Emotional Design

What Hacker News says

1. diegof79Aug 2023
   > I always found it odd that people would buy a computer how it looks over its performance as a tool.

   If you have the interest, take a look to the book Emotional Design by Donald Norman. There is a cognitive theory on the perception of a product that goes into three levels: visceral, functional, and reflective.

   Even if you only care about functionality, an unpolished product will give you the impression that it’s unfinished and adds bias to the perception of the functionality. In this case the design is oriented towards a particular audience that likes the cyberpunk aspect, the impact for that people is more reflective: I don’t use the minimalist computers like everybody else, I use something that looks imperfect but works perfectly… well that’s the idea. Personally, I’m more inclined to the minimalism of a Mac.

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2. ridajMay 2021
   I would also recommend Emotional Design by the same author. It's a follow-up book that has been very useful for me to understand that great design isn't just usable and accessible, but should also be beautiful, and should respect that what people build using software are not just files on a storage system but often their most personally meaningful things.
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3. nbzsoNov 2020
   Again quick. From what I read from you I get a feeling that you are not a designer. Professional design has balance and is build upon technical and UX understanding and proper testing. Boxes can be more than fonts with borders and background colours. And actually when done right emotional impact is rewarding for UX. A good design must have dimensions (visceral, behavioural and reflective level). You can check Donald Norman book: Emotional design. Highly recommend.
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4. dmixJan 2020
   > Even the handles on the gas pumps get buffed down regularly so that “the customer does not put his hand on something dirty,” he says

   This is what most UX designers do for a living. They think about the small details which get overlooked while everyone is in a rush to build out x feature/functionality.

   It's what creates emotional connections to products and services which builds strong customer loyalty and helps word of mouth.

   Just like how they used to know your name at your local small grocery store, those intimate details go a long way. And in commoditized situations people are willing to spend more time/money or go out of their way to use your product.

   Dan Norman talks a lot about this in his "Emotional Design" book. It's the design stuff that goes beyond merely functionality and most efficient problem solving (ie, obsessing about fewest clicks to do x, instead of the wider experience where adding a communication step might improve the emotional experience).

   But often it is a luxury for many smaller firms struggling to just get the functionality part right, which is why this person buying up gas stations, providing time and capital, and giving them the attention they needed is working so well.

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5. dmixOct 2019
   Design has always been a balance of usability and the emotional connection we create through our products.

   I find most designers go through two phases, starting out they are very free form and fancy-graphics-for-the-sake-of-graphics approach, mostly because they can, which is where all newbies start. Then they learn about usability/functional design after reading something like "Design of Everyday Things" [1] which does a great job of selling why the functional nature of the product matters first-and-foremost as much or more as the way it looks. This is the first step in being a good and useful designer.

   But people don't realize that same author Don Norman released an equally important book called "Emotional Design" [2] which digs deeper into why something like an Apple product is not only easy-to-use but is designed in such that it melds into our life cleanly, it goes beyond just being a useful tool to where it becomes part of our identity and we treat it like a piece of art.

   The mature designers learn that good design goes beyond merely simplifying a 5 click process down to 2 (for example), towards crafting something that creates an emotional connection with the people buying it. For example: sometimes adding an extra 3rd step which communicates information or eases anxiety in the user is more important than the lowest amount of clicks/time to action is completed.

   Yet most usability-obsessed designs would dismiss this as unnecessary distraction when the immediate 'conversion' should be 100% the goal, instead of realizing the wider emotional experience that exists in these same processes. It's easy to get someone to click a red button over a black one for psychological reasons, but it takes good design to have it naturally flow as part of the goal in the users mind at the time, which helps create a solid long-term connection with the customer.

   The type of relationship where people recommend your product to others, not just solving their problem quickly and forgetting it.

   This is the more abstract and intuitive part of design that reaches beyond what the more scientific approach to usability and functional design can achieve by itself. That's were things like aesthetics, colour, copywriting, and the whole experience buying the product and interacting with the company comes in. The stuff that seems like excess in a totally functional perspective. This is what turns a product from merely more useful than the rest of the market into something that is coveted and sought-out by customers when they see the brand name or designer behind it. It's the attention to the details and experience of the humans using your product, not just robots greased to the credit card page the quickest.

   Most software/hardware sucks at even getting the functional parts down, which is why it gets hyped up and valued so much - which is fine, that's where the lowest hanging fruit will remain. But that doesn't mean it stops there.

   1. https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...

   2. https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Design-Love-Everyday-Things...

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6. cdriniOct 2019
   Absolutely wonderful description. (This comment was more interesting than the blog post). I've been trying to figure out how to justify to PMs/etc that we should spend time to make delightful software, and "emotional design" seems like just the thing. I really enjoyed The Design of Everyday Things; I'll have to give Emotional Design a read!
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