YOUR CLIENT’S BRAIN

We have been considering what is happening when your client hates your design. We have discussed both emotional and logical responses of our clients.

So it was with great interest to learn about a new paper in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. A team led by Dr. Ezequiel Morsella at San Francisco State University came to the conclusion that our consciousness is solely directed by our unconscious mind. Their “Passive Frame Theory” indicate that our logical and reasoned world are merely the mouthpiece for what has already been decided.

This of course is completely contrary to the way that we want to think of ourselves. Here in the enlightened and modern West, we would like to think that our actions and opinions are the product of careful logical considerations.

When you look at a piece of art, or a client looks at your design, we would like to think that we base our opinions coolly and rationally. Yet this study refutes that understanding.

There is a heck of a lot at stake when a client makes a decision to either accept or reject your design. What happens in this interaction shapes the quality of your client’s lives. And it also impacts the course of your own work.

The act of presenting your work is nearly sacred. And the ongoing psychological studies of how our minds really operate is something that we should start to be aware of as designers.  We should know more about our client’s brain.