Book Reflection #3
Emotional Design, why we love (or hate) everyday things is a book written by Donald A. Norman. He beautifully explains how the emotions of a person play a crucial role in choosing a product. He says that a product becomes better when a consumer connects to it, finds it enjoyable and attractive. He describes how human emotions, directly or indirectly, affect their logic in buying a product. He provides examples and scenarios throughout the book to illustrate his idea on Emotional designing.
I preferred to read this book because I always believed that it is necessary to consider people’s emotions when trying to say or do something. The title of the book attracted me to choose it. I continued to read the description of the book and felt it interesting. To design any product, we need to think about the feelings of a consumer. Also, the motive of the product we are building in the class is to create awareness of climate change and its effects. To achieve this goal we need to know the audience's feelings towards this issue and try to change them for good. We need to analyze the question, “why would a person use the product?”. I felt this book would answer these questions.
I found the book very interesting and relatable. The author included case studies and examples that were effective. I was able to connect with them. Whenever I think of designing a product, I would concentrate more on its functionality and worry less about its looks. This book has taught me the significance of creating an attractive product that serves its purpose and connects with the users’ feelings. It has made me aware that it is required to give equal attention to the looks and functionality of the product.
The author starts by writing about his three little teapots that he rarely uses, nearly never. They look unique and have odd features that are complicated to understand. But he loves them because each teapot draws him to it like a piece of art. He loves to analyze their structures every day in the morning. He relates his example to the owner of the MINI Cooper car. The car functions similar to others, but the owner loves it because it is so much fun to look at it. The owner doesn’t even bother to complain about the flaws. With these prime examples, he explains how objects become more than just things that a person owns, how they elicit emotions.
The author emphasizes in his entire book that attractive things work better. He provides us with more examples as evidence for his statements. He categorizes human emotions into three levels — Visceral, Behavior, Reflective. At the Visceral level, humans respond to the situation quickly based on the knowledge they have. They immediately analyze and judge things as good or bad. At the Behavior level, the human brain automizes the daily skills once it is mastered. At the reflective level, humans tend to make decisions based on their memories and experiences. These human emotions and their behaviors are the reasons why specific brands can sell their products well. Consumers who are used to a thing tend to forgive its flaws.
The author further talks about how objects evoke a person’s feelings and memories. He considers factors like attractiveness, taste, color, sound, feel, etc., that contribute to the decision. He mentions how the culture of a particular place plays a role. Humans have specific likes and dislikes, naturally. But they acquire new tastes by learning to overcome the natural dislike, like the taste of tea, coffee, and alcohol.
The three parts of design — Visceral, Behavioral, and Reflective — can define the target audience of a product. The author mentions Reflective design as the one that covers a lot of territories, as it is all about the message, culture, and meaning of the product and its use. The author further stresses more on the subject by doing comparisons between similar products and their performances. He provides more examples to show how a product just doesn’t do its job but also starts conversations with the user.
The book ends with an intriguing topic where the author talks about Robots and how they evoke emotions in humans. Even though people know that robots are just metallic objects that do not have emotions, they feel for them when they watch them in movies. The author provides examples like the robots in Star Wars and the HAL movie (the computer in the film) where people laugh, fear, cry with the robots. He also mentions a computer Eliza, from the 1960s, which would respond to the user when entering a quick statement. Even though the users knew that it’s just a computer that does not have feelings, they would evoke emotions for its sympathetic responses. Today, Robots have become more interactive and can even display emotions, even if it is not their intention. He provides a lot of instances that make us seriously think about what emotional design can deliver at present and in the future.
Overall, the book reflected a lot of things about people’s emotions that people reveal, consciously or unconsciously, towards a product. By the end of the book, the author makes it clear that designing things to make them look attractive to the target audience is a requirement. He provides a lot of instances that make us seriously think about what emotional design can deliver at present and in the future.
