How We Feel: Designing Experiences For Emotion (late)

How can experience designers deliberately shape how people feel – rather than simply hope for an emotional response?

Every experience works through the senses.

What people see, hear, touch and move through affects not only what they notice, but how they feel, what they remember and how they respond.

In this WXO Campfire, Josh Horowitz, Co-Founder and CCO of PRESENT Studios, will explore how experience designers can work more deliberately with emotion.

Blending neuroaesthetic principles with full-stack experience design, Josh will examine how sensory input, space, narrative and technology can influence physiological and emotional responses – and how these elements can be designed as part of one connected experience.

The aim is practical: to give experience professionals clearer ways to think about emotion as a design material, rather than something that happens by accident.

Josh will introduce frameworks and approaches that can help creators understand the relationship between emotion, cognition and sensation, design more intentionally across the full experience journey, and begin measuring whether an experience is creating the impact it intended.

What you’ll leave with

• A clearer understanding of the main emotional design levers – and how emotion, cognition and sensation interact within an experience
• The Recursive Experience Design framework – a way to think about how different elements of an experience influence and reinforce one another
• A practical approach to impact measurement – helping you consider how to assess emotional and experiential outcomes
• A stronger framework for thinking about how space, story, sensory design and technology work together
• Questions and principles you can apply to your own projects when designing for emotional impact

Who should attend?

• Cultural institution and museum professionals designing visitor experiences
• Location-based entertainment operators and creators
• Brand experience and experiential marketing directors
• Experience designers working across physical, digital and immersive environments
• Creative directors and strategists interested in emotional response and audience behaviour
• Anyone looking for a more structured way to design and measure how an experience makes people feel

About Josh Horowitz

Josh Horowitz is an award-winning creative, designer and academic exploring the intersection of art, technology and human experience.

As Co-Founder and CCO of PRESENT Studios, he leads experience architecture projects that combine neuroscience, storytelling and emerging technology.

Previously, Josh founded Fake Love, which was acquired by The New York Times, and served as Chief Creative Officer at Deeplocal, part of WPP. His work has received recognition including Cannes Lions Grand Prix, Clio and Fast Company Innovation Awards.

Josh is also a Professor of Practice at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design, where he teaches designers to create intelligent, emotionally resonant experiences.

How to watch this Experience Briefing:

• Experience Briefings are available for WXO members only
• To join the WXO, please head to our Application page
• The WXO is a global home for the leaders, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy
• As a member, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings

Timings:

Session #2 is suitable for those in the US or Europe, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone:

• London: 17:55 – 19:00
• Paris: 18:55 – 20:00
• Los Angeles: 09:55 – 11:00
• Santa Fe: 10:55 – 12:00
• Chicago: 11:55 – 13:00
• New York: 12:55 – 14:00
• São Paulo, Santiago & Buenos Aires: 13:55 – 15:00