emotional design

The sequel, Emotional Design, is based on the idea that there are three levels at play in design. It's still true that, on a rational level, products should be functional, but now he explains why they should be beautiful and have an emotional impact as well. Donald Norman explains how to being attractive, fun and enjoyable makes a product better. The main issues are that emotions have a crucial role in the human ability to understand the world and how they learn new things. Two researchers from Japan studied a different layout of control ATM’s, automated teller machines, found that the attractive arranged layout were perceived to be easier to use. Herbert Read in his book stated, it requires a somewhat mystical theory of aesthetic to find any necessary connection between beauty and function. Donald Norman pondered a new finding in the study of affect and emotion. In his explanation, there have two separate types of emotions, namely positive and negative emotion.

Emotions play a critical role in our daily lives. Positive emotions are hard to learning, curiosity, and creative thought and today research is turning towards this dimension. The psychologist Alice Isen discovered that being happy broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking and also better at brainstorming. Meanwhile in negative emotions the broadening means that are far less focused, and far more likely to be receptive to interruption. In Isen’s results show that when people are relaxed and happy, their thought processes expand, becoming more creative and more imaginative. While in the negative emotions, they tend to narrow their thought processes, concentrating upon aspects directly relevant to a problem.

Norman’s studied about human attributes and finds that there have three different levels of brain that gives multiple faces of emotions and style of design. The focal point of Emotional Design is that attractive things work better. Norman explores how emotions affect purchase decisions based on three aspects of design, which is visceral, behavioral and reflective. Each level plays a different role in the total functioning of people. And also requires a different style of design.

The automatic, prewired layer, called the visceral level. This is the level of fixed routines, where the brain analyzes the world and responds. The design requirements for each level differ widely. This visceral level is pre-consciousness, pre-thought. This is where appearance matters and first impressions are formed. Visceral design is about the initial impact of a product, about its appearance, touch and feel. In term of design, visceral is what nature does. Received powerful emotional signals from the environment that get interpreted automatically. The principles underlying visceral design are wired in, consistent across people and cultures.  Because visceral design is about initial reactions, it can be studied quite simply by putting people in front of a design and waiting for reactions. Effective visceral design requires the skills of the visual and graphic artist and the industrial engineer, where design is about immediate emotional impact.

The next level is behavioral. Behavioral is a part that contains the brain processes that control everyday behaviour. With a higher level of analysis, the behavioral level, with a complex and powerful brain that can analyze a situation and alter behaviour accordingly. The behavioral level is not conscious. Behavioral design is about use. Appearance and rational doesn’t really matter but it does performance. This is the aspect of design that practitioners in the usability community focus upon. Principles of good behavioral design are well known. In most behavioral design, functions come first and foremost. On the face of it, getting the function right would seem like the easiest of the criteria to meet but in tricky way. Good behavioral design should be human-centered , focusing upon understanding and satisfying the need of people who actually use the product.

The contemplative part of the brain is the reflective level.  In reflective level, they are very sensitive to experience, training and education. Cultural view have huge impact here, what one culture finds appealing, another may not. Thought reflection, you remember the past and contemplate the future.  Therefore, is about long-term relations, about the feeling og satisfaction produced by owning, displaying and using a product. A person’s self –identity is located within the reflective level, and here is where the interaction between the product and your identity is important as demonstrate in pride of ownership or use. Customer interaction and service matter at this level.

There are two kinds of product development, which is enchantment and innovation. Enchantment means to take some existing product or service and make it better. Enchantment to a product come primary by watching how people use what exists today, discovering difficulties and then overcoming them. Innovations are particularly difficult to access. One cannot evaluate an innovation by asking potential customers for their views. This requires people to imagine something they have no experience with. The real challenges to product design is discover real needs that even the people who need them cannot yet articulate.  

Overall based on my review, totally about aesthetic in a design. This book gives us a lot information ant guide line in term of design. Changing our thinking in development of design matter.