Book Reading #2: Emotional Design

     Chapter One of Emotional Design, by Dan Norman, is a very interesting read. It focuses a lot on how people think and they way design can be affected by emotion. As the chapter is titled, "Attractive Things Work Better", I find it ironic that Norman is the author, due to his adamant stance on functionality over aesthetics in his book Design of Everyday Things. The two books do have some things in common though, as they both seek out finding the best way to interact with users of designs. The two books just seem to approach this matter differently.

     Emotional Design discusses the visceral, behavioral, and reflective ways of thinking by humans. Norman points these out because it is important to think of the state of the user when designing. By placing yourself in the user's situation, you can more effectively plan for improving the user experience. This is similar the point made in Design of Everyday Things -- design with the user in mind.

     In contrast though, Emotional Design focuses on improving design by making it look better, by relaxing the user and having them accept more fault because they are in a better mood. I do agree that this make sense, and the Mini Cooper example is an excellent one for this very scenario. I do think this contradicts Norman's points in Design of Everyday Things though. In that book, he stresses focusing on fixing errors and changing designs as opposed to just covering them up by making them look better.

    While both books seem to have valid points, I think Design of Everyday Things has a stronger case. Attractive designs are important, and Norman's total lack of focus on it in his first book did bother me, but I think it is more important to provide better feedback and visibility as opposed to a more attractive design. Playing on the user's state of mind seems to be too risky when designing because, as Norman points out, people are all different and designing in this way can be a hard way to please everyone.