Emotional Design

Title:
Full Blog

Reference:
Norman, Donald.  Emotional Design. Basic Books.  New York. 2004

Summary:
Norman uses this book to take the approach of pointing to emotion, mood, and aesthetics as important in design.  He cites different studies that show that people tend to use and get less frustrated with things that are more aesthetically pleasing.

Our mood also has a play in both our productivity and ingenuity.  If our mood is relaxed, we are more likely to be able to problem solve with an open mind, whereas a stressful mood fosters strict and devoted work.

Norman points to three different types of emotional devices:

1. Visceral - pre-conscious, pre-thought; appearance.  Visceral design is focused on the visual aspect of a piece.  When someone sees a product, their first reaction they have is usually due to the visceral appeal of the object, and is therefore of great importance.  This aspect plays on our outward emotions drawing us to a design.
2. Behavioral - experience with the product; pleasure and effectiveness of use.  Behavioral design is the functionality of an object.  Will it match my need?  Will it be effective?  Enhancement and innovation have been shown to be great ways to drive this design because slight modification can be made in an incremental fashion in order to tweak it to the most apt degree.  Once a desired design has been reached, like say a wrench, the design is mostly kept the same.  Testing and user feedback are important for this type of design as it is in the end the user who is going to be operating the device, and the more pleased he is with the functionality, the more successful this aspect of design has been.
3. Reflective - feelings, emotions, cognition; self-image and memories.  Reflective design extends to our deep emotions of passion, personal remembrances, and self-image.  Reflective design often conveys a message that is meant to deeply impact us such as the way Coca-Cola markets to its customers.

Different approaches to design could be better for different aspects of design, and therefore it is difficult to come of with a faultless design for a specified group.  If there is just a single person designing something, the design could be very liberal in its regulations and the personality of the design, however with a committee as the design team, a design is likely to undergo a much more iterative approach with people playing off each others' ideas.  Seeing this, Norman states that it is impossible to please everyone.

Discussion:
It is easy to see how these different areas of design affect our everyday choices and likings.  Just go to the grocery store and not only will advertisement and placement of goods affect your thinking and, in turn, purchasing, but your emotions will also be played with by the ambiance of your surroundings.

The idea of attractive things working better reminds of the book Why We Make Mistakes.  We have these notions of "pretty is good", and not only do we see these things as good, but that translates into all parts of our life, even people.  We can classify people as good or bad based upon their outward appearance to us.  To me this shows the shallowness of our own subconsciousness.  On the other hand, it could be a beautiful thing - we were designed to see the beauty in things.  It is only our society has has labeled what is beautiful and what is not.  If you look at what a beautiful woman looked like 70 years ago, it is quite different than what we deem as beautiful today.  If we were able to shed down the callouses on our eyes society has blanketed us with, maybe we could see the beauty in the truly good things and appreciate them for what they are.