Ep 304| Rasa theory - Game Changing Skill for Designers

We are so fortunate to live. But this point the reason our ancestors have created an immense wealth of knowledge with respect to art and culture. And sadly we were not able to revive it properly or we were not able to evoke the same things what these people have did in the earlier centuries. I'm talking about 500 years before. Thousand years before. Yes. Guys, being a designer, if you are not going back, if we are not able to understand what is mean by emotions and the different type of emotions and how it can able to influence the design and creativity, we are missing a larger part of it. Maybe the trend would have changed, maybe people would have started talking about digital interfaces and XR extended reality, AR augmented reality and lot more things. But end of the day, what kind of emotions are you evoking? Are you making the people feel joy, courage, happy, frustrated? What is the emotion what you wanted to really evoke? If you are very successful in delivering that, you are already doing a great job. If you wanted to feel okay, Jagdish. I still feel that I need to evoke a proper emotion with my customers and the products and the screens and the interfaces. What I'm creating then this podcast is exactly for you where I'm going to break down nine different type of emotions and why it is very important for a designer to do it. Okay, so with this context we'll jump into this podcast. Guys, foreign guys, welcome to this podcast. I really love recording this episode. The reason being it is one of the epitome of all of the episodes. I would say the reason being this is where the end of the day meets the customer needs. Because people like functionality, people like aesthetics, people like products. But what people don't tell is how are they feeling when they are able to use the product or the digital interfaces or the physical products or whatever. What really customers evoke an emotion while you are using your products. Nobody can able to put it in a word so nobody will be able to describe it. You as a designer have to really understand this, why it is important. Let me tell you guys, there are certain products which the half life of the product is just one day or maybe two days, or maybe one week, or maybe one month, or maybe max to max one year. Certain products are out of the market. That means that half life has died. But there are certain products which last for years. Like let's say BMW, like let's say Rolls Royce, like let's say Apple, Nike. So these brands are really established by understanding this emotions and how they can able to evoke for the user experience. What the product and service they design. The moment when you understand your designs will become so connected. Your designs will be building a legacy. And that will not last anytime soon. It's going to go beyond hundreds and hundreds of years, guys. That is the exact thing why I'm recording this podcast. Okay? See product with emotional resonance. Increase the engagement of the users by 45 percentage. UX Collective said that 90 percentage of the snap judgments about products are based on color association. Journal of Consumer research said that 63% of the user Remember, emotional engaging story is better than visual data, factual data. Harvard Business Review said that more important, emotionally connected users are 52% more valuable to the brand than satisfied users. Remember guys, people are building a huge brand by understanding this very simple principle. Capgemini Research Institute said that. So what is this Rasa theory? Jagdish, what is this emotion what you're talking about? Can you give me a gist of it? The topic is very easy to understand, but it is very difficult to consciously implement it. Okay, Rasa theory has made from the Indian ancient aesthetics. Guys, you can read about it a little bit, can you? Okay, from Natya Shastra you can read about this. This is where the origination happened. And this refers to the emotion and the essence, what has been evoked by art or expression. The art could be dance, music, painting, sculpture, designs, product. Everything doesn't matter, okay? Even the architecture. So the point here is we'll have to evoke a different emotion. It influences and connect with your audience a lot. See guys, if you're designing a craft, if you are making invoke a certain, a certain specific emotion, you will drive the engagement. You will engage and retain the user for a long time. You will make them satisfied and they are going to come and buy your products again and again and again. And you make a lot of revenues and profits over the time. So why businesses are really thriving. Businesses are ultimately waiting for the conversions to happen. What are the point of coming into the E commerce website? People has to buy that, right? People has to convert and buy this product. So how these are all the things which is very, very important for our businesses. And being a fresher also, you need to get this consciousness, guys. Okay, so why it is very consciously why it is needed for a design, first of all, to build an emotional connection. Second, you will have a cross cultural application. See, the roots are there in Indian aesthetics, but it is a universal human response, guys. It's a universal human emotional response. I would say at the heart user experience is all about storytelling and branding. Guys, that's why it's very