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"Did you ever wonder why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses? Or why washing and polishing your car seems to make it drive better? New research has shown that attractive things really do work better." "In the last decade, the design community has made products easier to use, largely due to Donald Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. But as he demonstrates in this book, we don't just use a product, we become emotionally involved with it. Emotional Design demonstrates for the first time the profound influence of this deceptively simple idea." "Don Norman draws on a wealth of examples and the very latest scientific insights in this exploration of the emotional impacts of objects in our everyday world. His The Design of Everyday Things showed why the products we use should not be confusing, irritating, and frustrating. Emotional Design explains why they must also be attractive, pleasurable, and fun."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
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Most of this book is excellent, but the three chapters where Norman speculates about how robots having emotion is going to change the world really didn't interest me; unless you are especially interested in artificial intelligence, robots and robot theory, I recommend skipping those chapters.
Instead, the author painfully rambles on topics well beyond his expertise (text messages, console games, ...). Norman rediscovers the basic facts of
Your time is better spent (re-)reading Norman's classic The Design of Everyday Things.
There are three levels of design:
*Visceral Design - Appearance
*Behavioral Design - The pleasure and effectiveness of use
*Reflective Design - Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories
Norman offers an illuminating model - distinguishing between 3 layers of design: visceral, behavioral and reflective - to understand why people like the objects they do. And like ‘Design of Everyday Things’ he explores this model with numerous fun and apropos examples. But soon the book wanders from discussion of this cognitive model to pondering on the future of design.
According to Norman this future will be marked by our increased dependence on smart robots in every facet of life, where the more we grow to depend on these servants of our own making – functionally and emotionally - the more the line between man and robot will become less and less clear. All this talk of material stuff and robotic servitude makes ‘Emotional Design’ a testament to American consumerism and I was moderately disappointed by the lack of freshness here.
A worthwhile read from the man who brought us ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, but ultimately one that falls in the category of ‘plane book’. That is, the type of book I read on a plane because I know I’ll have no other escape.