While going through  this chapter, the author mentions that in today’s world there is a lack of human connection through industrial manufacturing. This sparked my interest as I had never thought of designing this way. He expanded his position by discussing how web designing in the form of art can build a human connection towards a target audience through creative thinking. These ideas helped me bridge the gap between the way I have always perceived designing and emotional designing.

There was nothing I could find that I disagreed with in the chapter, however, I did not understand the need to discuss Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in as much depth as the author did. The author could have touched on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs while going into more detail over the remap for the needs for the users. One website is not going to be expected to fulfill the basic human needs of the user other than the desires mentions in the remap.

It was nice to think of the big picture when it comes to web designing and how it has progressed through time and creativity. Ironically, we have found that more success comes with more personality and creativity than representing that of the modern machine. It seems like the so-called “better” way of doing things would be easier and more fun to execute than displaying their material in the same way as every other company.

Of course, the chapter mentions it is important to continue to think about the reliability and usability of the website in order for users to navigate quickly. But the main idea from this chapter is that websites should be useable and exciting in order to create positive memory and continued use.

Originally posted at Brought to you by Brooke

This chapter was very interesting to me because I never thought that a web page had too much thought behind it like Etsy did. Now I know that every website aims to please all of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs so it will resonate with all of the visitors of the site.

I completely agree that visitors of the site will understand the sites shortcomings. It’s hard to believe that the sites visitors will be as forgiving as we are but we have to remember that the other visitors are humans just like us. I think that it definitely makes your site more memorable which creates brand loyalty.

The only thing I disagree with is that these shortcomings will create a safety net. I think that people will be loyal to the brand but with that being said, too many shortcomings can turn your audience off. I think that you can be human, but eventually have to realize at one point that you have to step up and create more of a page that resonates with forgiving audiences and ones who are criticizing.

Originally posted at Claire White

Chapter 1 gave some interesting insight into the beginning of how mass production began. In one of the first pages of the text, the author, Jared Spool says, ” When you buy from an independent craftsman, you support creative thinking and families not corporations and you gain the opportunity to live with an object that has a story.”  This stuck with me because I had never thought of buying this way and how mass production takes away from the personalization of an object or good. This correlated perfectly with today’s day and age websites and social media because it all seems to be very similar in concept. I agreed with the theory of emotional design in that you need some sort of emotional connection to draw in or engage users or readers. I also agreed with the emotion and memory theory in that it really does resonate when you can connect positive experiences and incorporate into the design of sites and products. What I didn’t completely agree on was revised Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that the author proposed. I think that since the creation of this structure a little has changed but for the most part has stayed the same. People still need physiological security, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization but the emphasis on the self-actulization need should be increased. As time progresses, there is more and more, the needs shouldn’t really change. Usable and reliable are also basic concepts that I completely agree with in the text.

Originally posted at Taylor Ashley's PR Pubs

Overall, I felt as if the first chapter of “Designing for Emotion” was a good set up for what I would expect the rest of the book to reveal. I thoroughly enjoyed the analogy between humanism and the internet, and, more importantly, the direct way in which the author connected the dots between human interaction, emotion, connection and creativity to the way web designers and internet users in general utilize the internet. Furthermore, having studied Psychology before, I thought that the inclusion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was a nice addition to the overall concept. I had never thought of web design, or any creative outlet for that matter, in terms of a type of hierarchy prior to reading this chapter, so I found that parallel rather interesting – specifically the idea of basic needs to self-actualization as a comparison with functional to pleasurable.  The utilization of actual websites as examples, moreover, made the new-found hierarchy  both visible and more specific. For example, by comparing and contrasting different websites for their assets and faults, the “Web Design Hierarchy” became more realistic and believable. I am not 100% sure I see the success rate of this strategy over corporate strategy, so I am interested to see how these concepts progress in the future chapters such as when the author mentioned that the personality in terms of the different  components of the internet would resurface in Chapter 3 and the comparison between emotional design and return on investment in Chapter 7.

Originally posted at CK1