Background The home page of the Department of STDs, AIDS and Viral Hepatitis is an important tool for guiding the public on prevention and treatment campaigns, reaching up to 595,097 visits per month. The development of new web technologies highlighted the relevance of the Emotional Design of information. Understanding user-centred information behaviour, the nature of users’ needs, the data they expect to find, and identifying the emotional relationship between the user and the information system may impact the search and the retrieval of information positively or negatively.

Methods An exploratory, descriptive study that surveyed 65 individuals aged 18 or older was conducted. The survey asked questions about users’ perceptions of their own feelings, the relationship between their affective state and their ability to navigate, the influence of the interface design, and whether their needs were satisfied by the information retrieved, among others, in order to identify users’ affective states while dealing with the interface, to determine the level of satisfaction regarding its emotional design, and to learn what types of information users look for on the Department’s home page.

Results Analysis of the data showed that of the users 67% presented a negative affective state in relation to the interface, while 33% were positive; 66.15% stated that their affective state interferes with their ability to navigate (for 33.85% it did not); 81.54% stated positive correlation between affective state and navigability; 80% were satisfied with the search and retrieval of information, 10% were dissatisfied, and 10% did not answer.

Conclusion Based on the principles of emotional design, the results shows that the design of the Department’s home page had an impact on users’ emotional states, which strengthens its role as an important tool in the prevention, treatment and improvement of the quality of life of the users.