Course Details
Duration: 3 Days; Instructor Led
The Persuasion, Emotion and Trust in Design (PET Design™) are a structured course in designing persuasive, trust-building experiences that guide and support confident human decision-making at scale. This course introduces the principles and judgments required to make trust and ethical influence a deliberate outcome of design. The course frames persuasion as a condition architected through deep understanding of human cognition, emotion, context, and cultural expectation. Drawing on behavioral economics, cognitive science, and ethical frameworks, it enables professionals to design experiences that build genuine trust, drive meaningful engagement, and operate responsibly within complex human–AI systems.
Audience
The Persuasion, Emotion and Trust in Design (PET Design™) course are designed for professionals who need to evaluate experience decisions with science-based rigor and translate actionable directions for teams and leadership.
Prerequisites
No Prerequisite
Methodology
This program will be conducted with interactive lectures, PowerPoint presentation, discussion and practical exercise.
Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, you will demonstrate mastery in:
- Persuasion Psychology: Apply scarcity, social proof, reciprocity, authority, and behavioral economics principles ethically in digital experience.
- Trust-Centered Design: Design transparency, credibility signals, and security cues that establish and sustain user trust across digital journeys.
- Emotional Design: Create experiences that engage users emotionally in ways that support confident decision-making — not manipulation.
- HFI PET™ Framework: Apply HFI’s structured, repeatable methodology to assess influence needs and design ethical persuasive systems.
- Dark Pattern Recognition: Identify and avoid design patterns that exploit cognitive shortcuts at the expense of user trust and long-term relationships.
- Behavioral Research Methods: Conduct PET™-focused research to understand user motivation, emotional state, and decision context.
Outlines
Module 1: Fundamentals of PET Design™
- The principles of psychological influence as they apply to digital experience
- How persuasion, emotion, and trust function together as a designed system — not isolated tactics
- The ethical responsibilities of designing experiences that guide human decisions
Module 2: Building Trust in UX
- How users evaluate credibility, transparency, and reliability in digital environments
- Design strategies that establish and sustain trust across journeys and touchpoints
- The long-term cost of trust erosion — and how to design against it
Module 3: Emotional Design for Engagement
- Norman’s model of emotional design and how it applies to digital experience
- Designing for emotional states that support confident, comfortable decision-making
- The distinction between emotional resonance and emotional manipulation
Module 4: Persuasion Through Facts & Experience
- Using evidence, demonstration, and immersive experience to guide user judgment
- Framing information in ways that support — rather than distort — user decision-making
- Applying rational persuasion methods without sacrificing clarity or credibility
Module 5: Framing & First Impressions
- The role of priming, scarcity, social proof, and anchoring in shaping user attention
- How first impressions are formed in digital environments — and how to design for them ethically
- Avoiding design patterns that exploit cognitive shortcuts rather than serving user intent
Module 6: Psychological Pressure in UX
- Authority, reciprocity, and consistency influence mechanisms in digital contexts
- How to apply these principles in ways that respect user autonomy and build lasting trust
- Recognizing and avoiding dark patterns that undermine credibility and user relationships
Module 7: HFI PET™ Framework & Methodology
- The structured PET™ process: how to assess trust needs, emotional states, and contextual influence
- Applying the PET™ model as a consistent, repeatable organizational practice
- Using AI and behavioral data as supporting tools while keeping human judgment central
