Mood Boards in UX Design

To create a UX design mood board, you should include several key elements so it can effectively communicate the visual direction and emotional tone of the project.  

1. Include images that reflect the project's style, including color palettes, typography and visual patterns. These images set the foundational visual aspects. 

2. Add user interface elements like buttons, icons and layouts that resonate with the intended user experience. These components help stakeholders visualize the potential look and feel of the final product. 

3. Integrate logos and branding elements to bring the mood board in line with the company's identity—making it crucial for maintaining brand consistency. 

4. Include inspirational elements like quotes, art, and design motifs that can spark creativity and guide the project's aesthetic theme. Textures and materials—whether physical or digital—add depth to the mood board and can suggest tactile experiences relevant to the product. 

5. Integrate user personas and key user journey excerpts, as they can contextualize the visual choices in terms of user needs and behaviors—this makes the mood board not just a design tool but a user-centered strategy document, too. 

Author and Human-Computer Interaction Expert, Professor Alan Dix explains personas in this video: 

Yes, mood boards can do that—and greatly so. These visual tools carry design concepts and emotions that words alone might fail to express. When designers use mood boards, they can share visual ideas in a cohesive and compelling way. Here are some important reasons: 

1. Mood boards work as a common language for all team members, no matter their design expertise. When designers present mood boards, they visually communicate the aesthetic and emotional direction of a project. This clarity helps team members from different backgrounds understand the design vision and contribute more effectively. 

2. Mood boards facilitate feedback. Team members can easily reference specific elements within the mood board to suggest changes or enhancements. This structured approach to feedback makes the revision process quicker and more targeted. 

3. Mood boards help align the team’s vision. They make sure that every team member understands and agrees on the project's visual and emotional goals. This alignment lowers the chances of miscommunication and helps with consistency across different parts of the project. 

UX Designer and Author of Build Better Products and UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein explains the value of cross-functional teams and collaboration in this video: 

Take our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services. 

You should update a mood board frequently throughout a UX project—that’s to make sure it remains relevant and reflects the evolving design process. Ideally, you’d adjust the mood board at several key stages: 

1. Initial research phase: After you gather initial user insights and project requirements, update the mood board so it’s in line with these findings. This adaptation helps steer the project in the right direction from the start. 

2. Concept development: As design concepts begin to take shape, revisit the mood board; then, incorporate new ideas and inspiration that may have surfaced. This makes sure that the board gets to evolve alongside the design thinking process. 

3. Client or stakeholder feedback: Whenever you receive feedback from clients or stakeholders, make the necessary updates to the mood board. This keeps the board in sync with any changes in project direction or user needs based on the feedback. 

4. Final revisions: Before finalizing the project, update the mood board so it reflects any last-minute adjustments or refinements. This final update ensures that what the team delivers falls closely in line with the mood board’s guidance. 

When you update the mood board at these stages, you help keep it effective as a communication and inspiration tool throughout the project lifecycle. 

Take our Master Class Harness Your Creativity To Design Better Products with Alan Dix, Professor, Author and Creativity Expert. 

Mood boards can be a great aid in user research for UX design—that’s because they visually capture and communicate user needs and preferences. Designers can effectively use mood boards in this context, to: 

1. Visualize user personas: Designers create mood boards to represent different user personas. These boards include images, colors and items that reflect potential users' lifestyles, preferences and environments. This visualization helps design teams empathize with—and understand—their target users better. 

2. Explore design concepts: Mood boards allow designers to experiment with various aesthetic and functional aspects of product design. When designers assemble different visual elements, they can discover which styles resonate most with their intended audience. That can guide the design direction. 

3. Facilitate discussion: During user research sessions, a good technique to spark conversations is to present mood boards. Users react to visual stimuli, providing insights into their preferences and emotional responses. This feedback is crucial for refining user personas and design strategies. 

4. Testing user reactions: Designers use mood boards to test and evaluate user reactions to different design elements—before they finalize the UX design. If designers observe users’ reactions to a mood board, it can expose preferences and aversions that might not come up through verbal feedback alone. 

When designers leverage mood boards, they can gain valuable insights into user behavior and preferences. That can inform a more user-centered design process. 

