With so many products, interfaces, and smart systems around us, designers now face a new challenge: creating designs that do more than just function. They must build genuine emotional connections. At a recent talk, designer and founder Leonardo B. Foureaux explained this shift: design should move from focusing on form to prioritising feeling.
Before anyone interacts with a product, they first see it and, even more, imagine it.
We connect to objects through stories that come from product pages, social posts, or word of mouth. We give things meaning before we use them. That meaning shapes our expectations, trust, and desires.
This idea reframes the designer's role. The main argument is that effective design is not only about problem-solving and utility—it’s about actively shaping perception and emotion.
People naturally connect with stories. Images stick with us more than words. Emotions outlast facts. When images and emotions meet, they leave a lasting impression.
This affects design. A feature-focused product competes on logic. A product with a story competes on memory.
Today, as technology quickly catches up across the board, what people remember sets products apart.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the AI industry.
Most AI companies use precise language, focusing on data, performance, scale, and intelligence. Visually, this often means abstract colours, futuristic designs, and a feeling of speed and certainty.
But public opinion is different. Many people feel unsure about AI, and some are even afraid of it.
There is a clear gap. The industry talks about what AI can do, but people react based on how it makes them feel.
The brands that do well are the ones that bridge this gap. They do not just make the technology simpler; they tell a human story around it.
One compelling example comes from a recent AI initiative that replaced the typical product launch with something unexpected: a physical café.
Instead of showing off features, the project invited people to experience something new. There were real spaces, real conversations, and real materials. The look and feel moved away from digital perfection. It became more hands-on, imperfect, and human.
This was not a branding exercise. It was a narrative device.
Connecting complex technology to something familiar and emotional changed how people saw it. They didn't just understand the product. They believed in it.
And belief drives adoption.
As AI systems become increasingly capable of generating images, text, and even entire design systems, a natural question arises: what remains uniquely human in the design process?
According to Foureaux, the answer lies in how we think.
AI translates images into words and meaning into statistics. Humans, however, think in shapes, connections, and feelings.
We do not just recognise a chair. We imagine sitting in it. We recall memories attached to similar objects. We interpret context instinctively.
This difference may seem small, but it is important. It is where storytelling happens.
Interestingly, this human advantage can be leveraged even when working with AI.
When people create visuals or ideas, most prompts are plain descriptions, like gossip, often straightforward and sometimes unclear. The results reflect it.
When prompts are structured like a screenplay, something changes. When designers define the scene, lighting, composition, and action, they guide AI to clearer, more expressive results.
In this way, designers are not just making objects anymore. They are directing scenes, much like filmmakers.
Adopting a story-first approach also changes how design teams operate.
Instead of focusing only on features or deliverables, teams unite around a shared story. Decisions aren't made in isolation; they're judged by how well they support the story.
This creates clarity. It reduces friction. And perhaps most importantly, it brings stakeholders into the same creative space.
The dynamic shifts from negotiation to collaboration.
At its core, the move from form to feeling is a shift in scale.
Design is no longer about making single objects. Now, it’s about building worlds that make sense, have meaning, and connect emotionally. Products serve as gateways into these worlds. Interfaces tell stories. Every interaction builds the bigger picture.
For design-driven organisations, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to go beyond making things work well and to start building stories into every aspect of design. The opportunity is to create work that performs and endures through its emotional connections.
As technology changes quickly and features become common, how something makes us feel is no longer just an extra. It is what sets things apart.
Designers who understand this argument will shape not just products, but also lasting perceptions and authentic human connections.
The question is no longer how something works. It is how it makes us feel.
Hands-on and multidisciplinary, Leonardo thrives at the intersection of physical and digital — bringing analogue warmth, material intuition, and strategic clarity to the products people live with.
“For me, design is a discipline of consequence. It shapes environments, and environments shape us: how we act, how we feel, what we remember. Every surface, every interaction, every silence in a product is a choice about the world we're building.”
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