For Wednesday September 30, 2009 Emotional Design (cont)

1. In Norman's "Emotional Design" there was one passage that stood out to me and it was "Enhancements to a product come primarily by watching how people use what exists today, discovering difficulties and then overcoming them. Even here, however, it can be more difficult to determine the real needs that might seem obvious. People find it difficult to articulate their real problems".(72) In this passage Norman tries to explain the vast amount of difficulty that people have saying the things that they truly want and need, and that the only way to find out is to watch them while they're handling a product. The only thing that can be done to find out some one's true wants and needs is to watch them. and their every move.
2. These categories are very useful to me after I learned the meaning behind, but at first they didn't give me the over all concept of what they meant until I read the chapter. I think there are a couple words for each categories that would give future readers a clear understanding of what each category means. Visceral designs basically is a design that is meant to be visually appealing to consumers. Behavioral designs are meant to react fairly well to human reaction, this design is based on performance. Reflective designs are built off the status qou of an item. This is the type of product that you want because of the name brand.
3. A designer could easily decide if a design should be more visceral, behavioral, or reflective by examining the target market of the product and the uses of the productive. Although, It would be very difficult when deciding to make a reflective design. There are definitely products that are more visceral, behavioral, or reflective. Some products are made just to look nice, while other are meant to perform well. There are also products that people buy just to represent their "image".