Book Reading #2: Emotional Design, Chapter 1

In Emotional Design by Donald Norman beautiful devices often seem to work better than less aesthetically pleasing devices. In some studies it was shown that ATMs with the same functionality but with different user interfaces; one ugly, and one better looking showed that users performed better with the prettier looking ones. This is due to the fact the beautiful interfaces tend to invoke a positive, happy emotion in the user. When users are happy or emotionally pleased they tend to work better and become more creative. The openness to creativity then can lead to unique alternatives in problem solving or using a device for example. This can sort of coincide with what makes good design in Design of Everyday Things.

In Design of Everyday Things, devices tend to be easier to use when their a user can see how some of the parts works. This is quite interesting sense in some cases, seeing how the parts work can create a very unpleasant looking device.

Lets assume a device follows all the good design principles in Design of Everyday Things but is extremely ugly to look at. It can even be the fastest of its kind but due to the emotional response that is caused for humans, it can be considered a poor design and may be difficult to use. Users will not want to use something that is ugly or if they have to, then they will rush it's use, causing errors along the way.

This means that both the principles in Design of Everyday Things and the fact that aesthetically pleasing interfaces and devices have to be taken in to account. Devices should not be designed in the extremes of either one. Instead, there needs to be a balance between the two. The problem is that there is no clear-cut formula for how much time, effort, and money should be spent on the aesthetics, and how much should be spent on the design principles in Design of Everyday Things.

Another issue with this is that not every device is the same and some may perform better or be easier to use if more time, effort, and money are spent the aesthetics or on the design principles.

The design principles in Design of Everyday Things seem to talk more about how to design things to be easy to use. To be logical and clear in understanding and use. In emotional design however, the design principles typically follow how devices can provoke an emotional response that can help the user in using a device.