Don Norman

3 Ways that Good Design Makes You Happy

Watching this video made me choose a stress ball. Don Norman jokingly gets to the point. An object is worth having because it’s beautiful and functional, and therefore has a long life span. Pleasant things work better. Norman examines the subject of how we approach wanting things. There are three levels: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. The visceral of processing is instinctive. Something we want is approached between disliking and liking. We dislike frowning faces, we dislike cold temperatures, etc. Behavioral is an experience that is all about being in control. Through behavior you create emotion, Norman says “emotion communicates” in the way you use it. Cognition is about understanding the world  and emotion is about interrupting the world. Emotion is all about acting and being safe. 

The third way that good design makes you happy is reflective. Reflective is the little voice in your head that you have no control over. Your subconscious craves happiness through your needs and wants. Norman was slightly making no sense at first but you have dig deep into what he’s trying to say.  He basically is pointing out that good design doesn’t necessarily have to be flawless it needs to attract you instinctually, uncontrollably, and emotionally. I chose the stress ball because stress is a feeling, a illness perhaps, that unknowingly forces to you to have a cope mechanism. Under stress, under fear, you are paralyzed with focus. You do things without thought or within habits. People smoke, people eat, people do whatever they can to feel some type of way other than stressed. A way that good design makes you happy is how design works in the notion that it makes you keep using it, because you want to and because you need to. Norman pushed me to chose the stress ball due to its need to grab it and keep grabbing it.