Don Norman: Emotional Design

In this video, David Norman discusses the emotional response people have when they interact with products. The responses can be categorized into three levels, visceral, behavioral and reflective. Visceral response is basically the impression we have related to the product's aesthetic values. Behavioral response is how people feel about the product's utility and usability. And reflective response, which relates to our personal identity, how we think a product will fit in for us.

Alessi is a very good example for this subject. Alessi creates household products we can easily find in stores such as Target or Kmart, but they brought it up to the next level by making it pleasant looking as if it's a piece of art. The Phillipe Starck gold lemon juicer noted in the video wasn't a juicer at all. It even comes with a warning that it's not meant to be used. But Norman highlighted how pleasant it was to have the juicer, even thought it's not functioning, just sitting there in his house.

The mini cooper car is very popular. It's fun, playful, colourful, cute, stands out, to put it in two words, aesthetically pleasant. I've ridden on a mini cooper, and truthfully speaking, it's not comfortable at all. It's cramped, it's hard to get into the back seat, it doesn't have much storage area, yet I still forgive it just because it's a mini cooper.

I was very entertained by the video, and I completely agree with Norman's view on aesthetically good design. One of the reasons why I chose to study Industrial Design and not Engineering is because I care more about the aesthetic feature rather than the functional feature. I do believe that functional features are important, but the first impression I have on a product is always the aesthetic value. Even if a product has a very advanced technology and usability, I wouldn't buy it if I don't see it as a piece of design, rather a functional junk.

I believe that it is our job as a designer to create a functional product and enjoyable at the same time. Or as in Philippe Starck gold juicer case, it might as well be only aesthetically enjoyable but not functional. By making a product more enjoyable, the users can interact more with it, and develop perhaps a bond with the product. We might be having trouble at work, but when we come home and see a product we really like sitting on the table, we develop a smile and think of how fun it is to use the product. This kind of experience should be something we consider when we design a product, the pleasantness of the product.

Remember, we're designers, not scientists.