to your every move, your every thought. What if your browser knew how you were feeling while scrolling through a webpage and adjusted the color scheme accordingly? Picture this: you’re feeling anxious (it’s Monday morning after all), and as you scroll, the hues gently shift from sharp, high-contrast reds to calming blues. Your eyes feel less strained, your mood lightens, and suddenly, that “buy now” button doesn’t seem quite as intimidating. Neurodesign, with its deep understanding of how color, shape, and movement influence our emotions, could give birth to experiences so tailored, so nuanced, that they almost feel… alive.
Picture this: You’re on a website, navigating through a blog post (maybe even this one, who knows?) when the text, unbeknownst to you, subtly changes its font size depending on how fast you’re scrolling. You’re engaged, taking your time? The letters get bigger, more elegant, pulling you in deeper. In a hurry? The font shrinks just enough to make you feel like you’re breezing through content. It’s responsive design, but not to the device – it’s responsive to you, the human interacting with the content. How? Neurodesign principles, informed by brainwave research and eye-tracking studies, allow the website to adjust to your brain’s optimal processing speed, creating a harmonious experience where your cognitive load is minimized. You don’t even realize it, but you’re effortlessly hooked, feeling just the right amount of connection.
And it doesn’t stop there. Let’s venture into the territory of motion. Imagine scrolling through a portfolio of creative work and instead of a simple parallax effect, the images play a more complex game. Each image is alive, subtly moving in response to the speed at which you scroll or even how your eyes track it. It’s as if the design is reading your thoughts, offering up just the right visual cue that matches your emotional pulse at that moment. Want to see something that speaks to you? The visuals are responsive to your cognitive state. Feeling curious? The images dynamically zoom in. Feeling skeptical? The visuals take a step back. This could all be done by measuring micro-expressions or even skin conductance – data points that neurodesign could harness to bring a level of intimacy to web design that we never thought possible.
A future where neurodesign doesn’t just cater to the individual but anticipates the needs of entire communities. Imagine a website that changes depending on the collective mood of its visitors. Based on aggregated emotional signals (perhaps through eye-tracking or even ambient light levels), the site shifts between various aesthetic themes, creating an environment that feels right for the collective energy of the group. The design becomes an empathy engine – a visual language that’s constantly adjusting to the collective pulse of the users, fostering a deeper sense of connection and understanding, without a single word spoken.
I know, this all sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi novel. But here’s the thing: It’s not. We already have the research. We have the neurodesign principles, the brain-scan data, the eye-tracking technologies. What we’re lacking is the courage to throw out those safe, predictable design rules and step into the unknown. What would it be like to create without the constant fear of evaluation? Imagine a world where designers are less concerned about fitting in and more concerned with evoking real emotional responses from their audience. What if the goal wasn’t a picture-perfect website, but a individualistic-perfect one?
We’ve been taught to play it safe – keep the grid, align the fonts, don’t stray too far from the usability research. But what if, just for a moment, we threw all that out the window? What if we embraced the chaos, the unpredictability of the human brain, and designed in ways that don’t just fit expectations but push them?
Neurodesign is a call to think beyond our conventional understanding, to ask not just “how do I make this look good?” but “how do I make this feel good?” And the future, is one where we start to see the digital world not as a tool we use, but as a partner in our journey toward a deeper, more connected experience.
So let’s stop being so cautious.
