Full Book Blog: Emotional Design

We only read the first three chapters, so here is the full blog on those.

Summary
The first chapter discusses why attractive things work better. Norman explains how emotions help a person make decisions and how happiness increases thought processes and encourages creative thinking. Tying this into to design, attractive design allows for a more enjoyable experience and helps people figure things out. Norman also discusses the three levels of processing: visceral (the automatic layer), behavioral (everyday behavior layer) and reflective (contemplative layer). He then discusses how the three levels interact with each other and how they relate to focus and creativity.

The second chapter discusses how the different levels of processing work within a design and how they work with and against each other. As stated in the chapter, visceral design is about the initial impact of the product, behavioral about the use and experience, and reflective about understanding, reasoning and interpreting. Norman also discusses the importance of memories, how objects evoke memories and how these memories reflect us. He concludes the chapter by discussing the design of products when taking the three levels of processing into account. He discusses the goals of a product, its fashion and how brands are informative.

Chapter 3 discusses the three levels of design. Visceral design focuses on physical features such as look, feel and sound and is about initial reactions. Behavioral design focuses on function, understandability, usability and physical feel with function being the most important. Reflective design focuses on the meaning of the product, the message the product gives and the culture. Norman also presents a case study on the national football league headset and concludes by comparing the process of design by committee and the process of design by the individual.

Discussion
While I enjoyed the ideas presented in the first three chapters, Norman did start to repeat himself, so I’m glad we did not have to read this entire book. The emotional design Norman describes is an important aspect that I think is oftentimes overlooked.

Norman gives plenty of good examples from automobiles to watches to bottled water to help explain the differences between the three levels of design. I enjoyed the part in chapter 3 about how stores will put the most often bought items at the back of the store. I have pondered over this before, but now I’ll probably always be thinking about it when I visit a new store. I also thought the Xbox advertisement was funny in chapter 2, and I enjoyed the way Norman analyzed it.