Attractive Things Work Better

ATTRACTIVE THINGS WORK
BETTER
by Andy Montgomery for LabShare on January , 

© Viget Labs, LLC • This presentation is CONFIDENTIAL and should not be shared without permission.

Friday, January 6, 12
NAME
PLACE 1. The title of my talk today is “Attractive Things Work Better”
DATE 2. based on a concept introduced originally by Don Norman in 2002

WHO IS DON NORMAN?

1. Who Is Don Norman?
2. Cognitive Scientist: Don Norman is a cognitive scientist who has taught at a number of universities including UCSD and Northwestern
3. Design Consultant: Half of the partnership at the Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen (well known in our industry for his book
“Designing Web Usability”)
4. Author: An author who advocates strongly for user-centered design. His best known book is “The Design of Everyday Things”. My talk
today is largely drawn from his follow-up book “Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things”.
5. Working in the design field for nearly 50 years and has some interesting insights on how people interact with products.

WHO IS DON NORMAN?

I. Cognitive Scientist


WHO IS DON NORMAN?

II. Design Consultant


WHO IS DON NORMAN?

II. Design Consultant
III. Author


WHAT WE’LL COVER

1. This is an outline of what I will be covering in my talk today.
2. First we’ll do a quick review of Don’s thesis that Attractive Things Work Better.
3. Then we’ll look at the underlying psychological systems that we use when we interact with products - Affective and Cognitive
4. Then we’ll examine the three levels of emotional processing that these systems impact
5. Finally I’ll give a few examples of products that work on these various levels, followed by some conclusions

WHAT WE’LL COVER

I. “Attractive Things Work Better” Thesis


WHAT WE’LL COVER

II. Aﬀective and Cognitive Systems


WHAT WE’LL COVER

III. Emotional Processing


WHAT WE’LL COVER

IV. Examples


WHAT WE’LL COVER

IV. Examples
V. Conclusions


THESIS: ATTRACTIVE
THINGS WORK
BETTER
Or “How we think cannot be separated from how we feel”

vs.

1. Theses: Attractive Things Work Better
2. Picture of an OXO Good Grips Peeler and a traditional peeler. (Most people who...)
3. In other words, when we feel good, we overlook challenges. (And a “challenge” can be anything. Making a phone call is a
“challenge” in that it’s more difficult than talking to a person directly.)
4. When you use a pleasing design, one that looks good and feels good, the behavior seems to go along more smoothly, more easily,
and better.

ATM STUDY

1. Where did this idea come from?
2. Don Norman initially got interested in this topic when he heard about a study that was done by Japanese researches where they
completed user testing comparing interfaces of two different ATM keypads. The ATMs were identical in functionality and number
of buttons but some had the buttons and screens arranged more attractively and the researchers found that the more attractive
interface was easier for users.
3. This came as a surprise since Norman had typically overlooked the emotional reaction to products as a factor in their usability.

AFFECT & COGNITION

 

1. This discovery led Dr. Norman down a path of researching how the human brain handles emotional responses to stimuli, as
opposed to purely cognitive responses.
2. He began to explore the relationship between two of the brain’s primary systems that respond to stimuli: Affect and Cognition

AFFECT:
THE EXPERIENCE OF
FEELING OR EMOTION

1. Affect: The experience of feeling or emotion
2. Affect is the general term for the judgmental system in our brains, both conscious and subconscious.
3. It refers to how we react to stimuli in our bodies. Emotion is the conscious experience of affect. An example of affect is that
queasy feeling you get when dealing with a car-salesman but you don’t quite know why.
4. The conscious emotion is a sense of anger that you feel when you get ripped off by said car-salesman, and you know exactly why.

COGNITION:
THE FACULTY FOR THE
PROCESSING OF
INFORMATION, APPLYING
KNOWLEDGE, AND
CHANGING PREFERENCES

1. Cognition: The faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences
2. The cognitive system interprets and makes sense of the world at a conscious level.
3. Cognition perceives our experiences and then works with affect to evaluate and make judgements about those experiences.

AFFECT EFFECTS

1. Affect Effects
2. These are some takeaways and findings from understanding the Affective system:
1. Emotions actually change how the mind solves problems, how the cognitive system works
2. Being happy broadens thinking, making problem (any challenge) solving faster and easier
1. A quick example: For a period of time I turned off auto-correct on my iPhone and found that I was less motivated to text.
After turning it back on, I text more often and send lengthier texts. It was subtle, but if I paid attention to my emotional
experience, I noticed that texting became more of a chore (a challenge) and I was less inclined to do it. After I turned it
back on I noticed that I took more delight in texting and the ease with which Apple corrected all my mistyped letters. It was
more than a purely functional change.
2. Another thought: Everyone who works at Viget can probably relate to the fact that your emotional state greatly affects your
quality of work. If you’re tired or stressed or upset, your work tends to be simplistic and uncreative and predictable. If
you’re happy and relaxed, your work is more creative and curious and pushes boundaries.

