Emotional Design Psychology & Neuroscience [EDP]
Learn how to build emotionally-driven technology & campaigns
Classroom & Online Training
Companies that train with AlterSpark


Discover how to build emotionally intelligent websites, apps, content and campaigns based on psychology and neuroscience.

This class will transform your understanding of what emotions are, how they work and what shapes user decision-making and behavior.
The practical skills in this class focus on using emotional design strategies to fine-tuning your digital creative.
This workshop is for intermediate-to-advanced digital-media practitioners who are looking for deeper insight into the factors that shape user and consumer behavior.
We usually recommend taking DBC before this class, so check our course-selection advice on this course.
Skills and knowledge you’ll gain
By the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to:
Modules
Over 2 days, we’ll cover:
Day 1
- Intro to emotional design neuroscience
- The emotion-behavior model
- Sense perception & digital triggers
- How users understand their digital experience
- Cognitive schemas & intuitive design
- How emotions work
- Irrational decision making
- Targeting habits v.s. intentional behavior
- Mental energy & cognitive load
- Designing within cognitive limits
- Defining & classifying emotions
- Mapping the spectrum of user emotion
- Rapid tools for measuring emotional impact
- Designing for emotions that drive behavior
- Dopamine-targeted design strategies
- Stress-based design & management strategies
Day 2
- Designing for social emotions
- Establishing authenticity & sincerity
- Digital body language & facial expressions
- Attachment anxiety & retention
- Digital ownership & territory
- Avoiding moral, disgust & fear backfires
- Social hierarchy emotions
- Design for pride & shame
- Empowering & disempowering users
- Digital respect & disrespect
- Gratitude & flattery in design
- Fairness & injustice in design
- Engineering high & low-status products
- Sex, love & parenting emotions
- Reinforcement learning
- Engineering emotional intelligence
Classroom vs. online editions
We offer this course in both classroom and online editions.
It’s also available in team training too.
Here’s how our classroom and online editions work.
Classroom | Online | |
---|---|---|
Duration | 2 days | 10 hours of on-demand with 3-weeks LIVE-tutorials |
Timing | 9:00–17:00 with 1 hour lunch and two 15 min breaks | Self-paced, but during the LIVE term, schedule 3-4 hours per week for video lessons and 1.5 hours for tutorials |
Instructional hours | 13 hours, based on 6.5 hours of instruction per day | 4.5 hours of the live ABD tutorials help you apply the lessons from EDP |
Logistics | The workshop runs 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (but please arrive by 8:50 as we start at 9:00 sharp). There is a 15-minute break in the morning, an hour for lunch, and another 15-minute break in the afternoon. We’ll provide all the training materials, so you’ll only need to bring a pen, some paper, and, if you’d like to participate in our live polling, bring a smartphone or tablet. | We’ll grant you immediate access to the videos as soon as you register, plus access to the waiting room for the upcoming LIVE tutorials. You’ll have access to the lessons, and then we’ll start the behavioral design process during the LIVE training term. |
Here’s what you get
Classroom training kit
- Training guide
- Reference manual
- Workbook
- Behavioral design templates
- Wireframe kit
Online training resources
- On-demand video lessons
- LIVE tutorial recordings
- Wireframe kit (mini)
- Behavioral design workbook
- Closed community
- Cheatsheets
Ensure this course is right for you
If you’re interested in gaining a deep understanding of emotions and how they shape user behavior, then this class is for you.
You can take this class alone or as the complement to DBC, as they draw on different approaches to behavior change and focus on different hands-on skills.
The goal of this course is to deepen your understanding of what shapes user behavior from within, rather than using external behavior change techniques, which is what we cover in DBC.
For this reason, we do not recommend this course for beginners or people who are interested in learning foundational digital psychology. These groups will benefit more by taking DBC first.

Certification
After completing all modules, covering 13 hours of instruction over 2 days in class, or 3 weeks online, you will receive a certificate of completion.
If you wish to take the optional certification test to earn a “Emotional Design Psychology Certificate (EDPC)“, this will also put you on track to earn the “Digital Behavioral Design Certificate (DBDC)”.
Learn about your certification options.
Who this course is for
This class is suitable for:
- Usability and UI/UX professionals
- Graphic designers and interactive designers
- Digital marketing and advertising specialists
- Content strategists and web writers
- Product marketing managers
- Digital project managers
- Health promotion specialists
- Conversion optimizers & researchers
- Entrepreneurs
Industries that will benefit
Our training attracts an eclectic blend of professionals from:
- Technology firms, cloud services
- Digital agencies, creative firms
- Non-profit organizations
- Government, health sector
- Retail businesses, consulting services
- Financial services, insurance
- Media, gaming, entertainment
- Telecommunications, infrastructure
- Small businesses, freelancers, students
- Academia, behavioral science, psychology
How students describe our training
I gained valuable insights that I can apply to landing pages currently in production. The context was very interesting, delivered in an easy to understand format and actionable.
Brian’s expertise has given me not only additional tools to make my client’s campaign more successful. It’s helped me make my agency stand out in the world.
We marketers cannot do our jobs successfully without psychology knowledge. Brian shares current research and examples that can be used in creating more impactful interactive messaging.

Meet your instructor
Brian Cugelman, PhD
With an extensive career running online projects and studies for industry, non-profit organizations, governments and the United Nations, Dr. Brian Cugelman has been working as an online behavior change specialist since 1997.
If you'd like to learn more, read Dr. Cugelman's bio or see what he has to say about the workshop in his own words.
Enroll Now

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Online

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Online

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Online

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Online

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Classroom

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Classroom

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Classroom

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Online

Emotional Design Psychology [EDP] Classroom
Have questions?
Email: team@alterspark.com
Call: +1 (888) 977-2055
Online registration
When you register for e-learning, you'll enroll in our student portal.
Classroom registration
The green registration buttons take you to Eventbrite, where you can order your ticket. After registering, you'll receive your ticket and all the logistical details.
Sold-out classes and waitlists
Our classroom courses sometimes sell out. If you can't get tickets because of a sellout, join the Eventbrite waitlist.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
We’re so confident you’ll love our training, that we offer a 100% money-back guarantee to anyone who attends our classroom or online training and wishes to withdraw. For details, read our guarantees.
Secure registration
All online payments are processed securely by PayPal and Stripe. Plus we use 128-bit encryption on all digital properties, verified by Comodo.
We’re proud to attract students from big name companies.
But we’re prouder to help countless students, beginners, and pros from all over.


Terms, and conditions
All our workshops are subject to AlterSpark’s Guarantees, Terms and Conditions. Please ensure that you read these before signing up.