How Design Shapes Our Behaviour, Thinking and Emotions (2024)

Have you ever entered a messy room and instantly felt uneasy, or seen a painting that’s tilted and had a strong urge to fix it? Visuals have a great impact on us mentally. Infact, there are many phobias related to shapes and sizes. Trypophobia is an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps. This because these shapes remind us of diseases that are caused by parasites or infections, in fact it is an evolutionary response. Since shapes, colours and sizes that our visual senses take in can impact our mood , behaviour and thinking, thoughtful design is very important.

We often associate colours with emotions, yellow with happiness, red with love or anger, blue and white with calm. These associations are also made by your mind when you see a certain colour on a wall or a painting. Waking up everyday to blood-red walls or a dark black dingy room can leave you feeling at edge or gloomy. Interior designers carefully note colour associations when they pick colours for your house. Colours also have the ability to transport you. A blue and white colour scheme could remind you of seabreeze even if you live miles away from the ocean. However, it is important to note that people do have personal associations with various colours. It’s important to uncover personal relations with colours and shapes while trying to ascertain the right design. Another important aspect is to see how colours match. Arbitrarily choosing colours can make the space seem chaotic and therefore also impact your mind.

A design shapes the way you think, when things are clustered you might feel uneasy. If clarity is what you require then a minimalist design might be beneficial for you. If creativity is what you wish for then perhaps a colourful design with a dynamic use of shapes would be beneficial.

Design clearly shapes how we think and behave, it guides our emotions. People are complex and different and so different types of designs suit people differently but ultimately the correct design could mean stability, success, calm, happiness and the wrong design could result in gloom, discord, anger and frustration.