Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman, makes the case that products should be designed with human emotion in mind. That is, a product should not only work well and be as easy to use as possible; it should also evoke positive emotions in the people that use the product.

Taking this idea further, he argues that products – robots in particular – will ultimately need to evoke emotions themselves to maximize our satisfaction with them. His ideas are fascinating, often in the same way that science fiction is fascinating – it may be decades before advances in artificial intelligence can allow us to fully test them.

His opinion of most software is that it is too abstract – too “virtual.” If software is to appeal to our emotions, it needs to be more physical. We need to find ways to stimulate other senses than sight and mind – touch, hearing, smell… Knobs and levers are a good start – I’m not sure where he’d like to see it go from there. Page 83 suggests that there is little hope for existing software products: “Good behavioral design has to be a fundamental part of the design process from the very start; it cannot be adopted once the product has been completed.” To design a good product, you must observe potential users in order to understand their needs. From there, product designs need to be prototyped, tested, and improved iteratively.

In evaluating the effectiveness of product design, he considers three levels. Good visceral design has an appealing appearance. Good behavioral design produces products that work well and are fun to use. Good reflective design is how we feel about the design in the long-term – feelings of pride, good memories, etc.

This book was easy and fun to read; I recommend it to anyone that is interested in designing products that are not only useful, but emotionally appealing. It is not exactly full of practical advice, but it may get you thinking in the right direction.