UX Strategist and Consultant, William Hudson explains the importance of user research: 

Read our piece Personas for Mobile UX Design for helpful insights into user personas. 

When designers create UX mood boards, they often make several common mistakes—which can affect the effectiveness of their projects; they might: 

1. Overload it with information: Designers sometimes fill mood boards with too many images, textures and colors. This clutter can confuse—rather than clarify—the design vision. It's crucial to select elements that truly represent the user experience and stick to them. 

2. Make the board lack focus: Some mood boards lack a clear focus or theme—which makes it hard for others to understand the intended message. Designers should make sure that every item on the mood board goes towards to a cohesive narrative about the user experience. 

3. Ignore the target audience: It’s a mistake to create a mood board based solely on personal preference or trendiness without considering the target audience. The board should reflect the tastes, needs and expectations of the actual users and not just be about the designer’s style. 

4. Make it inconsistent with project goals: Sometimes, mood boards don’t align with the project’s objectives or the brand’s identity. This can lead to designs that feel disconnected from the project’s core mission. Designers must be sure that the mood board actually does support—and enhance—the project goals. 

To avoid these mistakes will lead to more effective and impactful mood boards that truly aid the UX design process. 

Understand why user research to know your target audience and more is such a vital part of design: 

UX Strategist and Consultant, William Hudson explains the importance of user research: 

When you present a mood board, do it clearly and effectively. Stakeholders need to fully understand and appreciate the design vision. Here are steps to guide you through this process: 

1. Prepare your presentation: Start by organizing your mood board visually and thematically. Be sure that it's not just attractive but also logically arranged to guide stakeholders through your design concepts. 

2. Explain the purpose: Begin your presentation with an explanation of the board’s purpose. Tell stakeholders what it represents and how it relates to the project goals. This sets the context for what they’re about to see. 

3. Highlight key elements: Walk through the mood board by pointing out key elements. Explain why you chose specific colors, textures and images—and how these relate to the project’s user personas and objectives. 

4. Link to user needs: Make clear connections between the mood board and the user research. Explain how the elements you’ve chosen are in line with what you know about the target users. 

5. Invite feedback: Encourage stakeholders to give feedback. Ask specific questions about elements of the mood board to gauge their reactions and gather useful insights. 

6. Discuss next steps: To finish, discuss how the mood board will influence further design decisions and what the next steps in the project will be. 

If you follow these steps, you can help make sure that your mood board presentation is engaging and serves as a productive tool to advance your UX project with stakeholders. 

Watch this video, where Design Director at Societe Generale, Morgane Peng explains important points about feedback. 

Take our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services.

It’s crucial to choose the right pictures. Here are some steps to guide you in selecting the most appropriate ones: 

1. Understand the project goals: First, clarify the goals of your project. When you understand what you need to achieve, it helps you determine the mood, style and elements that your images should communicate. 

2. Define your user persona: Consider who your users are. Select images that resonate with the target audience’s demographics, preferences and lifestyles. This alignment is something that makes sure your mood board speaks directly to those who’ll interact with the final product. 

3. Gather inspiration: Collect a wide range of images that inspire you and are relevant to your project. Look for images in design magazines, online platforms or your own photo collections—whatever matches the project's tone and style. 

4. Select cohesive elements: Choose images that work well together. They should have a consistent color scheme, style and mood. This cohesion will help your mood board communicate a clear and unified message. 

5. Refine your choices: Narrow down your selections; take out any images that don’t directly support your design objectives or that clutter the visual space. Aim for a balance of inspiring yet concise visual information. 

Professor Alan Dix explains user personas in this video: 

Take our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services. 

For UX design, you should make a mood board detailed enough to convey the visual and emotional tone of the project—but not so cluttered that it loses clarity. The level of detail in a mood board will influence how well it gets your design intentions across to both the design team and stakeholders. Here’s how to find the right balance: 

1. Focus on key elements: Include critical elements such as color palettes, typography, imagery and textures. These should directly relate to the project’s theme and user experience goals. 

2. Convey the atmosphere: Use images and materials that evoke the emotional response you want to get. This helps stakeholders and team members feel the user experience rather than just see it. 

