🤘You’ve felt it.
In a sprint, during a brainstorm, or mid-scroll on your favorite app — that sudden, inexplicable certainty:
| “this is going to work”
Not because the data said so. Not because someone greenlit it. But because something in you knew - this design, this idea, this layout, this moment — just feels right.
That instinct isn’t magic. It’s a product of experience, research, visual literacy, and emotional intelligence. The problem is, we rarely have a way to explain that feeling — especially to others.
🧩 The Challenges with existing framwork
I often found existing UX frameworks either too process-heavy or too jargon-filled.
Here are a few in the same neighborhood:
Don Norman’s Three Levels of Design (Visceral, Behavioral, Reflective)
IDEO’s Human-Centered Design (Desirability, Feasibility, Viability)
Design Thinking (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test)
Double Diamond
Jobs to be done
UX Honeycomb (Peter Morville)
They all serve their purpose, but none gave me a language for the creative intuition I relied on daily. And let’s be honest — try explaining "empathize, ideate, prototype, test" to a stakeholder who's asking why a festive dashboard might boost engagement. Design needs a layer that captures instinct without ignoring logic.
I conceptualized FEEL to create a lens that product managers, designers, and even marketers could use to align their sense of what’s right. It’s simple. It’s shape-based. And it works.
✍️ What is F.E.E.L.
FEEL is a holistic experience design lens that captures the core ingredients of intuitive, effective product decisions
FEEL isn’t a stage-gated process — it’s a perspective. One you can apply during:
Brainstorms ("Does this concept feel like it fits?")
Product reviews ("Which FEEL pillar are we missing?")
Roadmap prioritization ("Is this rooted in user emotion or just logic?")
🌎 Lets put it into Practice
Let’s say it’s early February. Dashboard redesign is on the roadmap. After brainstorming we conclude with, “Let’s show a Valentine’s Day dashboard on the homepage for premium users.” No research, no ticket, just a feeling.
But if you evaluate it using FEEL:
Flow: Integrated seamlessly into the homepage — positioned after key actions without disrupting primary use.
Emotion: Played into seasonal relevance with playful copy and visuals, creating warmth and user delight.
Expression: Bold heart-themed icons, pink gradients, and romantic microcopy — all cohesive with brand but distinct for the occasion.
Logic: Supported by behavioral data from previous campaigns showing increased engagement during seasonal promotions.
Now that “gut feeling” becomes tangible. Discussable. Defensible. And designable.
To make sure this felt like a moment of connection rather than a diversion, we worked together across design, marketing, and product and designed the dashboard below
Throughout February, we conducted the campaign and observed:
Extension clicked link increased by 200% in month of Feb 2025
Extension installed; CTR increased by 158%
People who bought premium via this journey also increased by 69.5%
Increased re-engagement from users who were previously inactive
🏋🏻♂️ Using F.E.E.L. in Practice
1. During Ideation: “I have a strong Emotion and Flow sense about this idea, but we need to build out the Logic.”
2. During Critiques: “Visually strong (Expression), and it moves well (Flow), but where’s the emotional hook?”
3. During Prioritization: Is the feature being driven by Logic (usage data), or Emotion (user stories)? Where’s the imbalance?
4. During 1:1s or Feedback: Guide junior designers to build Flow and Logic before jumping into Expression.
💥 Final Word
The best products aren’t just usable or functional — they’re felt.
FEEL isn’t anti-process. It’s anti-blind process. It’s a compass that product teams can use to decode and explain their instincts, align with users, and build things that truly resonate.