Emotional Design : Why We Love Or Hate Everyday Things

This book was written by Donald A Norman

Part 1

The Meaning of Things

Chapter 1

Attractive Things Work Better

Tractinsky said “clearly” and “he said “aesthetics preferences are culturally dependent”. He continued, “Japanese cultural is known for its aesthetics traditions”. Means that the value of aesthetics is up to us to make its how much valuable. Kurosu and Kashim ura was Japan expert that studied on layout of controls ATM machines.

Herbert Read said, if aesthetics would change emotional state, that would explain mystery. Most of the emotional matter can be solve with rational and, logical thinking. Positive emotion is important as negative ones.

Creative thinking can be discovered when human in happy mood. In proven in Alice Isen research that she found, when people given task on thinking “out of box” they will did much better if they’ll be given gift, that make them feel good. When people relax and happy, their thought processed expand, becoming more creative and imaginative.

Affective system of emotion

-leading to increase understanding and knowledge -includes emotions ; judging systems -controls body and muscle

Three Level of Processing : Visceral, Behavioral, and Reflective

Human beings are most complex, accordingly to complex brain structure. Body is a protective mechanisms. We also have skills, language, humour, art and music. 

Three level of processing : Visceral, behavioral, and reflective.

The visceral level is fast: it makes rapid judgment of what is good or bad,

Safe or dangerous, and sends appropriate signals to the muscle (the

Motor system) and alert the rest of the brain. This is the start of affactive

processing.  There are biologically determined and can bu inhabited or

enhance throught controlsignal from above. The behavioral level is the site

of most human behavior. Its action can be enhanced or inhibited by The

reflective layer and, in turn, it can enhance or inhibited the visceral layer.

The highest layer is that of reflective thought. Note that it does not have

direct access either to sensory input or to the control of behavior.

Instead it watches over, reflect upon, and tries to bias the behavioral level.

(modified from a figure by Daniel Russell for Norman, Ontony, & Russell, 2003.)

Human thinking becomes more sophisticated and improved as evolution continued. Human having much developed set of brain than other animal that tent to have desire. Can think back about experience – reflect upon it – and make decision. Human brain also can think about own operations.

Behavioral level is not conscious. It is depend on reflective level to concurred one’s mind.

Focus and Creativity

The three levels interact to one another, each modulating each other. When activity is start from lowest, visceral level, called “bottom up”. When it come from the highest, reflective level, called “top down” behaviour. As result, every action taken will has cognitive and affective component.

Cognitive assign meaning

Affective assign value

What we felt will transmit to brain, brain will make analysis and resolution. Focus is essential.

In making a design, music can be use. The visual plant makes surroundings peaceful and enjoyable. Background music can be played.

The prepared Brain

Even though visceral level was the simplest part of brain, it is very sensitive to very wide range of conditions.  Condition can be recognized as simply by sensory information. Scientist called “pattern matching” as it works cognitively. Fear is not present in all people, because it need triggered through experience.

Human language comes from behavioural and reflective levels. Human brain comes ready for language and master through experiences. Listen and speak is natural. People who learn language may be fluent in their speech, understanding, and writing.

Sound of language is symbolism governs the development of language. So we can see that human brain is very complex, although human have same shape, body and brain, but threes is huge different between one another. Designer can use brain effectively because no limit on it.

Emotion change behaviour. Mood will not last. Traits are very long-lasting in memory.  So designer needs to explore more.

Chapter 2

The Multiple Faces of Emotion and Design

In chapter two, we are given a scene where two old man talking about their past. One of them felt very happy receiving present from his old friend. He very exciting got the leather box but suddenly become emotional on what happen to him in the past. But they still love it.

      The behavioural level is about use, about experience with a product. 

      Performance is about how well product does desire function

Working With the Three Level

Here is level that can be mapped to product characteristic like this:

          Visceral Design           >       Appearance

          Behavioral Design      >       The pleasure and effectiveness of use

          Reflective Design       >       Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories.

 The question of these simplifications is how does each of this three level compare in importance with the others?

-of course there is no product can hope to satisfy everyone. But, designer must know how to relate the three levels in the making of product. So the only way to make everyone satisfy is make a variety of the product.

The appropriate setting also important dimension of a product. So, it can be apply easily to human behaviour. Because it all depend on human emotion in what they need and wants in life.

As today behavioural design in games, inject more powerful graphics and fast reflexes. The size, colour effect and detail graphics are emphasized.

At the same time, reflective design of today games seems to be more consistent, with sleek powerful appearance of the console and fast reflexes required of thee player.

Object That Evoke Memory

Object that evokes memory means something (object) that we pass through experiences. When the thing was in front of eyes, then we will look back into memory and remember what happened to us and that object in the past.

For example, the Eiffel tower, Paris, that just kind of structured metal that makes it looks like skyscraper. Somehow, people do take it as form of art and also certain people take it as something priceless. But it tent to be popular even though it is old. Perhaps the object that are the most intimate and direct are those that we construct ourselves, it could be hand-made crafts, furniture, photograph and art.

