Intro
Most people can tell when something feels good or bad to use.
Whether it be a great website, a well designed app on your phone, or even something as simple as a kitchen knife. There are small details hidden in all of these things that are instantly recognizable.
I've been calling this Rendered Feeling.
There are three places this shows up most often: interfaces, objects, and moments. In interfaces, it's how well a user is able to interact with it. In objects, it’s how well that object solves a particular problem. And in moments, it's the culmination of both interfaces and objects making you remember something great.
These details might go unnoticed, but they still matter and shape how everything feels to use. Going unnoticed is not entirely a bad thing, it's actually often a good thing, as it means whatever you've built works well and feels natural for people to use.
And sometimes it's difficult for people to explain why something feels good, but even in those instances, there is that small voice in your head telling you that whatever you are interacting with is a joy to use.
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The Reveal
Product launches are an example of moments. They are designed to trigger a very specific reaction to audiences. Take this MacBook Air commercial from 2008. What's the first thing that comes to mind?
I personally believe this is Apple's strongest commercial they've ever released.
These product launches used to feel different. Not because every product was revolutionary, but because the breakthroughs in technology were clearer. The first of everything. The first iPhone. The first VR headset. The first graphics card.
Nowadays, product launches mostly focus on iteration. Slightly better camera, slightly larger battery, new chips. The improvements are still real, but the moments feel smaller.
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Comparison
One simple way to understand rendered feeling is through comparison. In this search component, pay attention to how its movements feel intentional. They're snappy, responsive, and feel like they have real weight.
And if we look at a version where these balances are off, it feels unpolished. Not nearly as delightful to use.
Motion
The first search bar uses a set of spring animations that are meant to be paired together. The second one purposefully mixes multiple curves that don’t share similar behaviors. Notice how one feels better to interact with than the other?
That's because springs tend to feel more natural because they mirror how things move in the physical world. They accelerate, overshoot slightly, and settle into place.
Linear animations on the other hand move at a constant speed and stop abruptly and in the real world, there are very few things that move like that. Movement in nature is rarely perfectly straight or perfectly constant.
Take a school of sardines for example. As they move, the entire school moves and expands as a single fluid group. No individual fish follows a linear rigid path.
Sardines actually move in these enormously large schools to protect themselves from predators.
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Don Norman
While thinking about this, I came across Don Norman’s TED Talk: How Design Makes You Happy, which felt like a natural extension of Rendered Feeling. He breaks emotional responses in design into three levels: visceral, behavioral, and reflective.
The model starts with appearance and utility — the inputs that shape a product. By the time it reaches the user, those decisions surface as three distinct responses: visceral, behavioral, and reflective.
Visceral
The first is visceral or your gut reaction. It's an immediate response we have to the way something looks. Everyone has it, you know within the first few seconds of looking at something whether you like it or not.
Norman mentions buying a juicer by Philippe Starck just because he liked the way it looked.
"I have it in my entryway, I don't use it to make juice"
Hero sections are a great example of visceral design. It's the first thing a user sees before they've scrolled or read anything about a product.
Take this hero section from Family’s website. The gentle fade-in of the illustrations, paired with the overall layout, creates a sense of balance. More than anything, it feels welcoming — inviting you in to explore and learn more about the product.
Behavioral
Behavioral is about how a product feels when you use it — its usability, performance, and how well it helps you accomplish something.
In this section, Norman talks about a well-balanced knife. He points out its shape, the balance of the knife in the hand, and the sharpness of the blade, calling it a delight to use.
Interfaces can create a similar feeling when they are precise and feel like an extension of yourself.
Think about when you edit text in a document. Selections are predictable, the menus and toolbars are organized for maximum efficiency, and it all happens instantly. Behavioral design works here as the tool you are using responds to your intentions perfectly, allowing you to focus on your work.
Reflective
Lastly, Reflective design is less about what a product does and more about what it represents. Norman calls it the little voice in your head that watches and judges: “That’s good. That’s bad. Why are you doing that?”
Norman mentions that a Hummer owner said, 'I've owned a bunch of cars — all sorts of exotic ones — but never one that got this much attention.' It wasn't actually about the attention the car drew. It was about him.
An example I think of for reflective design is a portfolio tracker. The data being viewed is all the same, but everyone's experience is entirely unique. For one person, a full green UI meant they made the correct call that day. And for the next guy with a screen full of red, it's an example of how much you have to lose.
The numbers themselves never change, what does change is your inner Don Norman voice, which either congratulates you on your earnings, or scolds you of your losses.
Closing
Rendered Feeling is a great ideology because it’s ultimately never fully definable. What triggers this emotional reaction in one person may not trigger it in the next, which creates a kind of uniqueness in all of us. Take a step back next time you are interacting with something for the first time. Go through Norman's three levels design and see if you can pinpoint exactly what falls into each category for you. It may change your entire perspective on something.