Blog 7

I watched a TEDTalks podcast of Don Norman titled “The three ways that good design makes you happy.” In the video, Don Norman turns his insightful eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He talked about three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.

He starts out showing a picture of a fancy gold plated juicer that he owns, and talked about how when he got it there was a note saying he should not use it to squeeze actual oranges because it will ruin the finish. However, he still kept it, and he displays it at the front of his house because he finds it very appealing and fun. Norman’s job is about trying to understand what beauty and emotion is about.

He next talked about an MIT media lab that put a projector above a ping pong table that displayed a pond. Whenever the ball hit the table it created ripples in the water and the fish swam away. He asked the question if this was a good way to play ping pong? No not really, but is it fun? Yes! I had never really noticed this but at the bottom of a Google search page it says “Goooooooooogle” where the o’s reflect how many pages of information that was found for your search. This is a very pleasant and clever way to display the results and might enhance your Google experience without you really even knowing why. I amazed at how many “fun” things we buy even when they are not practical. There was a review on the Mini Coup that said it had many faults, but to buy it anyway because it is so fun to drive. I feel as though we believe that pleasant things work better.

It has been proven that fear and anxiety change the way you think. In the podcast it talked about how a psychologist did an experiment on students asking them to solve problems. When the students came in, she would tell them that it was an IQ test, and it would determine how they do in life. She asked the students to tie the strings together that were hanging from the ceiling, however the strings wouldn’t reach each other and they couldn’t solve it. Next she brought a second group of students in and before they started she said “oh by the way I have a box of candy here that I don’t eat candy- would you like it?” This made them happy in some little way, and they ended up solving the problem. It turns out when you are anxious you squirt neurotransmitters into the brain which focuses you; however, when you are happy (which is referred to as positive valence) you release dopamine into the prefrontal lobes. This allows you to think out side of the box and be more creative even though you are more susceptible to distractions.

Don Norman talked about the different levels of processing. First is the Visceral level which is built into the brain. For instance we prefer smiling faces over frowning ones, we like bright colors, etc. In design, you can express Visceral in many ways such as the choice of font you can use in an advertisement or the color the text is such as red for hot or exciting. The middle level of processing is the Behavioral level which is where most of the stuff gets done! It is sub conscious and most of what we do is sub conscious. Behavioral design is all about feeling in control – which includes usability and understanding but also the feel and heft. For example, you feel in control when you are driving a high performance sports car over a demanding curve. The third level is Reflective which is the little part of the brain that has no control. It looks over what is going on and is the little voice inside your head. Hummer owners enjoy driving their tank because it attracts lots of attention which makes them happy. Even though a digital watch would give a more accurate time, an owner of an impressive brand watch is going to show it off and enjoy it even more. Cognition is about understanding the world and emotion is about interpreting the world. Companies have to figure out what really appeals to customers and be very careful how they package their products.