relevant in the modern time also practically it makes the business grow because of this impact. So this is the basic theory and the explanation of Rasa theory. Okay. What are these nine emotions? Jagdish. Okay, please make a note of it guys. I'm going to explain you with an examples as well. Okay. So the very first emotion, what I would say is Sringara which is like love and beauty. Are you evoking joy and attraction in your products? Have you seen the Spotify application? Guys, have you seen the Spotify application? It's like this joy that you feel that people are listening to that. And there is a little curiosity also associated with it. Okay, there is another emotion called Hasya Laugher. Can you see the toy story? That brand is making you fun, right? It's laugher. Like a lot of humorous. This fosters the humor and light heartedness. You become so light hearted if you're evoking the feeling of laughter. Can you see Coca Cola packaging Hasya joyful seasonal camping which evokes happiness. You can able to see that. Okay, so lot of times we need to understand why. Okay, this actually takes it the product connect with the user. So compassion is one of the best, best emotion In. In. In. In. In. In Sanskrit and Hindi. In Tamil they call it as Karuna Karunai. Okay, so the fourth emotion is anger Raudra. Okay, I think you would have seen this film rrr. Okay, it's all about the three Rs. Is about emotion which was one of the film which was directed by Dr. Rajamouli and I mean that film really went into Oscar for the song, for the expression and art and everything. Okay, so anger is an emotion. Raudra. Are you provoking intensity? Are you provoking urgency? See people who are using the very hard applications like let's say the nuclear power plant interface or the aircraft pilot cockpit and also the people who are using the ship warfare ships. So are you really evoking that kind of emotion over there in their interface? Because they are also human who is interacting with the. With the missiles and technology and bombs. What happens if they make the mistake? What happen if they keep feeling very differently? They will not engage in for a particular point of time. You need to understand this guys. Okay, it's all about how emotion you were being. Can you see the WWF logo? The environmental animal wala not the wrestling wala one. Okay, so it evokes a karuna compassion. The panda symbol inspires empathy for the environment. So you need to think about it guys, because it's all about how and the emotions, what you create. Okay, and next is Veera Courage. Are you encouraging empowerment and strength? It's about courage, right? How are you really doing that? See your colors, your choices and everything will actually make that feel okay. So the fifth emotion, sorry, the sixth emotion is fear. Bhayanaka highlighting caution or suspense. Are you creating that? See guys, many times your application or a product will not evoke all the emotions. That's not really required. Sometimes it will evoke only one or two emotions. That's totally fine. But end of the day you need to understand there should be some kind of an emotion which a product or service needs to offer or people would not be able to engage with your content or the designs, whatever you're creating. Seventh is disgust. Evoking rejection or critical evaluation. Like let's say if you wanted to delete a screen, you want to make the user delete a particular screen or go ahead, you can use this emotion, disgust so that they get. They're getting rid of this, right? So you can literally play this for a functional reason at that particular point of time to create a different action for the user. And the eighth one is Abootha Wonder. Wonderful. It's a stimulating curiosity. You can see the Amazon logo. One of our student actually marked this example. So the emotion of Wonder Curiosity. You can see Netflix. You can see the amazement. What people get to open the Netflix app and start watching. You can see the Instagram the wonder. Okay, you can see Sringara also love beauty for Instagram app. Okay, so this is the eighth emotion. Wonder Aboota. Okay, the last but the superb emotion is Shanta Peace. This bring calm and serenity into your life. This is the nine emotions. Guys, I hope this is really clear for you. Okay? Okay, Jagdish, you're saying you're telling nine emotions is there? But how to evoke that, how to really do that? There are key techniques to do it, guys. First of all, you can use storytelling. You can create a lot of good narratives and write stories. First of all, how your user is going to involve in this product and interact with that, is it aligning to the design goals what you're creating? If you can able to do that, then automatically it invokes an emotion. Second, you can use visual elements that we pretty much know. You can use colors, you can use images, you can use graphics, you can use typeface, you can use textures, you can use any fancy gradients, colors. This is all a visual part of it. Okay, the third one Contextual cues. See, you can include elements which resonate with that user in mind. Like you can put product, you can put emotion, you can put that elements like let's say button like let's say a cool gifs or maybe something like a graphics. I'm talking about cues which can able to make the people take certain action. So there are three elements which I told you. First is storytelling. Second is visual element. Third