Designing the right spikes of dopamine for the best audience experience

_{CO-AUTHORS Jessica Weickert & Emma DiGiammarino}

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THE SEARCH FOR MORE 

After years of sensory deprivation and isolation from the pandemic, we all searched for deeper meaning and connection. We sought-out experiences that “made us feel something” — the ones that tapped into all of our senses and brought us closer to joy.

Hundreds of dopamine destinations and multisensory experiences started to pop up everywhere — vibrant playscapes, eatertainment spaces, immersive art exhibits, the list goes on. We got out of our homes and we started to live fully again, finally getting the surge of happiness we’ve all been waiting for, right? 

Wrong. 

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DOPAMINE OVERLOAD 

Today, more research is emerging about how the pandemic sparked a “sensory revolution” — completely transforming the way we navigate our senses and combat feelings of overstimulation. The Washington Post reported last month how too much sensory stimulation can impact our overall well-being, mental health, and how we handle our emotions.

And we’re seeing many examples of this post-pandemic-overstimulation-aftermath in our culture today.

Take concert-goers for example. “Harries” describe the Harry Styles' concert as a “fever dream” but the moment he left the stage, an intense grieving process began and this feeling of “I won’t experience something like this for months” settled in. We also saw “Swifties” report on experiencing “Taynesia” where some don’t even remember being at the concert due to the overwhelming amount of spectacles, lights, props, movement, and fireworks. 

We’re also still seeing this in the digital space. People are saying endless swiping is proving to be bad for their mental health. Gen Zers are readopting “flip phones” in a response to digital overstimulation that has been causing endless distractions and anxiety. And some are even taking digital detoxes to another level by cutting out any behaviors that they turn to too frequently for “a quick boost.” 

Don’t get us wrong. There is a time and place for dopamine and multisensory experiences. In fact, when a multisensory experience is done well, it can lead to 70% more brand engagement (Stylus, 2022). It’s when we ONLY focus on the big, memorable, dopamine moments, the experience itself loses its impact and ends up overstimulating your audience. We end up giving people way too many flows, and not enough ebbs.

So how do we serve up the right “dopamine recipe” to our audiences? 

The answer is by designing for the entire emotional journey — end-to-end — while embracing reflection, mindfulness, and lo-fi moments along the way.

DESIGNING FOR THE EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

Diane Magers, the founder and CEO of Experience Catalysts, talked with the World Experience Organization about this idea around “emotional conversion.” She believes experience designers, when mapping a journey, focus way too much on the emotional impact of the intended experience, and forget to focus on the emotions before and after the experience. This results in broken or negative endings, and we are missing an opportunity to design for positive counter-endings (WXO, Campfire, 2023).

So, how do we design for emotional-conversion and those positive counter-endings along the audience’s journey? 

We believe there are three main ways to do this:

1. Know your audience. Dive deep into understanding their wants, needs, hopes, desires, and challenges. How are they feeling at this moment in time? 

2. Define the touchpoints. Based on what you know about your audience, what types of touchpoints and engagements would align well to their behavior and learning styles?
   
   
3. Map emotions against touchpoints. Think about how you want to nurture your audience’s emotions from one touchpoint to the next. What do you want your audience to feel before, during and after the experience? 

Now that you have your arms wrapped around how to design for the emotional journey, let’s talk about if you do decide to include dopamine-boosting, multisensory touch points along the journey. How do you make sure your experience is balanced and you aren’t overstimulating your audience, or worse, sending them into a grief-state like the “Harries”? This is where we think moments of reflection, mindfulness, and lo-fi will be key.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF REFLECTION, MINDFULNESS, AND LO-FI

Embracing quiet, lo-fi moments that allow your audience to open their minds, shed emotional clutter, and tune out the noise around them is a powerful way to deeply connect them to not only your brand, but also themselves and the world at large. Just look at meditation – according to the National Library of Medicine, meditating just a few minutes a day can hone abilities such as focused attention, working memory, and acceptance. In turn, these are thought to have long-term positive effects on awareness, emotional regulation, and perspectives on the self.

And Mat Duerden and J Robert Rossmann — award-winning experience design experts — only reiterate the importance of reflection in their book Designing Experiences. They talk about how brands can’t just bombard audiences with one memorable touchpoint after the other; there must also be meaningful and transformative moments along the journey in order to facilitate positive changes in attitudes, behaviors, and even identities. This is where they say deep discovery, contemplation, and intro-spection are imperative to turning an ordinary experience into an extraordinary one.

And we are already seeing tons of trends around this — here are the ones that have inspired us lately:

Festivals are providing stress-reducing goodies, adult coloring books, hammocks, and mental health resources on-site for concert-goers

“Silent walking” is going viral on TikTok to help people clear their heads amongst their busy, chaotic lifestyles

Lo-fi multisensory immersion is starting to pop up in the form of music through atmospheric live orchestral tributes, jazz cafes, and listening bars

Vibrant social wellness experiences that blend mindful meditation practices with light and sound are on the rise

Hyperphysical stores are channeling a renaissance of imaginative minimalism

‍CREATING INTENTIONAL, EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCES

So let’s redefine what a “dopamine-rich” experience really is by designing for the entire emotional journey and incorporating moments of reflection, mindfulness, and lo-fi culture. Because when you emotionally move your audience from one touchpoint to the next with intention, you turn your experience from ordinary to extraordinary.

‍_{Article Image Source: Rod Long on Unsplash}‍