3. Keep everything clear: While it’s important to be comprehensive, don’t overcrowd your mood board. Each element should serve a purpose. An overloaded mood board is a recipe for diluting the main message and confusing the viewer. 

4. Include inspirational components: Add elements that inspire creativity and innovation without straying from the project’s core objectives. This might include conceptual sketches or abstract images that capture the project's essence. 

If you balance these aspects, your mood board should be more effective in how it guides the UX design process—and help make sure that everyone involved is on board with the intended design direction. 

Professor Alan Dix talks about the right environments that are conducive to creativity in this video: 

Take our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services. 

Yes, you can effectively use mood boards in agile UX design processes. Mood boards fit well within the iterative and flexible nature of agile methodologies. Here’s how designers integrate mood boards into agile UX processes:  

1. Start early: Designers create mood boards in the initial stages of the project to set the visual tone and direction. This early integration helps guide sprints by providing a clear aesthetic reference.  

2. Update regularly: As the project evolves through various sprints, designers update the mood boards to reflect changes, new insights and feedback from stakeholders. This ongoing adjustment keeps the mood board relevant and aligned with the project's progress.  

3. Facilitate quick feedback: Mood boards are great for quick visual communication—essential in agile environments where decisions need to be made rapidly. They help stakeholders and team members provide prompt and clear feedback during sprint reviews.  

4. Enhance collaboration: Mood boards serve as a central visual tool for all team members to refer to. This improves the levels of understanding and collaboration across different disciplines involved in the project. To use mood boards in agile UX design doesn’t just help keep a consistent visual direction; it supports the dynamic and collaborative nature of agile development, too. 

Take our Master Class Design For Agile: Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them with Laura Klein, Principal – Users Know and Senior Design Educator – IxDF. 

Laura Klein explains the value of cross-functional teams and collaboration in this video: 

While mood boards are valuable tools in UX design, they come with certain limitations that designers need to consider:  

1. Subjectivity: Mood boards can be highly subjective. Different viewers might interpret the visual elements in various ways. These can lead to misunderstandings about the design direction.  

2. Lack of functionality insight: Mood boards focus primarily on visual and emotional aspects of design. That means they don’t provide much insight into the functionality or usability of a product. This can lead to an overemphasis on aesthetics at the expense of practical user experience considerations.  

3. Time-consuming: To create and update mood boards can be time-consuming. In fast-paced projects or those with tight deadlines, it mightn’t be feasible to spend significant time on mood boards.  

4. Static nature: Mood boards are typically static and might not adapt well to the evolving nature of a project once the design process moves forward. They may not effectively capture changes or developments that occur as the project progresses.  

Designers must weigh these limitations against the benefits of mood boards and consider whether they’re the right tool for each specific project and stage of the design process. 

Take our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services. 

1. Chang, H. M., Díaz, M., Català, A., Chen, W., & Rauterberg, M. (2014). Mood Boards as a Universal Tool for Investigating Emotional Experience. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience Design Practice (pp. 220-231). Springer, Cham.  

This publication examines the use of mood boards as a tool for evaluating emotional experiences in design. The authors found that mood boards have high inter-rater reliability—suggesting they can be used as a universal evaluation tool for research on emotion. The paper demonstrates how mood boards can provide insights into the emotional aspects of user experience, which is crucial for effective UX design. The study involved both design students and non-design students, and showed that mood boards can be interpreted similarly across different groups—making them a versatile tool for investigating emotional responses to design. 

2. Warbung, T., Soedarso, N., Carina, R., Zahra, A., Wibowo, A., & Wibowo, A. (2021). Persona in a form of mood boards as a part of the design process. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 729(1), 012024.  

This publication explores the use of persona-based mood boards as a tool in the design process. The authors present a case study of a garment company in Indonesia that used persona-based mood boards to develop a visual identity. The paper demonstrates how personas can help designers better understand target consumers and their needs, which is then translated into a mood board to communicate the design concept. The study highlights the value of mood boards in aligning clients and designers, minimizing guesswork and facilitating the ideation process. As such, this publication provides insights into the role of mood boards as a boundary object that bridges the gap between user understanding and design execution.