Emotional Design

Book: Emotional Design by Donald A. Norman

Comments: Eric

Summary:


For this book I couldn't really pinpoint whether I liked it better than the first one. I felt that he hit a majority of the same topics, but instead of bashing design like in the first book he was actually promoting the designs of products in this one. It was all about emotion and how someone feels when using a product. He mentions that there are a lot of items that may not have a function, but because they look cool and are pleasing to people that it will still get bought and used in some way. I think the key points he mentions are the three different levels of the brain.

1. Visceral: the automatic, prewired layer which is the most basic of the levels - How stimulated we are with the object.
   
2. Behavioral: controls everyday behavior and learned behaviors - How we interact with an item.
   
3. Reflective: the contemplative portion of the brain - Why we like something.
   

It felt as though the book ranted on about these different levels and how our emotions make us want to use a product versus not wanting to use a product. If it was aesthetically pleasing then people were most likely going to use it, but if it was "ugly" or not pleasing then people would not use it even if it worked perfectly. The design of products should make us happy so that we will want to buy and use them is the basic theme of this book. Then the last few chapters he seems to put a spin on how robots are our future and kind of goes crazy.

Discussion:
Again I really wasn't sure what I thought about this book. I feel that we knew a lot about this already and that yes if I am pleased with the way something looks I am more than likely going to use it. I guess I could relate this to certain websites or communities. If I don't like the way the website looks I am more than likely not going to use it. Same goes with products for my home. If I am not pleased with the way something looks then I do not want it in my house. The future also will probably consist of a lot of the robot things that Norman talks about, and to be honest a few them have already been built and in use today. I think that much of our world is going to become almost completely digital and we're not going to have to work very hard. As long as we all don't turn into those people from Wall-E I think we will be ok.