Full Blog: Emotional Design

Reference Information

Title: Emotional Design

Author: Donald Norman

Publisher: 2002 Basic Books

Summary
Only the first three chapters of emotional design were read, but from those chapters an idea of the book was established. This book discussed the emotional aspects of design and how they should be taken into account.

How emotions affect human cognitive processes was discussed, including the fact that attractive things seem to work better. This occurs because people are happier with attractive things, making the person more likely to ignore minor faults and to keep an open mind when deciding what actions to take. The three levels of processing (visceral, behavioral, and reflective) were discussed, as well.

These three levels of processing each affect design in various ways (appearance, effectiveness of use, and personal satisfaction, respectively). In addition, the way that objects affect memories, such as tacky souvenirs, people's concept of self, and the personality of a product were all explained. The marketing of products was linked with the psychology of thought and emotion.

The three levels of design. Source: marcbubb.wordpress.com

The final chapter that was read also discussed the three levels of processing (or design); however, they were discussed in more detail. Visceral contains emotional signals from the environment that get interpreted automatically by the brain, with its basic principles being consistent across people and cultures. Behavioral design is about actual use, including the four components of good design (function, understandability, usability, and physical feel) and can include either enhancement of a current product or innovation of a new product. Reflective design is about message, culture, and the meaning of a product or its use, and is different for every person.


Discussion
I think the concepts mentioned in this book were very good points. Many designers neglect to think about the emotional aspects of a system, but as humans we are very linked to our emotions, so it only makes sense that they would affect how designs are perceived. I liked the detailed discussion about the different levels of design, and I found it very interesting that people tend to find attractive things easier to use. I believe that many of the ideas discussed could be applied to future programming projects, such as making a program look nicer in order to make it more attractive and thus "easier" to use.