Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things

Needs are determined by the task:

attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does that make something easier to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter.

The behavioral and reflective levels, however, are very sensitive to experiences, training, and education. Cultural views have huge impact here: what one culture finds appealing, another may not.

A person interprets an experience at many levels, but what appeals at one may not at another. A successful design has to excel at all levels.

The trained observer can often spot difficulties and solutions that even the person experiencing them does not consciously recognize.

the “wow” factor.

The behavioral level is about use, about experience with a product. But experience itself has many facets: function, performance, and usability.

souvenir means “a token of remembrance, a memento.”

too much anxiety produces a phenomenon known as “tunnel vision,” where the people become so focused they may fail to see otherwise obvious alternatives.