Book Review: Emotional Design

I’ve decided to try and polish up aspects of my design knowledge. This included the long overdue read of Emotional Design: Why We Love Or Hate Everyday Things.

Firstly it’s a lightweight book (272pgs), and its written lucidly so I finished reading it in an evening. The author have put out some very respectable ideas IMHO, and overall it is a slightly mind opening text, its worth the time so i’d grade it 4/5.

spoiler alert
One of the things that I liked about his ideas and i’d like to share with, is something that i’ve always known and used but could never tag with the correct title.
He claims good design is built upon visceral, behavioral and reflective attributes. While the first two are obvious (beauty and function) the last one isn’t.

Reflection would be, for example, the ability of a person to socialize using the item you design – you should always put something in that will allow people to socialize with. There is a point designing a car that is both good looking and functional but why not overprice it? (ferrari), why not make it really cute? (mini, beatle), why not make it vulgar/manly (hummer). This is the value of reflective design.