Emotional Design

"Adult humans like to explore experiences far beyond the basic, biologically wired-in preferences. Thus, although bitter tastes are viscerally disliked (presumably because many poisons are bitter), adults have learned to eat and drink numerous bitter things, even to prefer them. This is an "acquired taste," so called because people have had to learn to overcome their natural inclination to dislike them. So, too, with crowded, busy spaces, or noisy ones, and discordant, non-harmonic music, sometimes with irregular beats: all things that are viscerally negative, but that can be reflectively positive. The principles underlying visceral design are wired in, consistent across people and cultures. If you design according to these rules, your design will always be attractive, even if somewhat if simple. If you design for the sophisticated, for the reflective level, your design can readily become dated because this level is sensitive to cultural differences, trends in fashion, and continual fluctuation. Today's sophistication runs the risk of becoming tomorrow's discard. Great designs, like great art and literature, can break the rules and survive forever, but only a few are gifted enough to be great." - Norman [67]

This passage was the most interesting part of the chapter, due to its effect on the reader. I had an epiphany-like experience while reading this passage. Most of the things that Norman spoke of made a lot of sense. The fact that bitter things displease us as human beings, since it is not viscerally positive. We are used to searching for the sweet scent or taste, so when we smell or taste something different, the response is usually negative. This is also true with music, because I stopped by the Fine Arts Building and heard someone playing a tune. Some of his chords sounded "bitter", so the first instinct was to label the chord as a mistake, but really it flowed with the song.

The terms visceral design, behavioral design and reflective design are useful to me as a reader. Norman is able to discuss his definitions of the words throughout the chapter successfully, so there is no problem. For someone who had not read the chapter, the terms may be confusing. If I had to rename the terms, I would use Appearance instead of Visceral, Function instead of Behavioral, and Message for Reflective.

I believe that a designer would have to look at the rest of the market in terms of products that already exist and decide what he/she wants to make the main focus of the design. For example, if a refrigerator designer saw that all of the competition made refrigerators rectangular, he would add more detail to the rectangular shape for visceral, add more compartments to the rectangular shape for behavioral, or make the refrigerator circular or triangular for reflective design. Most reflective products are usually reflective and visceral or reflective and behavioral. Referring back to the conversation on Monday, in terms of shoes, consumers buy Jordans for the behavioral aspect as well for the reflective design. Most wear Jordans in order to stay in style, well others wear Jordans for its comfort or the stability.