EMOTIONAL PROCESSING
HOW AFFECT AND COGNITION
IMPACT EMOTION

 

1. Emotional Processing: How Affect and Cognition Impact Emotion
2. Now that we have a better sense of how our brains respond to stimuli, let’s dig into the ways that Affect and Cognition cause us to
process experiences emotionally


1. Dr. Norman theorizes that we respond emotionally to stimuli at three different levels
2. Visceral
3. Behavioral
4. Reflective


I. Visceral

2. Visceral
3. Behavioral
4. Reflective


I. Visceral
II. Behavioral

2. Visceral
3. Behavioral
4. Reflective


I. Visceral
II. Behavioral
III. Reﬂective

2. Visceral
3. Behavioral
4. Reflective

VISCERAL:
AUTOMATIC HARDWIRED
REACTIONS

1. Visceral: Automatic Hardwired Reactions
2. Visceral level is fast: it makes rapid judgements of what is good/bad, safe/dangerous, and sends signals to muscles and alerts the
rest of the brain. This is mostly biologically determined and happens at a subconscious level. Many animals, like lizards, operate
entirely at this level. Everything is an instinctual reaction. This is sometimes referred to this as your amphibian brain.
3. Examples: your sense of fear and the muscle tension associated with riding a roller coaster. Jumping when someone scares you.
Visual attraction.
4. At a product level, this has entirely to do with appearances and aesthetics. It’s why you like one vehicle over another based purely on
how it looks.

BEHAVIORAL:
CONTROLS EVERYDAY
BEHAVIOR

1. Behavioral: responses that control everyday behavior and relates to the things you do with your body unconsciously all day long.
This is what allows you to drive your car and talk on the phone at the same time. Sometimes this is referred to as muscle memory.
2. Examples: Chopping or dicing food with a sharp knife and solid cutting board. Typing a text on your phone. Anything you do
physically that is not purely instinct, but is also not consciously thought through every time.
3. At a product level it has to do purely with function. A vehicle that drives well, has cup-holders in the right places, and doesn’t break
down.

REFLECTIVE:
CONSCIOUS THOUGHT AND
EVALUATION

1. Reflective responses are the realm of conscious thought and evaluation -- learning new concepts, and drawing conclusions about
the world. This is the contemplative part of the brain.
2. Examples: Contemplating a serious work of literature or art which requires study and interpretation. Buying things or acting a
certain way because of past experiences we’ve had or what we think it communicates about us, not specific to form or functionality.
3. At a product level it has to do with the story we want to tell and the meaning a product brings to our lives outside of its ease of
use or beauty. This is why one person drives an SUV and another drives a sports car, even though they drive the same roads with
the same number of passengers.

PERSONAL EXAMPLE:
CAST IRON SKILLET

1. A personal example: My Cast Iron Skillet
2. One that works at all three levels is my cast iron skillet that I inherited from my great-grandmother.
3. At the visceral level, I think it’s just beautiful. It looks simple and strong with no distractions or frills. When I look at it I feel
happy.
4. At the behavioral level, it just works. I can cook anything in it from a steak to a casserole. I can use it on the stove top or throw
it in the oven. I don’t have to wash it, I just scrub it out after each use and it gets more seasoned over time.
5. At the reflective level, I love the story it tells. It’s probably 100 years old and connects me to my great-grandmother whom I never
met. I hope to pass it along to my own kids some day. I also like what it says about me in that it’s simple with no frills and it works
hard, which is how I like to think of myself.

CONCLUSIONS

 


CONCLUSIONS

1. To recap, affect and emotion change our experiences. When designing things, we must keep this in mind and not focus exclusively
on appearances, functionality, or the story a product tells. They must work in harmony for the best product experience.
2. Huge implications for web and software design. Getting into that would be a whole ‘nother LabShare, but these concepts should help
to lay the ground work for incorporating these ideas into our design work.
3. If you’d like to know more, go to jnd.org or just Google for Don Norman and you can find his books, website, and lots of great videos
on this same topic.

CONCLUSIONS

I. Recap

on this same topic.

CONCLUSIONS

I. Recap
II. Web and Software Design

on this same topic.

CONCLUSIONS

I. Recap
II. Web and Software Design
III. Find out more: jnd.org

on this same topic.

Attractive Things Work Better

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