A must read for designers, it sums up all you need to know about emotional design in a quite easy to understand/navigate manner
It helped me realize in which area/level of emotional design I wish to work on
The author kind of lost me in the chapters where he talked about robotics and emotions
Since it’s not my field of interest
But I’ll definitely use this book as a reference.

I like how Donald Norman introduces the three levels of design - visceral (aesthetics and initial gut feelings), behavioural (usability), and reflective (a deeper level of analysis and sentimentality) - and analyses objects and products relating to these three principles. It was nice to see and hear about some of his favourite products in his own home, and how it is not always about the functionality of an object, but about how fun they can be to use.
I have some objects like this. For example, I have a miniature wheelie bin, no more than 15cm high, sitting on my desk with pencils and pens in. Though I don't even use them, the miniature wheelie bin is fun and never fails to make me smile.

The way Norman gets carried away, discussing robots is less enjoyable. Explaining the difficulties robots will have with understanding human emotions and responding appropriately to them was relevant and fascinating, but then he got carried away and ended up just discussing for almost a whole chapter about how robots are replacing people in jobs. I have found the same theme running in his other books.

There were some very valuable stories in this book. Norman says that a company wanted to make headsets for sports coaches, but the coaches were apprehensive. Headsets usually have a thin plastic band, stretching around the head, with a little mic at the end. The company realised that the coaches didn't like the image it presented of them. As a solution, the headsets that ended up being manufactured were very bulky, masculine, and presented a strong image, making the coaches enjoy wearing them. This is a great example of how objects can be considered as extensions to ourselves.

Good. Nonfiction. Some authors opinion that I'm not totally on board with but interesting and worth a read.

Günlük hayatımızda kullandığımız, satın aldığımız tüm ürünlerdeki estetik tasarımların duygularımızı nasıl manipüle edip satın alma sürecini hızlandırdığını merak ediyorsanız okuyun. Ürünlerin işlevselliklerinin dizaynla birleşip satın alma kolaylığını araştıran Donald Norman abimiz cognitive design konusunda da uzman bir mühendis. Kitapta kendini çok iyi ifade etmiş ve fikirlerini de çok güzel ortaya koyabilmiş.

The book was not what I expected - and maybe that is why I was a little disappointed and had to reframe the lens with which I read the book… the author spends most of the time describing why emotions need to be factored into design and how emotions influence our interactions with everyday objects.

I felt that the author focuses too much time on theory as he introduces three levels at which an emotional response is generated - visceral, behavioural and reflective - and how each affects us differently, affecting our perception, use or memories of the product.

Since traditionally design has been more focussed on functionality and usability, it is important to understand the additional aspects - where the visceral and behavioral levels are about ‘now,’ our feelings and experiences while actually seeing or using the product; reflective extends much longer, is about longterm relations, about the feelings of satisfaction produced by owning, displaying, and using a product. The author describes each design level - visceral is pre-consciousness, pre-thought, where appearance, touch, feel matter and first impressions are formed; behavioral, is about the use and the experience with the product, whether it does what it is supposed to (function), how well it does (performance), and how easy is it to use (usability). In contrast, reflective is where consciousness and the highest levels of feeling, emotions, and cognition reside… and through reflection we remember the past and contemplate the future. He uses the example of souvenir buildings to highlight that the identical miniature sparks in each of us extravagantly different webs of remembrance.

I had really enjoyed his first book on design of everyday objects but this book failed to spark the same level of interest. The ideas are captured at a high level, the narrative is jumbled up and is manifested in repetition of same ideas and the shift to robots and machines suggests that it is more relevant for future products, thus diluting its application to designs of today. There are a few examples that the author uses to share his own emotional responses to products, but fails to build upon that into practical design ideas . He does however succeed in emphasising the need to look beyond functionality and usability in design and explore both visceral and reflective. In practice, real products often involve continual conflict among the three levels and that is an interesting challenge to address.. The book leaves you with the realisation that emotional design requires a more concentrated attention than it gets today, but beyond that leaves you to find your own answers on how best to achieve that.

