Emotional Design by Donald A. Norman Read Free Book Online Page B

different designs. Some designs should reflect a warmer, more feminine approach. Some should look more serious, more professional. Some should have a more reflective appeal, especially for the educational marketplace. These changes wouldn’t make the product dull and unexciting. They could make it as inviting and attractive as before, but emphasize different aspects of its potential. Its appearance should match its usage and audience.
    Today, the behavioral design of many games revolves around powerful graphics and fast reflexes. Skill at operating the controls is one of the features distinguishing the beginning from the advanced player. To branch out into other arenas requires changing the behavioral characteristics so that they emphasize rich, detailed graphics and informative structures. In many domains, the emphasis should be on content, not on the skill of using the device, so ease of use should be stressed. Where content matters, the user should not have to spend time mastering the device, but rather should be able to devote time
and effort toward mastering the content, enjoying the presentations, and exploring the domain.
    The reflective design of today’s games projects a product image that is consistent with the sleek powerful appearance of the console and the fast reflexes required of the player. This has to be changed. Advertisements should promote the device as a learning and educational tool for people of all ages. One form of console should continue to project the image of powerful game machine. Others should be positioned to be an intelligent guide to activities such as cooking or auto mechanics or woodworking. And others should be positioned as an aid to learning. Each with different appearances, different modes of operation, and different advertising and marketing messages.
    Now imagine the outcome. The device that used to be specialized for the playing of video games takes on different appearances, depending upon its intended function. In the garage, the device would look like shop machinery, with a serious, rugged appearance, impervious to damage. It would serve as tutor and assistant, displaying automobile manuals, mechanical drawings, and short videos of the required steps to maintain or upgrade the auto. In the kitchen, it matches the décor of kitchen appliances and becomes a cooking aid and tutor. In the living room, it fits with the furniture and books and becomes a reference manual, perhaps an encyclopedia, tutor, and player of reflective games (such as go, chess, cards, word games). And for the student, it is a source of simulations, experiments, and extensive exploration of interesting, well-motivated topics, but topics carefully chosen so that, in the process of enjoying the adventure, you automatically learn the fundamentals of your field. Designs appropriate to the audience, the location, and the purpose. Everything I have described here is doable. It simply hasn’t yet been done. . . .

Objects That Evoke Memories
    True, long-lasting emotional feelings take time to develop: they come from sustained interaction. What do people love and cherish, despise and detest? Surface appearance and behavioral utility play relatively minor roles. Instead, what matters is the history of interaction, the associations that people have with the objects, and the memories they evoke.
    Consider keepsakes and mementoes, postcards and souvenir monuments, such as the model of the Eiffel Tower shown in figure 2.2 . These are seldom considered beautiful, seldom thought of as works of art. In the world of art and design they are called kitsch . This term of derision for the cheap and vulgar has been applied, says the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia , “since the early 20th century to works considered pretentious and tasteless. Exploitative commercial objects such as Mona Lisa scarves and abominable plaster reproductions of sculptural masterpieces are described as kitsch, as are works that claim artistic