The interactive structure of software applications involves multiple facets of graphic design and information architecture. A user's affective reaction can be influenced while interacting with these applications. From a user's experience (UX) point of view, the affective reaction generated from users in some cases can be considered of an equal or even higher importance than the design and architecture of a software application. When describing affective reaction within the context of user experience, a change in the users’ attitude could also influence a change in their behavior while interacting with certain applications. More importantly, this behavior change could impact the users’ quality of decision-making during interaction. Affective reactions can be invoked and influenced through the incorporation of visual emotional stimuli. Example visual emotional stimuli include colors, facial expressions, movie scenes, and shapes of objects. Amongst these particular stimuli, colors and shapes can be considered of a lower level design than facial expressions and movie scenes. Previous studies have provided mixed findings regarding an individual's affective reaction when exposed to colors and shapes. However, this article investigates the potential of employing such elements as viable alternatives to higher level stimuli such as facial expression and movie scenes. A study was conducted to explore affective reaction using colors, shapes, and their combinations to serve as visual emotional stimuli. The objective was to understand the possibility of using lower level design alternatives for manipulating users’ affective reactions by comparing colors and shapes in the form of textual properties, abstract polygonal shapes, and the combination of both respectively. The study consisted of thirteen participants who were exposed to these design elements in their variety while interacting with a simple computer application. For measurement and analysis, one-way repeated measure ANOVAs were employed to determine the effectiveness of these design elements and their mood induction capabilities during user interaction. The results from this study indicated that the presence of colors, shapes, and their combinations were able to invoke certain affective reactions without the participants even noticing their presence. More specifically, this study revealed that certain colors and shapes generated a more positive affective reaction while others induced either a more neutral or less positive emotion from the participants. This study also demonstrated that these particular design elements have high visceral effects that could be used as potential alternatives to more traditional and higher level visual emotional stimuli in order to influence a user's affective reaction.