That said, there is no doubt about the potential of emotions in design - that too across all kinds of design genres, from graphic design, interior design, industrial design, software application design and others as well. Our goal should be to design products that elicit positive emotional response and recognise how varied and often unrelated its influence can be - and that is its true power - that we need to learn to capitalise on.

And if you are wondering why the fuss about positive emotion - “positive emotions broaden people's thought-action repertoires, encouraging them to discover novel lines of thought or action.Joy, for instance, creates the urge to play, interest creates the urge to explore, and so on. Play, for instance, builds physical, socio-emotional, and intellectual skills, and fuels brain development. Similarly, exploration increases knowledge and psychological complexity.”

Boring and outdated with significant amounts of triggering body comments

Interesting read that explores the intersection between design and psychology. Clearly written and relatively easy to follow with lots of practical and thought-provoking design examples (including lots of visuals).

In particular, really liked the way the author explained complex topics like the “affect system” in an easy to understand way. Not dumbed down, just clear and to the point. His writing style made him come across as a knowledgable expert who’s passionate about this subject.

It builds on his previous work on our connection to objects which focussed more on the utility, usability, function and form side of design. He holds on to these concepts, but shows how the latest thinking on how our brains work is that emotion and cognition are intertwined.

He introduces the idea of three levels of design at which emotions work - visceral, behavioural and reflective. There’s many examples of how these different levels work both together and separately depending on the design context. It’s very clear, and I really liked this model and could see practical uses of it in design.

He uses a lot of fun and clever examples in the middle chapters to bring these to life. Though these feel slightly dated now (the book was written in 2010), it’s not distracting as good design lasts over time, and the principles all still hold.

The Mini Cooper for example is still a good way to show how people can “feel” differently about an object just by looking at the design.

The only thing that held it back a little were the last two chapters where he takes a more speculative view about the future use of emotions in design looking at machines and robots.

Didn’t mind these sections, but they were more conjecture. They got a little long-winded at times and didn’t hold my attention as strongly as the front two thirds of the book. Probably more for people who are really deeply into the future of design, rather than those more interested in the practical use of it now.

That aside though, the first five chapters (out of seven) are all excellent. So overall, it’s still a very good read if you’re into either of these topics.

به هر کسی که کوچکترین علاقه‌ای به طراحی یا تولید محصول داشته پیش‌نهاد می‌کنم. مثال‌های فوق‌العاده و کاربردی، دید باز و از همه مهم‌تر، از دید غیر کسب‌و‌کار و انسانی نگاه کرده.
البته بخش آخر که در مورد ربات‌ها بود مورد علاقه‌ی من نبود.

The first half was very design-focused and got to the heart of universal truths that won't really alter over time. But the second half around AI felt dated and was very difficult to get through. When this was first published, his insights into robotic and artificial intelligence were likely new and groundbreaking. Today these ideas are everywhere and we've either heard all about them or are actually living within them.

Maybe it's time for Norman to revisit some of these themes with an updated version.

My highlights:

The words of William Morris provide a fitting close to the book, just as they provided a fitting opening:
If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

Finally, affect and emotion are crucial for everyday decision making. The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio studied people who were perfectly normal in every way except for brain injuries that impaired their emotional systems. As a result, despite their appearance of normality, they were unable to make decisions or function effectively in the world. While they could describe exactly how they should have been functioning, they couldn't determine where to live, what to eat, and what products to buy and use. This finding contradicts the common belief that decision-making is the heart of rational, logical thought. But modern research shows that the affective system provides critical assistance to your decision-making by helping you make rapid selections between good and bad, reducing the number of things to be considered.

The emotional system is also tightly coupled with behavios, preparing the body to respond appropriately to a given situation. Thus if you feel tense and edgy when anxious. The "queasy" or "knotted feelings in your gut are not imaginary- they are real manifestations of the way that emotions control your muscle systems and, yes, even your digestive system.

