In the 1960s, Professor Albert Mehrabian had a theory about nonverbal communication. He believed there were subtle ways people convey likes/dislikes, power/leadership, discomfort/insecurity, social attractiveness, persuasion, and when people are deceptive.

According to the studies of Mehrabian, the 7-38-55 Communication Model was born. The model claimed that 7% of the meaning of feelings and attitudes was translated into words used in verbal communications, 38% through tone and voice, and 55% through body language, especially facial expressions.

Maximilien Joannides, co-founder and president of the French start-up Adaptossays his company wants to humanize the way digital and physical products are designed around the emotions of the user.

Odaptos has created a proprietary video conferencing tool using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect emotions for use in product testing with customers when using digital devices such as web pages, apps and mobile apps. “Emotions play an important role in how humans learn, accept, and engage in old and new experiences,” Joannides said.

The company uses natural language processing and analysis to define the sentiment and sentimental charge of negative, neutral and positive emotions. The tool also uses facial recognition to analyze seven universal emotions – happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, disgust and contempt.

Businesses in a variety of industries—healthcare, marketing, development, and e-commerce—can use AI to test any digital product accessed and used from a browser. Product testers connect to the Odaptos video conferencing application and answer questions while actively using the digital product under test.

Joannide refers to Don Normanthe author of The design of everyday things, who said that design is an act of communication which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer communicates. Norman points out that for people connect to designit must be visceral, behavioral and reflexive.

Nattu AdnanCTO and co-founder, LottieFiles, said that when you have an emotionally engaging digital experience, it’s the experience you’ll remember and potentially come back to. “The dynamic images and movements associated with these emotions remain in our memory for a long time, sometimes forever,” adds Adnan.

“Emotional design articulates the profound influence of the feelings that objects (digital and physical) evoke – from our willingness to spend hours on an app or spend lots of money on Rolex watches to the impact of emotion on tomorrow’s everyday objects,” says Joannides.

Joannides says Odaptos’ AI enables product designers to use emotional research in their daily work to create products that meet the real needs of their users.

“Compared to data-driven design which can be biased and lead to misinterpretation, companies can now create a better and more intuitive experience to reduce friction. It also helps increase acceptance of digital products, increase engagement and, therefore, revenue by creating the right product for their customers,” added Joannides.

“One of the biggest cost, time and resource challenges for companies is user testing. Researchers who conduct interviews lose about 25% of what is said and 30% of non-verbal communication” , said Joannides. “With our AI, we can speed up the data analysis process and provide automated reports that can help product teams gain direct, quality insights based on user emotions.”

Hedwig Heinsmanchief creative director and co-founder of Real, said that for her company, emotional design guides how she empowers her users to create designs. Aectual, which uses 3D printing technology, focuses on creating circular and customizable interior furniture and architectural finishes.

Heinsman says Norman’s theory influences Aectual’s design algorithms. “His theory ensures that what you create is always a jar, and a beautiful one. This ties back to his ideas about affordances, which is that for products to be effective, affordances must be noticeable,” Heinsman said.