Hello and welcome to my very first blog post!
Even though life is pretty busy at the moment, I didn’t want to procrastinate too much, although I already did a little, haha.
In this post, I want to introduce my design and research topic for this semester at FH JOANNEUM. If you’re interested, feel free to comment, ask questions, or start a discussion. And please don’t be too hard on me about my English skills, I’m really trying my best, even though mistakes sometimes happen.
The topic I chose for my research is “Emotional design”. The main reason, why I chose this topic is that I believe empathy and compassion are things our world is missing right now, and I want to explore how I, as a future designer, can contribute to making it a little brighter.
So, let’s dive into it!
When we interact with a product or a digital interface, our first reaction is rarely logical. Instead, it is immediate, intuitive, and emotional (vgl. Norman 2004, S. 12-13). Don Norman (vgl. ebda., S. 7-10) argues in his book “Emotional Design – Why we love (or hate) everyday things” that we love or hate products because of the emotions they evoke. Emotional design builds on exactly this idea, that people experience products not only through function, but also through feeling.
Norman (vgl. ebda., S. 5) argues that emotions influence how effectively people use and especially appreciate products. By doing so, he describes three levels of emotional processing which together shape how users perceive and remember an experience:
- Visceral → is automatic and happens very quickly; it is about first impressions and how something looks (vgl. ebda., S. 19)
- Behavioural → is about how easy and enjoyable something is to use during action (vgl. ebda., S. 23)
- Reflective → is about thinking back on an experience; it includes meaning, memories, and rational thoughts (vgl. ebda., S. 38)
Origins of Emotional Design
Although Norman came up with this concept in the early 2000s, its roots lie much deeper. Before taking emotional aspects into account, Norman focused mainly on utility and usability, function and form, for which he was criticized a lot, especially by designers themselves (vgl. ebda., S. 8).
In my opinion, this was the case because designers have always wanted to create an emotional response with their designs. Many of them already knew that this aspect is also very important for a product.
So, what has changed about how we define emotional design then?
I think it is the scientific understanding behind these emotional reactions. Desmet (vgl. 2002, S. 111-117) also notes that products evoke emotions through the meanings that users assign to them, which makes the emotional impact an inherent part of the design itself.
In the next blog post, I will take a closer look at why emotions influence our behaviour more strongly than logic and what this means for design.
Literature
Desmet, P. (2002). Designing Emotions. Delft: University of Technology.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. UK: Penguin Books.
Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional Design. Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.
