In this chapter of Aarron Walter’s book “Designing for Emotion”, the author discusses how humans connect with design. One comment I thought was interesting in this chapter was when Walter stated, “Emotion is an essential survival tool,” (Walter 18). I’ve always known that emotions are a huge part of our personality and the way we interact with people, but I never realized how much we need emotions. We communicate to others through our emotions and we build relationships with others through our emotions as well. When we are born, we inherently know how to react with our emotions, such when babies’ cry.

However, one thing I did not fully agree with in this chapter was when Walter mentioned, “Our definition of beauty originates in our own image,” (Walter 21). I do agree a little bit with this statement. Although, I do believe that in our world today, sometimes our perception of beauty can be influenced by others, such as friends, family, or even the media. Especially in the case of young women, we always see pictures of famous actresses or models, and think that we need to change ourselves to become more like them, even though we already have an opinion on beauty. Thus, our definition tends to change sometimes, even when we don’t expect it to.

In my opinion, I enjoyed chapter 2 because it connected humans and design together, which I had never thought about before now. In addition, I enjoy when Walter uses examples that are applicable to me, such as the redesigning of Twitter or the simple Tumblr home page example. These examples help me understand the concepts better, and learn more about design. Also, I like how Walter tells the reader exactly what we need to know, and doesn’t add additional, pointless text just to fill the pages. I look forward to reading the next on Personality.

Originally posted at Megan Young - Gaylord Student