Emotional Design
April 30th, 2006Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
by Donald Norman
ISBN: 0465051367
Thanks to Norman’s book, it is possible to settle the Mac vs Windows issue once and for all: Macs really do work better.
Now, Norman doesn’t actually say Macs are better, but his first chapter is called “Attractive Things Work Better” so there you go. In a nutshell, people think more creatively when they are relaxed and happy, and aesthetically pleasing product design can evoke this reaction. Norman isn’t just relying on his opinion here, but cites the research of psychologist Alice Isen.
This leads into the most valuable (well, second most, after providing a great “Macs are better” explanation) part of the book, a discussion of the three levels of design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. (Our immediate reactions are on the visceral level, behavioral reactions are based on use and are all about function, and reflective design works when our minds are engaged.) This chapter considers the problem of balancing the importance of the three different levels, and ends with a bit of advice:
If you want a successful product, test and revise. If you want a great product, one that can change the world, let it be driven by someone with a clear vision.
Norman gets pretty weird by the end of the book, though. How weird? Consider this: “How will my toaster ever get better, making toast the way I prefer, unless it has some pride?” In his defense, I suppose he was trying to be funny. It falls a bit flat, though, and his thinking about the future of robotics seems more obsessive than speculative by the end of the chapter. The purpose for it only became clear to me when I read the acknowledgements and learned Norman is on the board of a company called Evolution Robotics.
Norman is a pioneering thinker in the psychology of design, and this book is important because it advocates for emotional involvement with design. But it doesn’t hang together well as a whole, and the content probably should have been published as separate essays. Definitely worth checking out of the library, and worth reading if you are even tangentially involved in design or product development.
