Chapter Three - Emotional Design

Chapter three of Don Norman's book, Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things, focuses on different levels of design. Visceral, making things look good or 'pretty'. Behavioural, what the product does and reflective, meaning of things or memories that are invoked.

To begin the chapter Norman discuss the bottled water industry. Through the design of the bottle people will choose a brand of water, because in reality all water is pretty much the same. It is through this it can be seen that people choose items based on how pretty things are.


Visceral Design
In nature it can be seen that animals and plants have evolved to make themselves more attractive. For example the male peacock or flowers. Flowers generally have a sweet smell to attract attention as well as vibrant colours and a nice texture. Because of this it can be seen that human's have also evolved in this same format and this is why we perceive this as 'pretty'. A principle for visceral design tends to be that you design for things to be attractive.

Visceral Design can often be seen in the area of marketing. The iMac is a good example of how visceral design is applied. The iMac offered people a colourful package or container on an everyday product. When people see the iMac there first thoughts are not about what does the computer do, it is 'It looks nice'. Norman states that "visceral design is all about immediate emotional impact"

Behavioural Design
Behavioural Design focuses on how the item is used. Norman suggests that "four components of good behavioural design (are) function, understandability, usability and physical feel.“ The first step of a good behavioural design is to discover how people actually use/or will use the product.

History has shown as that people do not always use items how the designer attended. The telephone is an example of the users taking control, originally the telephone was meant for office use and telephone companies even discouraged users from using it for conversations.

However when testing programs to discover what is not working people have difficulties articulating what is wrong with the product. Generally people don't see problems when they occur but blame themselves. For example locking your keys in the car, this can be avoided by having a lock that needs to be locked by the keys only. Norman believes that the only way to discover if a product will work is through constant prototyping and then watch as people try and use the product.

Another aspect of behavioural design is that it should always be user-centred. The designer has to be aware of who is actually using the device.


Reflective Design
Reflective Design focuses on the message, meaning and culture of the product and its use. It is determined by the person's overall impression of a product. In terms of watches, a watch does not just tell the time, it also gives a description to what type of person they are, what their self-image is.