(I chose to write this review only after reading both Emotional Design and The Design of Everyday Things. The wait was worthwhile.)

Emotional Design focuses on the aesthetics of things, that is, on what makes an object desirable (for a human). Just like the influential late-1980s book by Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, this book marks a belief shift, from performance and usability, to catering to human impulse and cognitive responses. In other words, Norman argues that we are no longer interested exclusively in performance and function, and that emotion plays an important role in what we think about objects.

Norman introduces a framework for our response to objects, with three layers. The visceral layer is where humans react to thrills, colors, lighting, etc.; there is little or no thinking involved at this layer. For example, when the camera angle points upwards to the face of the character, we understand (as a gut feeling, or sensation) that the character is a hero. At the behavioral layer, humans think about the properties of the object, and place themselves in the role of users/participants. This is the layer where humans appreciate the functionality, usability, and performance of objects. At the reflective layer, humans take a metaphorical step back and analyze the object and the way they can interact with it. For example, even a colorless and useless (broken) object can appeal at this layer to humans, who may be attracted by a story that includes the object (how the object was broken during a war, while in the pocket of a long-gone grandparent).

The book abounds in excellent writing and ideas (for a rather technical mind). Here are three things I've noticed, at very different levels. Norman argues in Chapter 5 that "the real power of Instant Messaging isn't the message [...] it's the presence detection. Knowing that someone is there." I was wondering since the first mention in this book of the word robot about Asimov's "Laws of Robotics", and thought that Norman is focusing much on the individual objects and not about groups, so (1) Was he going to discuss these laws? (2) Was he going to discuss the Zeroth Law? To my real, deep surprise, Norman did both, and quite excellently so. (This alone increased the rating I've given this book by a star.) I was also very interested to read about personalization and customization, two issues I'm struggling with in my own designs. There's not much about them in this book, but there's something. For the rest ... there's too much to discuss in this review.

While I enjoyed the book and I liked much of it, I was less impressed with its novelty and depth. First, I am not sure about the novelty of this position. For once, in computer science and in particular in computer-human interaction and computer graphics the importance of aesthetics was understood much earlier, perhaps even from the beginning of the 1990s (see the focus of the SIGGRAPH conferences of that era). The researchers of entertainment, especially movies, have developed very similar frameworks much earlier; Norman refers to Jon Boorstin's The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work (1990). Second, I am sure many must have raised this objection, but Norman's view is very much rich-country oriented. There are billions of people to which Norman's book surely does not yet apply, and Norman should have mentioned this. Third, some of the treatment of the more technical aspects, such as deadlocks when contending for resources and its potential solutions, is truly naive.

Overall, a very good and modern book on design, with an almost exclusive focus on aesthetics. Perhaps not as good as The Design of Everyday Things, but an excellent companion. Rec: must-read for every designer of user-facing products.

This is a useful book in understanding how “soft” things like emotion and aesthetics play into the design of products. There’s a good combination of theory, anecdote, and speculation, which makes it nice to read.

The only issue is that it was published back in 2004, and could use an update based on all that’s happened since then. He wrote it in a world before smartphones, modern social media platforms, chatbots, deep learning, and many other advancements.

Most of his predictions about the future seem to have fared pretty well. Surprisingly, he speculates a lot about topics that have since become very relevant, such as the design of bots, AI, automated vehicles, and social media platforms, and he got a lot of it right. A new version of the book would really be nice to see, to revisit and refresh the discussion of these topics.

_این کتاب روی احساسات و نقش آن ها در توسعه وسایل و تجهیزات مصنوعی تمرکز دارد و نیز شیوه ای که انسان ها خودشان را به لحاظ احساسی به دارایی هایشان، به حیوانات دست اموزشان و به یکدیگر وابسته میدانند."
یه نقل قول از کتاب که کلیت بحثی که قراره بخونیم رو به ما میده.
نکته های جالبی از جنبه ها و زوایای مختلف طراحی تونستم بفهمم ازش، انسجام خوبی داشت البته یه بخشی خیلی طولانی به بحث روباتیک پرداخته بود (برای یه طرفدار آسیموف این خیلی لذت بخشه).

DNF page 70.

I feel like the same few points are being repeated over and over and over again in slightly different ways and I'm starting to go insane. It seems this book is never going to go anywhere.

I also read in a review that the second half of the book is all about robots, and there was this paragraph in the beginning that tipped me off to what we're in store for there:

"Just as emotions are critical to human behavior, they are equally critical for intelligent machines, especially autonomous machines of the future that will help people in their daily activities. Robots, to be successful, will have to have emotions. Not necessarily the same as human emotions, these will be emotions nonetheless, ones tailored to the needs and requirements of a robot. Furthermore, the machines and products of the future may be able to sense human emotions and respond accordingly. Soothe you when you are upset, humor you, console you and, play with you."

I just wanted to read a book about why people like some designs more than others. I feel like I'm getting something else entirely here.