Photograph is very important to human emotional lives. It often passed from generation to generation to remind them who they are. And nowadays photograph has become business. 

Feeling of Self

Memories reflect our life experiences. It reminds us to family, friends, of experiences of accomplishments. Our self-image plays the important role in our lives then we like to admit it. The concept of self appears to be a fundamentals human attribute. The concept is deeply rooted in reflective level of the brain and highly dependent upon cultural norm. So it hard to deal in design.

In psychology, there is big industry that study on the self. Because the concept is too complex to be understood. In advertising, designer use people to persuade other people or consumer. Advertising also can empower self-esteem.

Other than that, the powerful ways to induce a positive sense of self is through personal sense of accomplishment.

The Personality of Product

Product also need kind of personality. Product making needs to fulfil some needs that can look or behave differently in different setting appropriate to use and have the target audience. All aspect of design must support the intended personality structure.

The personalities of product, companies, and brands need as much tending to as the product itself. Because product must be attractive enough in design to catch own consumer.

Part 2

Design in Practice

Chapter 3

Three Level of Design

From Hugues Belanger email, he said that he very attracted toward Apollinares that is a German mineral water. Because it look good even the water not tastes great. Colour combination of it makes it suitable for kitchen decoration.

He has gone to Café des Architects in Sofitel Hotel, Chicago. Every details and decoration in that café  makes him feel greeted. They used water bottle as decoration and set out as work of art. The bottle was lit at wall. Makes bottle as art by adding colour on it. Then he was thinking, how did the packaging of water bottle become an art of phenomenon?

      I do think that the packaging needs to be eye catching to make consumer notice that brand in order to rise up benefit.

Packaging (bottle design) appeal as powerful visceral level of emotion, those cause immediate visceral reaction. The “wow” factor was explained by designer. In designing, emotional factor are involved as well.

       As designer need to make consumer said “WOW”, “YES”, “I LIKE IT”, “I WANT IT”.

Special design make it special bottle

Special bottle use in special occasion

Special occasion make a special memory.

So sort of beauty take place in every design and art. Each of the three level of design is important as the others, and each requires different approach by designer. 
 -  Visceral 
 -   Behaviour  
- Reflective

Visceral Design

It was nature does. Which is how we as human, adapt with environment as there is plant, animal, landscapes, weather, and other natural phenomena. We have turn to received powerful emotional signal to get along automatically at visceral level.

There is co-evolution happened when nature and human need each other to fulfil one another needs and desire. For example, flower have pleasant odour, and most fruit tasted sweets, the better to attract animals, the better to spread their seeds, weather by spitting or defecation. Human are different in size, shape of body, height, colour and appearance based on biologically disposed to make them attractive.

“Pretty” will have direct judgement from visceral level. Designer of reflective level thinking that Designer need to be imaginative, creative, and deep, making something “petty”, or “cute” or “fun” is not well accepted. Except if it simple.

People or adult will have a positive reflex even though the surroundings are in chaotic, busy, noisy, with no harmonic music they will learn to overcome their natural inclination from dislike it.

Visceral Design -how to make it works and the important term

-design with rules -sophisticated -physical feature -need to have initial reaction -skill of visualise on shape and form matter -immediate emotional impact -emphasize appearance

Behavioral Design

Behavioral design is all about Use. Appearance doesn’t matter. Rational doesn’t matter. But performance does. 

In behavioural, function is the most important on making products. Because behavioural test on whether the product pass to fulfils needs.  Just like designing something automobile.

The real challenge of product design is to understand end-user unmet and unarticulated needs.

There is kind of product development:

Enhancement	Means to take some existing product or services to make it better.
Innovative	It provides a completely new way of doing something, or completely something new to do, something not possible before.

Understanding needed when people have no idea to do when something goes wrong.

Reflective Design

Reflective design, cover a lot of territory. It’s all about massage, cultural, and meaning of the product used.  Perhaps in fashion, every things need to be match because image will reflect self confident. Product also can be more than the sum of the function they form. Their real value can fulfil people emotional needs, one of the most important is to established one self-image and one place in the world.

Attractiveness is visceral-level phenomenon, because the response is how the object defined. Beauty comes from reflective level. Pretty product plays in visceral level.

The Devious Side of Design

In this stage of design, designer will make people feel in control and empowered. For fashion, emotion are the keys. So, designer need to look into what else that people want in order to make a satisfy product.

Then people will enjoy to go shopping. In certain ways, this may be positive thing to make people enrich them self with variety experiences on choosing goods.

In marketing of shopping mall, the arrangement of product are very important so user can easily find what they need and can see other product that promoted in that shopping mall.

Design by Committee Versus by an Individual

There is a fundamentals conflict between the preference of the popular audiences and the desire of intellectual and artistic community.  So in approach to make individual thought accepted by community, design of product produce must be relative toward the needs of society.

So, debating needed to achives around agreement on something. Because, one in certain, debate is fundamental. If want a great product, one must can change the world to have clearer vision in design. 

