Emotional Design Psychology & Neuroscience (EDP)
Learn how to build emotionally-driven technology & campaigns
Classroom & self-paced training
Join our students from beginners to pros in top companies:
Discover how to build emotionally intelligent websites, apps, content and campaigns based on psychology and neuroscience.
You’ll learn the psychology of how people form emotional relationships with technology: the key to building products users love, nudging more effectively, and fine-tuning relationships with brands, products, and especially conversational LLM interfaces.
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
Here’s what you get
Classroom training kit
- Training guide
- Reference manual
- Workbook
- Behavioral design templates
- Wireframe kit
Self-paced training kit
- 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.
Classroom vs. self-paced editions
We offer this course in classroom, self-paced editions, and corporate formats.
Here's how our classroom and online editions work.
Classroom |
Self-paced |
|---|---|
| Duration 2 days |
Duration 10 hours of self-paced lessons and three live group ABD classes on hands-on skills |
| Timing 9:00–17:00 with 1 hour lunch and two 15 min breaks |
Timing Self-paced lessons are up to you, but if you take the live ABD classes, see our scheduling suggestions in the FAQs |
| Instructional hours 13 hours, based on 6.5 hours of instruction per day |
Instructional hours 10 hours of lessons. Plus, 4.5 hours of ABD tutorials covering hands-on skills from EDP. |
| Logistics The class 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. |
Logistics 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. |
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.
You'll also have three attempts to write the optional test for an "Emotional Design Psychology Certificate (EDPC)".
Learn about your certification options.
Meet your instructor
Brian Cugelman, PhD
Dr. Brian Cugelman is an online behavior change specialist with decades of experience as a practitioner, researcher, evaluator, and educator. Since 1997, Brian has run online behavior change programs for industry, non-profit, government, and United Nations organizations.
Plus, he has trained thousands of people face-to-face, from working professionals to students across multiple universities.
He combines proven expertise with real-world experience to create a learning environment that is practical, engaging, down-to-earth, and fun.
Read Brian's bio or read how he teaches behavioral design.
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.
Online Education Packages
All package mix self-paced learning with LIVE, hands-on ABD classes.
Start now with self-paced learning, then once you're enrolled, sign-up for any upcoming LIVE ABD group workshop.
Digital Psychology Package
This package covers the essential principles and skills for building psychology-driven products and campaigns.
Emotional Design Package
This package covers the emotional motivators and hands-on skills for building emotion-driven products and campaigns.
Behavioral Design Complete Package
This package covers all key principles and skills for psychology-driven products and campaigns.
Need a hand?
If you need help with payment or require a custom invoice or documentation, contact us at
+1 (416) 858-2055 or team(at)alterspark.com.
Satisfaction guarantee
We know you’ll gain a lot from our training, but we offer a 48-hour window to receive a 100% refund if our online training does not meet your expectations.
See the details.
Your next steps
You’ll enroll through Teachable, our learning platform with secure payments. After, you’ll receive a confirmation with access to your on-demand lessons, tools and live tutorial signup.
Secure registration
All online payments are securely processed by PayPal and Stripe.
Have questions?
See our FAQ or contact us to learn more.
LIVE Training Schedule
Applied Behavioral Design (ABD) is our live, online group workshop, included with all training packages.
To join any ABD term, you must first enroll in a training package, then sign up for the term you wish to attend.
If a scheduling conflict comes up, we record every live tutorial and allow students to switch terms at no cost.
Applied Behavioral Design (ABD)
28 May - 23 July 2026
Completed
LIVE Online Workshop
- Format: LIVE Online Group (9 weeks)
- Facilitator: Brian Cugelman, PhD
- Dates: 28 May - 23 July 2026 (See schedule)
- Time: Thursdays (13:00-14:30 EST)
How to Enroll
To join this live workshop, enroll in any online training package with ABD tutorials.
Join thousands who’ve completed our training
From beginners to pros in top companies
Guarantees and Terms
All training come with our Guarantees and Terms. Please read these before enrolling.