Emotional Design

1. What do you feel were the author's key points in this chapter?

In Donald Norman's third chapter he describes three basic types of design- visceral, behavioral and reflective. Visceral design is very basic and is based solely on physical appearance. Visceral design stresses the importance of color, texture, feel, shape and basically all physical attributes. This type of design is used in hopes of grabbing the consumers attention. Behavioral design basically says that the product does what it is supposed to do. It may not look the best or be attractive to the consumer, but it does its job. This type of design may be used with products that have one lone purpose and may not need to be very physically appealing to the consumer. The last type of design is reflective design. Reflective design is the most complex of the three. It focuses on the message that is being conveyed to the user and the meaning of the product in use.

2. How does this chapter compare to the earlier writing (The Design of Everyday Things) by the same author?

The Design of Everyday Things focuses mostly on the physical attributes and components of design. However, Emotional Design, focuses mainly on the three main types of design in visceral, behavioral and reflective. These three types of design are based on how the consumer is going to react to a certain product. Whether the consumer is buying to product for its looks or for its usability is what the designer considers when choosing the type of design.

3. Give examples, from your own experience, of...
a. Something that succeeds as Visceral Design...

The first thing that comes to mind when I consider visceral design is clothing. Today many people buy clothing based on how it looks. Being comfortable and other factors do play a role in buying clothing, but I feel the look of the piece of clothing is the main factor. I have seen many people who look very uncomfortable in the clothes that they are wearing. However, this may be the new trend or the popular thing to wear, so they decide to buy it even if its uncomfortable on them. I personally feel that I am somewhere in the middle. I tend to buy clothes that I think look the best, but I also do factor in whether I will be comfortable in them. I think clothing is very successful because what you wear plays a big role in what people think about you. This is basically why people buy clothing solely because of how it looks.

b. Something that succeeds as Behavioral Design...

Something in my life that succeeds as behavioral design would be my old Sansa mp3 player. Although I have not used it that much lately, I do feel it does the job it was supposed to do and that is play music for me. It may not be as appealing to the eye as one of the new iPod's, however, it does the job that I wanted it to do when I purchased it. This follows behavioral design, even though the product is simple, it does what it's supposed to do. I think this is successful because people want things that work. I am a simple person and if I want something that plays music, I can get it in my Sansa mp3 player and I don't have to worry about pictures, videos and several unnecessary buttons.

c. Something that succeeds as Reflective Design...

I believe expensive cars such as BMW's, Mustang's, and Jaguar's follow reflective design. Although cheaper cars do the exact same goal (to get from A to B) these classy cars give the owner a certain social standing. They send the message to other people that the operator must be very rich to be driving a vehicle like that. These cars are successful because people care about what other people think. They want to have a high standing and make people notice them.