Don Norman: Three Ways Good Design Makes You Happy

8/29/2011

In this video, Don Norman focuses in on a few things (beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion) to understand what these aspects are all about in relation to design. This was an interesting video because to me, it seemed like it contradicted some of what Dieter Rams said about ‘good’ design. Although aesthetics were important to Rams as well, it seemed like Rams seemed to focus more on functionality. On the other hand, Norman seems to portray the idea that good design does not have to be functional. For instance, Norman describes a fancy juicer that he owns, however, it cannot even produce juice without ruining the object. Yet, Norman seems to think it is a good design because it is fun and pleasing to look at. I do believe, like Norman states, that “good design makes you happy”, however, I do not think that a person could fully be satisfied with an object that does not perform its function. Besides that little bit of confusion about whether or not design should be purely aesthetic or a combination of aesthetics and functionality, I found other points in this video intriguing. He states that “pleasant things work better” because if a person is happy about the object, they tend to be more creative, therefore allowing the object to exceed expectations. He then goes on to explain three types of design: visceral, behavior, and reflective. Visceral is all of the superficiality of design such as fonts and color, behavior is about functionality and the feeling of being in control, and reflective revolves around aesthetics and the feeling of being safe in your image. To me, a combination of these things together is what creates good design.