The role of personality in design

Canvs Editorial
UX Collective
Published in
5 min readDec 18, 2021

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Personality can be felt as a force that both attracts us and repels us from others. It’s the driving force of the overall identity. Personality has a significant effect on our decision-making process, and thus, it can be a powerful tool to use in design.

Similar to how we are drawn to people with great characteristics, we are also drawn to designs that showcase personality. It allows there to be an emotional connection between the brand and consumers. Emotional design’s primary goal is to facilitate human-to-human communication.

If we’re doing our job well, the computer recedes into the background, and personalities rise to the surface.

When designing, it should be more than showing off your skills. The importance of working with several clients is to show your variety and sprinkle your personality while also aiming to incorporate theirs.

Knowing how to incorporate personality into your work is a lifelong skill that needs to be worked on.

Personality can be seen in various fields of design; however, it’s perceived differently. Let’s take a look at how different design areas consider personality.

1. Web Design:

Designers are trying to create a more human-to-human experience when interacting with interfaces. Personality is how you make that come to life. Implementing character can be as simple as a “good morning” greeting, with the addition of the user’s name. We are more likely to trust UI’s that address us directly. This small addition can successfully help increase returning users.

Personality comes through in design through visual aesthetics, typography, and interactions. All these design decisions need to be carefully considered. If your website were a person, who would it be? It is essential to list out characteristics you want your website to portray as well as the emotions you want it to evoke. The end goal is to bring out the personality and forget you are interacting with a computer.

What makes a good design is an easy navigation and easy understandability however, the difference between good and great design can be seen through personality.

2. Interior Design:

Personality is filled with emotions and forming and developing human connections. Designing a home, a place where people want to feel comfortable and a place where people want to invite their loved ones require deep dives into personality. It’s crucial to understand what emotions you want to associate with your home.

Design styles are very different from personalities. Styles refer to what you want your home to look like. These include minimalistic, bohemian, or even vintage. On the other hand, personality refers to what you want the home to feel like. What emotions do you want to evoke when someone walks into the space? These questions are important to address when designing your home as it the primary components to creating the atmosphere.

3. Graphic Design

Personality in terms of graphic design focuses on the brand identity values and ideologies. It speaks to people and emotionally engages its audience.

Emotional connections are memorable and thus great marketing.

Personality allows companies to establish a brand and communicate their values. The values are what people connect with.

We all have unique personality traits; that’s why incorporating your authentic self into brands is the best marketing. When we see ourselves in product marketing through their storytelling, it forms a valuable connection, which in turn is more likely to earn you a loyal consumer. We enjoy supporting brands that are similar to us.

4. Fine Arts

The fine arts you create, allow you to express your personality, and the fine arts you are attracted to, reveal your personality.

From the colour palette to the stoke artists choose to use, art can make the personality shine through. People enjoy art for the emotions it evokes, it allows people to relate and connect with the artwork.

It can be challenging to produce art with an emotion in mind. It’s helpful to create when you are experiencing the emotion. That way it’s true, authentic, and relatable.

One of the greatest artists of all time, Picasso, showcases this through his blue period, a time when he suffered through depression. What can be seen in his paintings are sombre colours which evoke sadness and dispiriting emotions. On a more positive note, fine arts can bring people together and spark conversation.

5. Design with Personality

Although different design fields look at personality in different lights, they pay attention to personality nonetheless.

We crave human-to-human connection and thus we long to see reflections of ourselves in design. It helps us connect, relate and empathize with the work.

Designing with personality could mean having creative workplaces or being surrounded by creative energy. Whatever you need to do, get yourself on the page.

The Canvs Editorial team comprises of: Editorial Writer and Researcher- Paridhi Agrawal and Anjali Baliga, the Editor’s Desk- Aalhad Joshi and Debprotim Roy, and Content Operations- Abin Rajan

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