Emotional Design

Donald Norman has definitely taken a different direction with this book than he did in "The Design of Everyday Things." In TDOET, good design was everything. A user should be able to know how to use a device or object quickly without having to think about it. Nothing was more important than good design. Now, it seems as though there is something just a little more important than design. People have to like the things that they use.

Something could be very poorly designed, however, it may be that people enjoy using it. If someone enjoys using something, they are more inclined to use it again and again and even might convince their friends to buy the product as well. People will buy and use products that are poorly designed if the product is fun and enjoyable to use. Norman goes into great detail about the levels of human thinking including the visceral (instinctive) level, the reflective level and the behavioral level.

He also talks about how affective computing (emulating emotion in computing) could help us design devices that interact with people better. This is because of how important emotions are to humans understanding one another. There is so much information you can glean from a conversation just by listening to the tone of voice and observing facial cues and body posture. If our machines could interpret and communicate emotions in the same way humans do, they would be better equipped to handle their tasks and they would be easier for humans to interact with. In the last chapter, Norman discusses some concerns about issues that could be raised in the future as affective computing becomes more advanced and more integrated into our every day lives.

I thought it was a very interesting read. Certainly different from his last work that we read. He took a very different direction this time going from pure design to "make it enjoyable to use". The last chapter also felt very different from the rest of the book. I guess because he saves all the cautions and thoughts about repercussions of affective computing for the ending. And now, the search for what is more important than emotional design!