Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things | 
| Author: Donald A. Norman
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
Buy New: £9.99
New (27) Used (12) from £5.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 38490
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0465051367
Dewey Decimal Number: 745.2019
EAN: 9780465051366
ASIN: 0465051367
Publication Date: April 20, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Two sides of the coin January 30, 2008
As lately I became interested in design (computer interfaces, human-computer interaction), I enjoyed this book. The first part of the book put my thoughts into a new perspective, and clarified some of the issues I had after finishing the User Interface Design course (M873) at Open University. But then, the second part of the book didn't impress me that much. To be served better by robots we should give them feelings like anxiety and pride!?? That maybe worked for the science-fiction writers decades ago, in my childhood, but even in those books there were a lot of problems with this approach. But I guess it is a nice way to dream about the future; by the way, this future won't allow us to make the robots be like Mr. Norman predicted (at least until we put all the current computer science into the garbage bin).
However, the book is a well worth reading, even if you are not interested in design, so I'm going to rate it with 4 stars (maybe 3.5 would have been better).
 Cognitive science explains our love of good design January 5, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Understanding the emotions consumers feel about the objects you sell can help your business make the most of its product designs. Expert Donald Norman explains how being attractive, fun and enjoyable makes a product better. He explains that the emotions which affect purchase decisions are based on three aspects of design: "visceral" (appearance), "behavioral" (performance) and "reflective" (memories and experiences). He provides interesting case studies to show how objects evoke emotions. Norman's central theme is that "attractive things work better." And, the book works best when he hews to that theme; the last section, where he veers into a discussion of robots, doesn't seem as pertinent or as strong. We recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how design affects emotions, and how emotions affect purchasing decisions.
 Out of touch with modern technology November 3, 2005
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed The Psychology of Everyday Things, but I found this book disappointing. Donald Norman makes some comments that make him sound like an out-of-touch IT teacher at school rather than a master of clever design. The suggestion that we might one day all have clever boxes in rooms of our houses, say that showed us how to do auto repairs in the garage, or cook a recipe in the kitchen, seem to have bypassed entirely the concepts of the Internet, Wi-Fi, and LCD flatscreens. Why re-invent the wheel? Similarly, how could a book on the way thought and emotion interact in the design of products possibly neglect to include the Apple IPod? This thing has totally revolutionised consumer electronics but instead we're treated to a chapter about the design of kettles. There's the kernels of some good ideas in here, but they're not followed through with particularly impressive thinking. I'd be very interested to see someone else tackle this area from a more modern perspective.
Insightful on occasions, but also repetitive in places July 18, 2005
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
While this book was at times fascinating, entertaining and easy to read, I believe that it was not as inspirational as Norman's classic book, The Design of Everyday Things. The first half of the book serves as a useful overview into the psychological theory of emotion and is written in simple and plain English. However, the second half of the book goes on to discuss how we may interact with robots and machines in the future and while interesting to read, it does become slightly repetitive at times. This book is not up to the same (very high) standard as some of Norman's previous work, but is still an interesting, insightful and easy read. Definitely worth a look!
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