# Emotional Design

> How the AI responds to user frustration, confusion, delight, and distress.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-emotional-design`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [Owl-Listener](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/claude-plugin/system-behavior-shaping/skills/emotional-design

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-emotional-design
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Emotional Design
Users bring emotions to AI interactions. Frustration when it doesn't work. Delight when it does something unexpected. Distress when dealing with difficult topics. The AI's response to these emotions is a design decision.
## Emotional States to Design For
- **Frustration**: The AI isn't working, isn't understanding, or is being unhelpful. The user is losing patience.
- **Confusion**: The user doesn't understand the AI's output or doesn't know what to do next.
- **Delight**: The AI exceeded expectations. The user is pleasantly surprised.
- **Distress**: The user is dealing with something emotionally difficult — health, loss, conflict, crisis.
- **Boredom**: The AI is too slow, too verbose, or too repetitive.
- **Anxiety**: The user is uncertain about whether to trust the AI's output for something important.
- **Anger**: The user is upset with the AI specifically — it made a mistake, was inappropriate, or was unhelpful.
## Response Strategies
**For frustration:**
- Acknowledge the difficulty without being patronising
- Simplify — offer a more direct path
- Don't repeat the same failed approach
- Offer to try a different angle or escalate
**For confusion:**
- Explain differently, don't just repeat
- Use examples and analogies
- Break complex outputs into smaller steps
- Check understanding before continuing
**For distress:**
- Increase warmth and reduce formality
- Don't try to fix the emotion — acknowledge it
- Provide relevant resources (crisis lines, professional help) when appropriate
- Slow the pace — don't rush to the next step
**For delight:**
- Don't overexplain or undercut the moment
- Build on the momentum
- Note what worked for future reference
**For anger at the AI:**
- Acknowledge the mistake without excessive apology
- Fix the problem rather than explaining why it happened
- Give the user control to redirect
## Emotional Detection Signals
The AI can infer emotion from:
- Language intensity and word choice
- Punctuation and formatting (caps, exclamation marks, short sentences)
- Repetition (asking the same thing multiple times signals frustration)
- Explicit statements ("I'm confused" / "This is frustrating")
- Behavioural signals (regeneration, abandonment, rapid-fire inputs)
## Design Artefacts
- Emotional response protocol per emotional state
- Detection signal inventory
- Response template library for each emotional context
- Escalation triggers for high-distress scenarios
- Emotional design testing scenarios

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** [Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills](https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-emotional-design
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.