Response to "Emotional Design"

When looking at “Emotional Design” and “Design of Everyday Things”, many similarities and differences can be found between the two books. Dr. Norman is still concentrating on how to improve design of objects but from a different view point. 

            Instead of evaluating products based on their usability and functionality as in “Design of Everyday Things”, Dr. Norman considers how the aesthetics contribute to a product as illustrated in “Emotional Design”. This was very interesting to read since he made many references in his first book about how a design was horrible but probably received an award for aesthetics. Therefore, it would be interesting to note if later in the book he still agrees with his first perspective or if they have changed after writing his next book. He was able to determine that attractive objects seem to work better to the user. This is true because emotions change the way the human mind solves problems. Positive emotions evoke creativity and a broader view whereas negative emotions evoke a sense of tunnel vision and intense focus. This reaction displays how the cognitive system can be affected through our emotional state. Taking this one step further, aesthetics normally change our emotions; so it can be said that aesthetics change the way we think or interact with a product. This idea was never touched upon in the “Design of Everyday Things” because it focused more on the logic behind design. Through logic, Dr. Norman was able to make a list of objectives to check off when designing a product, but he realizes in his second book that there is no simple set of rules to dictate emotions because everyone responds different. When taking into account the emotional side, Dr. Norman sees that designers can get away with bad design principles more if it is fun and enjoyable.

             

            However, both books consider the users and designers view of a certain product. In regards to the user, the first book looked at how the user thought a product should be used or how it works. The second book concentrates on how the user feels when using the product. This was only talked about briefly in the first book when Dr. Norman discovered that users blame themselves if they cannot get the machine to work the way that it is supposed to. He also uses some of the same examples like the design of doors. Specifically looking at the case of a fire, the first book says the door is a bad design because its affordance is not the same as its function whereas the second book says that the users are in such a state of panic that they have moved to a tunnel vision which doesn’t allow them to operate the door properly.

            The best side of these two worlds would be to follow the design constraints shown in “Design of Everyday Things” and to make it fun and enjoyable where it can evoke the correct emotion for the corresponding situation. These two books may seem contradictory at first, but I think it is just a different perspective. You shouldn’t design a product by only focusing on one of these aspects. There needs to be a balance between the two. Therefore, I am curious if Dr. Norman represents this need for balance in “Emotional Design” or if he only concentrates on the emotions. If the latter, it would behoove him to write another book tying these two together.