Emotional Designs 2

“Fruits and flowers provide an excellent example of the co-evolution of plants and animals. Nature’s evolutionary process made flowers to be attractive to primates and other animals, the better to spread their seeds. Fruits and flowers tend to be symmetrical, rounded, smooth, pleasant to the touch, and colorful. Flowers have pleasant odors, and most fruits taste sweet, the better to attract animals and people who will eat them and then spread the seeds, whether by spitting or defecation. In this co-evolution of design, the plants change so as to attract animals, while the animals change so as to become attracted to the plants and fruits. The human love of sweet tastes and smells and of bright, highly saturated colors probably derives from this co-evolution of mutual dependence people and plants.”

I think this passage is interesting, because I never thought the environment would be such a good example of describing the “wow” factor in a product. The use of colors from the environment is a very important factor that any designer uses, because it’s what they use to make their product look attractive, and they make sure that it catches the buyer’s attention. The environment serves as a motivation for the designers, and I think it’s very interesting that Norman uses that as an example to describe a visceral design.

At first I had no idea that the word “visceral” is used to describe something that is intensely emotional, and it turns out that it’s a smart word to use if you are describing a person’s feeling and combining it to a feature on a design that would create a certain reaction from the person. I think if I knew what the word meant before I looked it up, I would have used that same word. I understand that Norman would use the word “behavioral” to describe a design that is created for its use instead of its appearance. It has to do with how the product behaves with the user. I also understand that Norman would use the word “reflective” to describe a design that reflects how people feel about a certain product. The fact that a person would get so many of the same product and show them off all the time, creates this image about them.

An author can decide if either visceral, behavioral, or reflective design is more important for their product by knowing that a user would want a product that is both visceral design and behavioral, and then the user will decide if the product is a reflective design.

I think every product has either only one, two of three, or all three of the designs. Some products can be more visceral and reflective than behavioral. For example, home decorations, curtains can be all three; it can be visceral design, because it brings attention to a person’s living room, it’s behavioral because it helps block sunlight, and reflective, because it can be a certain type of material or made by a famous designer, like Martha Stewart. Same thing for bed sheets, and other home decorations.

Books can be visceral, because some people would judge a book by its cover, and can be behavioral, because it is used for reading. It can’t be reflective, because people don’t really walk around with a book just because the author is famous or because the book looks good with their outfit.