On The Aesthetics Education of Man - Letter 1-5

My own opinion on Schiller 
 

This book is written by Schiller with help of Kant and Goethe. The letter was written personally to Danish Prince,Friedrich Christian of schleswing Holstien-Ausgustenburg on the subject of aesthetics education. The series of letter were written by 33 years old of Jena University of The professor of History. Most all of the letters were destroyed by fire in Danish palace, only nine survive. Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics and aesthetics. He synthesized the thought of  Immanuel Kant with the thought of  Karl Leonhard Reinhold. He elaborated Christoph Martin Wieland's concept of the Schöne Seele (beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that Pflicht und Neigung (duty and inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another; thus beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful. His philosophical work was also particularly concerned with the question of human freedom, a preoccupation which also guided his historical researches, such as the Thirthy years War and the Dutch Revolt, and then found its way as well into his dramas.

. “The poet knew that some declaration of freedom was required of him, but, like an inverted Balaam, he could not pronounce any qualified blessing upon its most recent manifestation; if he did not exactly curse it, he made it clear that in this view mankind must first learn to serve Beauty before it could faithfully serve Freedom-the world, he felt, was not ready for political liberty, and it was necessary to prepare for a true conception of it by developing first sense of the beautiful. That is, in fact, the whole theme of letter”.

A pivotal work by Schiller was On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters first published 1794, which was inspired by the great disenchantment Schiller felt about the French Revolution, its degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to put its ideals into practice. Schiller wrote that "a great moment has found a little people"; he wrote the Letters as a philosophical inquiry into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea that is also found in his poem "Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge."

My Opinion On Schiller, Emotional Design ; The Letter.

Aesthetics Letter

On the philosophical side, Letters put forth the notion of der sinnliche Trieb / Sinnestrieb ("the sensuous drive") and Formtrieb ("the formal drive. The conflict between man's material, sensuous nature and his capacity for reason (Formtrieb being the drive to impose conceptual and moral order on the world), Schiller resolves with the happy union of Formtrieb and Sinnestrieb, the "play drive," which for him is synonymous with artistic beauty, or "living form." On the basis of Spieltrieb, Schiller sketches in Letters a future ideal state, where everyone will be content, and everything will be beautiful, thanks to the free play of Spieltrieb. Schiller's focus on the dialectical interplay between Formtrieb and Sinnestrieb has inspired a wide range of succeeding aesthetic philosophical theory, in the second part of his important work  Eros and Civilization, where he finds Schiller's notion of Spieltrieb useful in thinking a social situation without the condition of modern social alienation. He writes, "Schiller's Letters ... aim at remaking of civilization by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function: it is envisaged as containing the possibility of a new reality principle."

The poet is given permission to wrote the letter to discuss on his own enquiries on beauty and art. He would like to compare the beauty and art with object surroundings before can revealed the true power or meaning of its. The poet put this as his heaviest part being a labour.

He wants to express himself toward the prince and have told which way he would take to find the answer. He really scares to take the risk to form wrong answer, but again, that is an order on himself to make it formal.

He asked the prince to think by using Kantian’s principal on the very basis. Because there is a lot of other philosophy in any particular school. Every word of him needs the prince to think deeply using his intellectuality power. However, they need to proceed.

Kantians system is only philosopher and the poet are truly believed that the mankind is the true power of making the beauty and art on earth. Need to be so rigid by n of the system just let it free on having answer. Because there lot of common reasons will come out. The poet believed that God as Man guardian and that make him towards maturity in live. Like the chemist, philosopher finds combination through dissolution, and the work of spontaneous Nature only through torture of art.

What we see might not be the same manifestation like what others see on the objects. Because Beauty is very subjective to define and the extinction of the essence are necessary in the element combination.

The poet asked if he could be more opened on looking for answer in Fine art. With time passing by, he will see, what exactly fine art is all about. Then, he asked why art need to be rigidly define?. Because we all known that time will pass by and other people will also make their own judgment and manifestation on Beauty and fine arts.

It’s hard to explain about art to those don’t want to understand art. There is a lot of prejudice in art, that how ideas came to the poet to make a difference. He makes himself free and let’s art create a path of freedom. He believes that principle not the keys. Time is needed to understand art. To solve problem, path of aesthetics can be used.

Mankind make this world, the nature need us to care of.

Predominance character can save transformation of state to moral principals without any harm. In the establishment of moral state the ethical law known as active power in art, and makes everything coherence with strict necessity and stability. Everything’s happened with reasons and that is Nature in life.

Everyone has their own personality and determination in life. Here, I found that this poet wants to express that nobody are perfect in the way on becoming an ideal man. Reasons indeed demand unity, but Nature demand multiplicity and both system of legislation claims Man obedience. Unity can’t be form without Man corporation on having moral character that only can assert itself through scarifies of what is naturals.

When an artist state in mind on art, they will not done any violence towards nature and do thinks this world as his responsibility. Hearts controls ones action. Only character can achieve and maintain the freedom.