In Chapter 4 of “Designing for Emotion”, Aarron Walter discusses the topic of using our design persona from the last chapter and incorporating it with building interaction patterns as well as creating lasting memories in the minds of our audience. Personally, I had never thought about important the aspect of surprise is in our lives. I really liked the statement Walter writes saying, “Surprise amplifies our emotional response,” (Walter 49). If we know something is coming, it completely changes our outlook on the situation. This idea definitely made me think and realize how important this aspect is in design.

However, in this chapter I questioned one opinion about the changes of Twitter. Although I agree with the fact that many people react negatively to social media whenever it changes its appearance, I do not agree with keeping the old version on the social media site. If the social media site is eventually going to make the users change to the new version, then everyone should have to change at the same time. Although this may give the site negative feedback in the beginning, the uproar will eventually die down and some people may even like the new version better. In the end, people will like the new version and it will become the norm, until users have to deal with new updates again.

Something I have recently noticed and enjoy about this book is how everything Walter says is true and applies to Public Relations. For example, when he mentions that our goal is not to trick the public and “Your audience will catch on to your game and not trust your brand if you are deceitful,” this is extremely relevant to our field of study (Walter 49). In addition, I have always liked learning about new things, and this chapter is chalk full of them, such as Photojojo and Wufoo. I had never heard of these before, so it was interesting to read about them.

Originally posted at Megan Young - Gaylord Student