Attractive Things Work Better - from Emotional Design by Donald Norman
In
“Design of Everyday Things,” Donald Norman introduced readers to the
finer points of object design. He explained how designers used certain
tactics and strategies to make objects either naturally easy to use, or
accidentally make things very difficult to use. Topics covered in
“Design of Everyday Things,” included affordances, mapping, and
constraints. Most of these topics focused on the physical layout of an
object and the how and why users interacted with the objects. In the
first chapter of “Emotional Design,” titled “Attractive Things Work
Better,” Donald Norman switches gears and explains the emotional side of
the psychology of people and how it related to user interactions with
objects. He discusses how an attractive object can be easier to use than
an unattractive object that has the same features and functionalities.
This separate approach to object design helps fill in some of the gaps
in understanding related to human interaction with everyday objects.
To
start off the chapter, Norman explains a research study done by two
Japanese researchers, which found that attractive objects can be easier
to use than unattractive objects that have the same features and
functionalities. At this point in the chapter, I thought that there was a
misconception in the study and that by making an object more
attractive, the designers also improved the mapping, visibility, and
affordances of the object. However, the next part of the chapter is
dedicated to explaining how an Israeli scientist had the same skeptical
viewpoint that I just explained and how that scientist recreated the
experiment and had not only similar results, but more extreme results
confirming the Japanese research.
After
explaining the correlated research, Norman then spends some time
explaining why he thinks that this phenomenon happened and how designers
can use this information to improve object design. He explains that if
people feel happier and more relaxed, they tend to be more accepting of
alternative ideas and more focused on the big picture. This state of
happiness and relaxation can be achieved by telling jokes at meetings,
watching something funny, giving gifts/awards, and meeting in a relaxing
environment. This approach would work better for brainstorming and
long-term planning meetings.
The
other end of the spectrum is very much the opposite. When people are
anxious, angry, or scared, they tend to have a more narrow range of
focus and are more apt to dive into the deeper levels of a problem. This
state of anxiousness and fear can be subtly introduced through sounds,
sights, and feel. For example, a flashing red light, fast pace music,
and rigid, hard chairs might introduce the described state of being.
This situation would be most effective in deep-dive meetings, where the
goal is to try to solve a particular problem.
I
really enjoyed reading this chapter, because I can really see how this
has affected meetings that I have been in before. This book also makes
me consider the way that I approach problems. I think that I can change
my study habits to take advantage of this situation by picking which
projects/assignments I should work on at a given time based on the mood
that I am in. Another thing that this chapter made me think about is how
a lot of meetings that I have attended have been poorly executed by
trying to tackle some problems in the brainstorming area and other
problems in the deep-dive area in the same meeting. The meetings that
did this tended to have very poor outcomes.
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