Don Norman- Emotional Design

Beautiful design = happy design

Function is so important in a product, it is the sole purpose of the existence of the being been designed, manufactured, and sold to the world. Up to a few decades ago this was the criteria of product design, with industrial designers having to take subjects in mathematics, physics and chemistry. But today industrial designers have taken “form” just as important as “function”, where the form of the product became largely the reason we purchase.

When I buy things, I have to make sure that it works. The function of the product has to superb; but if there is a product that is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, even though that the function does not match the initial product, there is every chance that I will consider purchasing even that the function does not suit my needs 100%.

But why is form so important?

According to Don Norman, it is about understanding what beauty is about, making things neat and fun. This is done by designing the product such that it allows positive human interaction creating the emotional experience that forms a bond between the user and product.
The emotional experience, broken down by Don Normal into three parts as the Visceral, behavioral and reflective process.

The Visceral level is our subconscious’ response to the product and is what appeals to our senses reguardless of function. “I don’t need it but I like it”. Don Norman gave a Perfect example of this is with the gold plated special edition juicer… that doesn’t make juice. Instead he use it as a decorator in his entrance way because it looks wonderful.

Behavioral design is feeling in control, which includes usability and understanding. The feeling of being in control makes us feel good about ourselves and gives us a sense of security. Such as the example given, the Global knife being “neat and sharp” gives us the feel of control of cutting, or driving a high performance sports car gives us the feeling of control over our environment.

Reflective level: the part of your brain that has no control over your body whatsoever. This level of emotion is what you reflect to the world about yourself.

Just a note of what Don Norman said regarding to the experiment by Alice Isen, with the conclusion that emotion can affect our thinking process. Being happy can make us awesome problem solvers.

So make us happy and we’ll give you awesome designs.