When you feel good, Isen discovered, you are better at brainstorming, at examining multiple alternatives. And it doesn't take much to make people feel good. All Isen had to do was ask people to watch a few minutes of a comedy film or receive a small bag of candy.
We have long known that when people are anxious, they tend to narrow their thought processes, concentrating upon aspects directly relevant to a problem. This is a useful strategy in escaping from danger but not in thinking of imaginative new approaches to a problem Alice Isen's results show that when people are relaxed and happy, their thought processes expand, becoming more creative, more imaginative.

These and related findings suggest the role of aesthetics in product design: 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. With most products, if the first thing you try fails to produce the desired result, the most natural response is to try again, only with more effort. In today's world of computer-controlled products, doing the same operation over again is very unlikely to yield better results. The correct response is to look for alternative solutions. The tendency to repeat the same operation over again is especially likely for those who are anxious or tense.

Happy people are more effective in finding alternative solutions and, as a result, are tolerant of minor difficulties. Herbert Read thought we would need a mystical theory to connect beauty and function. Well, it took one hundred years, but today we have that theory, one based in biology, neuroscience, and psychology, not mysticism.

With positive affect, you are more likely to see the forest than the trees, to prefer the big picture and not to concentrate upon details. On the other hand, when you are sad or anxious, feeling negative affect, you are more likely to see the trees before the forest, the details before the big picture.

Affect, which includes emotion, is a system of judging what's good or bad, safe or dangerous. It makes value judgments, the better to survive.

There is one other distinction among the levels: time. The visceral and behavioral levels are about "now," your feelings and experiences while actually seeing or using the product. But the reflective level extends much longer- through reflection you remember the past and contemplate the future. Reflective design, therefore, is about long-term relations, about the feelings of satisfaction produced by owning, displaying, and using a product. A person's self-identity is located within the reflective level, and here is where the interaction between the product and your identity is important as demonstrated in pride (or shame) of ownership or use. Customer interaction and service matter at this level.

The three levels can be mapped to product characteristics like this:
Visceral design > Appearance
Behavioral design > The pleasure and effectiveness of use
Reflective design > Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories

A souvenir monument.
Although often denounced as "kitsch," unworthy of being considered as art, souvenirs are rich in emotional meanings because of the memories they evoke.

Summary:

To sum up, great product design comes from skillfully blending three key aspects: the visceral, behavioral, and reflective design levels. This combination helps us understand our immediate reactions to how a product looks, our expectations of how it should work, and the personal meanings we attach to it. Effective design creates a complete experience that appeals to our senses, is enjoyable to use, and connects with us on a personal level. It’s this blend of design elements that makes certain products truly memorable and sometimes even a part of our daily lives.

У цій книжці Дональд Норман ділиться своїми роздумами про те, як речі впливають на наші емоції. Він розділяє кілька рівнів дизайну: функціональний (річ робить те, що він неї очікують), інстинктивний (річ гарна, приємна на доторк) і рефлективний (річ розповідає чи стосується історії, яка нас цікавить). Всі ці три рівня можуть по-різному взаємодіяти в різних речах. І часом щоб абсолютно незручне у використанні може бути милим серцю через гарний вигляд чи приємні спогади про цю річ.
Книжка спонукає до роздумів про речі, які я створюю і якими себе оточую.
Це не підручник і не структуроване наукове дослідження, не шукайте ту практичних порад та ідей. Це - роздуми автора на тему емоцій в дизайні. Деякі моементи були трохи нудні, інші ж навпаки цікаві й надихаючі. Значна частина тексту присвячена роботам і якось слабо в'язалась з темою книжки, заявленою на обкладинці.
Загалом було цікаво прочитати, але навряд чи я її коли-небудь перечитуватиму.

Українське видання зроблену дуже добре. Хороший переклад з увагою до деталей, приємна верстка - все як треба!