Emotional Design (cont'd)

1. Select a brief passage from Chapter Three Emotional Design by Donald Norman and post it on your blog. Explain why you thought it was interesting.

The Devious Side of Design

"To the practitioner of human centered design, serving customers means relieving them of frustration, of confusion, of a sense of helplessness. Make them feel in control and empowered. To the clever salesperson, just the reverse is true. If people don't really know what they want, then what is the best way to satisfy their needs? In the case of human centered design, it is to provide them with the tools to explore by themselves, to try this and that, to empower themselves to success. To the sales staff, this is an opportunity to present themselves as rescuers "in shining armor," ready to offer assistance, to provide just the answer customers will be led to believe they had been seeking."

I chose this passage because it explored the type of role sales staff bring to the table and the significance of having a type of guidance when buying the ideal product. It also reflects the motivation one has when in search of a product when they know little about it.

2. Norman uses the terms Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, Reflective Design. Do these categories seem useful to you? Would other names or phrase make the categories clearer?

These categories definitely seem useful to me because they help the product evolve effectively when all of the components are present. In my opinion, each name is pretty much straight forward and truly emulates its purpose. Of course I'm pretty sure there are several names out there that can replace these categories, but these names work perfectly fine.

3. How could a designer decide if Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, or Reflective Design is more important for a particular product? Are some types of products more visceral, behavioral, or reflective?

A designer should base their decision of design depending on the type of product that is being introduced. There are definitely different variety of products that exceed a certain category. For example, napkins have more of a "behavioral" design than a "visceral" design.