There are multiple faces of emotion and design such as the appearance (visceral design); the pleasure and effectiveness of use (behavioural design); self-image, personal satisfaction, memories, feeling of self, the personality of product (reflective design).
The visceral level is where appearance matters and first impressions are formed. Therefore, visceral level is about how the product felt, looked smelt initially…
The behavioural level is about use and experience. And experience contains three aspects: function, performance and usability. The following chart explains these three aspects.
The reflective level is where both thought and emotions are experienced. Interpretation, understanding and reasoning come from the reflective level. This level is the most vulnerable to culture, experience, education and individual differences, and it could override the others.
Another distinction among the levels is TIME. Visceral and Behavioural levels are about “now” while reflective level extends much longer –through reflection you remember the past and contemplate the future. Reflective design, is about long-term relations, about the feelings of satisfaction produced by owning displays ad using a product.
Customer interaction and services matter at this level as a person’s self-identity is located within the reflective level, where the interaction between the product and identity is important as demonstrated in pride or shame of ownership.
Below is the chart I re-created attempted to summarize the relations among three levels.
A designer must know the audience for whom the product is intended, while any real experience involves all three levels.
The author used the example of XBOX and computers to state that the only way to satisfy a wide variety of needs and preferences is to have a wide variety of products. Products must be right and appropriate for its occasions and audience.
“Needs” are determined by the task while “wants” happen in reflective level. We know that “wants” can often be more powerful than “needs” in determining the success of a product. In order to expand the market and turning the “needs” into “wants”, we designers and marketing executives ought to update the conventional image of a product in customer’s mind.
For example, the conventional image of computer is gaming, the conventional audience is teenagers and young males. However, according to author, as the technology develops, more and more types of audience and usages are involved. Computer image could be extended to educational and other utility areas. Each with different appearances, different modes of operation and different advertising and marketing messages.
To create excellent reflective design, designers need to create aids to memory, such as kitsch – works claim artistic value but are weak, cheap or sentimental / emotion coloured. E.g. Eiffel Tower keyring. Because sometimes, sentimental value outrated artistic quality as it contains our personal memory and emotions.
In a nutshell: “attractive things do work better as their attractiveness produces positive emotions, causing mental processes to be more creative, more tolerant of minor difficulties.”
In the next chapter, author is going to show how to design in practice, which is my favourite part as well.
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