Don Norman: Emotional Design

Don Norman opens his lecture by explaining that usefulness and ugliness do not always have to go hand in hand in design and leads onto open onto his main topic; the relation between emotion and design. Norman is open in saying that he does not always buy products because of their function, but rather their aesthetics and the emotions that the product drew from him.

Don Norman tells the story of his journey through studying human emotional response and how he has shifted from being a designer who was reputable for his 'ugly' but extremely functional and useful work, to focusing almost all his energy on the beauty of design and the way people react to it. He believes that design should be all about fun and making the experience of the user more pleasurable, also believing that from his past knowledge, "pleasant things work much better".

Norman breaks down this theory of emotional response to design into three layers. The first layer is all about the mental processing of events. Within this level, he explains that anxiousness and fear come a strong level of focus (otherwise referred to as depth-first processing). Although, when you are happy you become more relaxed leaving yourself open to interruption. I can honestly say that I agree completely with this fact as I have unconsciously become largely focused during times of stress and anxiousness. I feel that as a designer, it is important to find a good balance between these two features during the design process so that all possibilities are explored without wasting time and effort.

The second level , the visceral level, is also a subconscious level of processing but it is the driver towards our desire for particular aesthetic features such as bright colors. I feel that this sort of information is extremely helpful and important for all designers in any industry because creating a subconscious attraction to a particular object is deeply powerful and is very hard to interrupt. These attractions do not always have to be a means of obtaining a sale, they can also be very helpful to display important information or to provide warning (eg. bright red stop signs). I personally feel that these subconscious attractions are the fundamental features of a successful design whether it be a particular shape, material or color.

The final level of this theory is the reflective level. As Norman puts it, it's the "super-ego" level where we look back on things that we have bought and make decisions and opinions from there. If designers can target this level and ensure that reflections of their product are only positive, they can ensure that their product will have a long and well recognised life. I heavily agree that I need to consider these three levels of emotional response within whatever designing I do to ensure that I create a successful product that tells an important  and valuable story.