Product Description

Did you ever wonder why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses? Why sales of Macintosh computers soared when Apple introduced the colorful iMac? New research on emotion and cognition has shown that attractive things really do work better, as Donald Norman amply demonstrates in this fascinating book, which has garnered acclaim everywhere from Scientific American to The New Yorker. Emotional Design articulates the profound influence of the feelings that objects evoke, from our willingness to spend thousands of dollars on Gucci bags and Rolex watches, to the impact of emotion on the everyday objects of tomorrow. Norman draws on a wealth of examples and the latest scientific insights to present a bold exploration of the objects in our everyday world. Emotional Design will appeal not only to designers and manufacturers but also to managers, psychologists, and general readers who love to think about their stuff.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15280 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Donald A. Norman is a cognitive scientist and cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm that helps companies produce human-centred products and services. His many books include The Design of Everyday Things, Things That Make Us Smart and The Invisible Computer. He lives in Illinois, USA.

Customer Reviews

Insightful on occasions, but also repetitive in places
While this book was at times fascinating, entertaining and easy to read, I believe that it was not as inspirational as Norman's classic book, The Design of Everyday Things. The first half of the book serves as a useful overview into the psychological theory of emotion and is written in simple and plain English. However, the second half of the book goes on to discuss how we may interact with robots and machines in the future and while interesting to read, it does become slightly repetitive at times.

This book is not up to the same (very high) standard as some of Norman's previous work, but is still an interesting, insightful and easy read. Definitely worth a look!

Cognitive science explains our love of good design
Understanding the emotions consumers feel about the objects you sell can help your business make the most of its product designs. Expert Donald Norman explains how being attractive, fun and enjoyable makes a product better. He explains that the emotions which affect purchase decisions are based on three aspects of design: "visceral" (appearance), "behavioral" (performance) and "reflective" (memories and experiences). He provides interesting case studies to show how objects evoke emotions. Norman's central theme is that "attractive things work better." And, the book works best when he hews to that theme; the last section, where he veers into a discussion of robots, doesn't seem as pertinent or as strong. We recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how design affects emotions, and how emotions affect purchasing decisions.

Out of touch with modern technology
I really enjoyed The Psychology of Everyday Things, but I found this book disappointing. Donald Norman makes some comments that make him sound like an out-of-touch IT teacher at school rather than a master of clever design.

The suggestion that we might one day all have clever boxes in rooms of our houses, say that showed us how to do auto repairs in the garage, or cook a recipe in the kitchen, seem to have bypassed entirely the concepts of the Internet, Wi-Fi, and LCD flatscreens. Why re-invent the wheel? Similarly, how could a book on the way thought and emotion interact in the design of products possibly neglect to include the Apple IPod? This thing has totally revolutionised consumer electronics but instead we're treated to a chapter about the design of kettles.

There's the kernels of some good ideas in here, but they're not followed through with particularly impressive thinking. I'd be very interested to see someone else tackle this area from a more modern perspective.