Designing for feeling: A conversation with Anna Mader
Anna Mader, Chief Creative Officer at XD Agency and IMEX America speaker, explores how designing for the nervous system can transform brand experiences, and why sound and surroundings shape how we feel, connect and remember.
Your IMEX America session asks whether the most powerful thing a brand can design for is the nervous system. What does that mean in practice, and what can visitors expect when they join you and Jessica Weickert?
Designing for the nervous system starts with the idea that our surroundings are never just passive backdrops to our conscious minds. The spaces we walk into, the sounds we hear, the materials we touch, the scale, light, color and levels of stimulation shape how we feel and behave, whether we consciously realize it or not.
And that’s the fascinating part: people are going to feel something. The question is whether we’re designing for that feeling intentionally.
We’ve become very sophisticated at designing for attention. We know how to get someone to stop scrolling, to click, engage, remember a message or take action. But there’s a deeper layer underneath all of that: How does an experience make someone feel in their body? Do they feel safe enough to open up? Curious enough to explore? Energized? Connected? Inspired? Calm? Seen?
That’s where neuroaesthetics becomes incredibly interesting for experiential design. It allows us to look beyond how an environment appears and consider what it is actually doing to people. Because feeling isn’t something that happens after the experience. Feeling is the experience.
So in our session, attendees can expect us to go deeper than “make it immersive.” We’ll explore what happens beneath the surface and challenge the industry to view the nervous system as a canvas for experiential creativity.
You talk about turning spaces into places. What makes the difference between an environment people simply move through and one they genuinely feel connected to?
The difference is intentionality. We’ve all experienced those rooms where you walk in and immediately feel at ease. And we’ve all experienced the exact opposite. You can’t always explain why, but your body just knows.
We already understand this intuitively in everyday life. Sunlight streaming through a window and fresh-cut flowers on the table will instantly shift the energy of a room. A curved form can feel softer and more welcoming than a hard, imposing edge. A thoughtful soundscape can either invite you to linger or make you want to leave. There’s even a reason real estate agents bake cookies before an open house: a warm, familiar scent can create comfort before someone has consciously decided whether they like the property.
These signals aren’t accidental from the brain’s perspective. They’re environmental cues that our brains and bodies are constantly interpreting.
Turning spaces into places means designing for the felt experience. Where do you want someone to pause? What makes them feel safe enough to stay? What invites them to look up, lean in, talk to a stranger or become curious?
For brands, that opens up a much bigger opportunity. We’re not simply creating beautiful environments for people to move through; we’re creating the conditions for connection and shaping places that help people feel like the best versions of themselves.
You’re an aspiring DJ as well as a creative director, and you’re fascinated by soundscapes. Is sound still underestimated in event design, and what can it do that visual design alone can’t?
I am so fascinated by sound in general. Although my 8-year-old is a budding music producer with over 70 tracks on SoundCloud, so he’s the real musical star of the family.
I’ve been deep into the science of sound lately. How it’s made. How it moves. How a few vibrations can alter our realities, affect our health and shift how we behave and feel.
We see within a single visual light spectrum, but hear across hundreds of octaves and thousands of frequencies. Yet in experience design, we often obsess over visuals and forget entirely about sound. It’s one of the most underused tools in an experience designer’s toolkit, and we’re missing an enormous opportunity.
Sound doesn’t just change how you feel in the moment. It shapes how you remember your life. It’s one of the strongest anchors we have to memory. A single song, and suddenly you’re somewhere else. A different year. A different version of yourself. That’s more than nostalgia. There’s real neuroscience behind that connection.
Sound also does something visual design alone can’t. It gets under your skin. It moves through your body. You don’t just hear it; you feel it in your chest, your soul, your bones.
Think about a horror film without its score. Likely, way less scary. Take away the crowd noise from a stadium and it feels hollow. Remove the meditative tones from a spa and the atmosphere changes completely. Sound tells us where we are, how to feel, what matters and sometimes what’s coming next.
George Lucas has famously been credited with saying that sound is 50% of the film experience. In a live experience, it might be even more. Sound isn’t just supporting the story; it’s moving through the same physical space as the audience. It can bring thousands of people into sync, build anticipation, signal an energy shift or make a massive room feel intimate.
And yet, sound is still often added at the end, after the visuals, architecture and programming have been figured out.
I’d love for us to treat sound as a fundamental design material, not an afterthought, background music or a random playlist, but a tool for shaping emotion, behavior, memory, vibes and connection.
Because sound isn’t just part of the experience. It’s often the part that makes the experience feel real.
Anna Mader at IMEX America
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