Emotional Design Q&A's Part 2

1.      “Human responses to the everyday things of the world are complex, determined by a wide variety of factors.” (Norman 65). This passage in the beginning of the chapter got me interested because I originally thought it was only a few factors that determined whether a customer was going to buy a product or not.  Another passage I thought was very interesting was as stated from page 83, “As a result, the best products today, from a behavioral point of view, are often those that come from the athletic, sports, and craft industries, because these products do get designed, purchased and use by people who put behavior above everything else.” (Norman 82). This passage caught my attention because it wasn’t obvious that this statement is true at first, but then when I thought about it, it made sense.

2.      Visceral is characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect, which is very similar to how the author is describing visceral design. Reflective design is another term the author used correctly as “it is all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or its use.” (Norman 83). On the other hand, I believe the author could have used a better term for the behavioral design. I believe the term “function design” would have been a better phrase to use for his term, because behavioral design is all about the use. Function, in other words, is how the product is being used.

3.      To determine whether visceral, behavioral, or reflective design is more important for a particular product depends on what the product is. Products such as a vase, posters, book covers, etc should lean towards visceral design because that is the best way they will sell. Vase is used for decorations and visual is a very important aspect of decoration. Posters are very similar to vase, because they are all about the look and what the element on the poster is. Book covers is a little different situation. Although the function is reading the book, people are attracted to books that have attractive covers. Products that commonly rely on behavioral designs are construction equipments, sports equipments, etc. Construction workers are not going to care how their equipment looks. They only care about how it works and whether it will help them do their job. Similar to athletes who care whether the product will help them succeed. Reflective designed products such as the iPod, the Halo video game franchise, and cell phones. All of these products are a part of many people’s daily lives. Many people have these products due to peer pressure and how it will influence their lives.