Donald Norman’s approach to design is reflected through his opening statement “the new me is beauty”. His charismatic and humorous nature draws us in as he explains the importance of a products emotion as it reflects its end use. For example he has Philippe Spark’s famous orange juicer which he doesn’t use for juicing but it is a product he has for its pure beauty, emotion and sense of fun that it portrays. It highlights his theory of emotion which consists of 3 components beauty, functionality and reflection. For example the global cutting knife takes a wonderful fluid shape, its beauty is balanced to hold and feel, with the functionality of cutting effortlessly. He wants us to see and think of products the same way.
He explains how people are seeing products, their designs, but not noticing them. He clarifies this as the subconscious mind taking a design for granted. He is trying to make us understand that a products emotion, through its aesthetics and functionality should be fun and full of life. He states that “I really have the feeling that pleasant things work better...” For example he reviewed the mini cooper automobile, it was advertised to be a car of faults, although through his personal experience with the car, he found that this design can be neat, fun and controlled. It enables us to see that the emotion of a design can be portrayed through the physical being and experience one has with it. The idea of noticing the fun side of a product provides a better response for its quality than a review.
He moves on to explain how the emotion of oneself reflects on a products use. He demonstrates that a product needs to reflect a pleasant fun emotion for human interaction with it. He illustrates how intense fear paralyses you, it affects the way your brain works causing “depth first” processing as to focus and not be distracted. He gives the example were a group of students are told that an IQ test is going to be taken to determine their life. In a room two strings hang from the roof, they are told to tie them together but couldn’t due to this focus producing anxiety. Another group came in and was given candy. This made them feel happy and relaxed which reflected them solving the problem. It shows that when you’re happy your more susceptible to thinking outside the box, being more relaxed and creative. In relation to Donald Norman it shows that good ideas come out of a relaxed designer reflected in their work. The emotion put into a design then reflects the encouragement of consumers using it and how they use it.
This comes to my next point that the way a product is seen and felt to a consumer provides its different uses. Donald Norman states that human emotions are set “We dislike bitter tastes, we dislike loud sounds, and we dislike hot temperatures, cold temperatures. We dislike scolding voices, we dislike frowning faces, we like symmetrical faces.” This reflects our understanding and interpretation to products. He presents the idea of a visceral level of processing meaning when it comes to the design and emotion a product is portrayed through the colours, fonts, shape etc. which influence our emotion towards it. E.g. People buy the water bottle because of the bottle not the water, they keep it and not throw it away using it as a decoration they are emotionally connected. It’s about the visceral appearance. We use colour to portray emotion. The next level is behavioural design which is the feeling of control that a product should portray in usability, understanding, and feel. Emotion here is about communication and acting the way it is shown. e.g. The teapot shown, depending were the teapot is positioned expresses an emotion to the waiter that it’s finished brewing the tea. Then reflecting the ability to understand the emotions the design has.
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