is contextual cues. See, these are all the three mechanics with which you can able to evoke this nine rasas what I told you. Love, beauty, laughter, compassion, anger, courage, fear, disgust, wonder, peace. Have you seen the Bardhanatyam dance? Have you seen many art and expressive dances? They try to evoke these nine different type of rasa and even while their people are singing the song and they are able to evoke a different type of emotion while they were performing the art. So artists consciously do it. Artists consciously do it because they want to express this 9 emotion. But as a designer, are we really creating this? Are we really evoking these nine emotions? Or at least two or three or partially some of it based on the context what you have then you are becoming a true artist for your design. So what happens if you do like that? Lot of insane engagement will come to your users. Guys, I can tell you a lot of case studies. Spotify app can you see it evokes wonder Personalized Year end review features Spark Curiosity Calm app I told you Shanta Peace it evokes what you call the visuals and the sound evokes relaxation. A serene visuals. You can say Nike just do it camping. It's like courage, bold visuals, motivational Message, inspiring action LinkedIn Learning Sringara Love a personalized course suggestion which increases the satisfaction of the user. Dyson vacuum Cleaner if you talk about physical product design Wonder When I see the Dyson vacuum cleaner I feel so wonder. Oh my God. How does it product really work? They're like insanely superior technology packed with an elegant design. Coca Cola packaging We talked about a Tesla Shanta Calm Peace if you go into the Tesla's car, you'll be so calm. They want to evoke a different emotion for it. McDonald's logo love bright colors and inviting curves and evoke happiness. Airbnb campaigns it's about Sringara and Karuna Two emotions are mixed. Focus on human connection as well as belonging. Because Airbnb is all about coming and staying and trusting, right? So they wanted to evoke that feeling of human connection and belonging. Instagram stories Wonder Dynamic creative content creates a Lot of curiosity and spark. Starbucks seasonal cups. Playful design Hasya have you seen Netflix recommendations like let's say sometimes it's fear Suspenseful trailer hook reviews. So the thing is it will make the people hook into that particular movie and watch it. What is this fear Scary movie. Something like that. Right? So think about guys. Each and every product and service has a different way to evoke a different emotion. You can take Uber app, you can take Lego playsets. It invokes Veera encourage curiosity and creativity. Abootha and Veera. So sometimes you will have have even two emotions coming into the play. Okay. So now having heard this I would recommend you to try with storyboarding. Try with color psychology, try with motion and animation, try with tone of voice. Sometimes a microcopy should reflect the intended emotion aligning with the design. So use visuals, use storytelling, use voice, anything guys, it doesn't matter. Can you try to do one activity which I'm telling you right now. Can you take a physical or additional product screen or maybe physical interface or something and try to understand what 3 emotion? Is it really working? And can you mark that in that picture and send me as a jpeg or a PDF file? There is an email attached to below guys connectdesignforchange.com and people are sending that email. I'll give them a free gift of 30 minutes one to one call with them reviewing their portfolio and resume and I'm going to help them with their career strategy in that call. And I'm going to give them three PDF guides which is most awakening like let's say I'm going to give you certain chat GPT prompts which if you put it in your chat GPT screens automatically you will analyze and find the emotional impact of that design using the RASA theory. How many of you would like to what you call experience that I would request you to take action because listening to this podcast and leaving is not going to help you with anything. You will have to take that small activity. It hardly takes few minutes. Open your phone, take a screenshot of any one image, mark that in your WhatsApp screen or something and just save it as a PDF or GIF and just send an email. It takes hardly three minutes and you will be getting an entire life changing one to one call with me with that thing. Okay? I hope you will take this action and you will also receive a chatgpt prompts along with this thing. Okay? And I also wanted to invite you for my upcoming webinar which the link is pasted below and I will also invite you to my YouTube live where I created a one hour session for this topic. What you've seen is just a quick snap. Okay, so you can go and watch that one hour Live where I open the screen and shared in detail. You can able to come and watch that. You can also register for my upcoming webinar at 10 o' clock, Sunday, November 24 if you're watching this later. Also, you can come for the next Sunday webinar and we'll see you live there, guys. Okay. I hope this podcast would have given you a great clarity. Thank you so much for connecting. If you feel this podcast has added value, give me a best star rating in Apple and Spotify and do spread for your other friends as well. Okay? Thank you so much guys. Happy learning. We'll see you in another episode.