Amsterdam Burns

Donald Norman again, makes you say "Really, again?" right? But his books are good reads, you should take a look! :)

1. Select a brief passage from Chapter Three of Emotional Design by Donald Norman and post it on your blog (right here). Explain why you thought it was interesting.
   
   "Advertising can work at either visceral or reflective level. Pretty products — sexy automobiles, powerful-looking truck, seductive bottles for drinks and perfume — play with the visceral level. Prestige, perceived rarity, and exclusiveness work at the reflective level. Raise the price of Scotch, and increase the sales. Make it difficult to get reservations to a restaurant or entrance to a club, and increase their desirability. These are reflective-level ploys" (87-99).
   When I read this part, especially "make it difficult to get reservations to a restaurant or entrance to a club" I remembered an episode of the TV Series South Park I had watched a few days ago. In this episode, one of the characters, Cartman, won $1million and followed his dreams. He bought a theme park. He hated lines and he wanted to be able to ride any item in the theme park whenever he wanted, so, he bought the theme park, named it "Cartmanland" and did not let anyone in, not even his buddies. A few days later, as in the show time, he was on TV as the creator of a new marketing technique: denying costumers entry. Not being able to get in made them want more. It was the exactly what Norman talks about here. People want what they cannot achieve, what they cannot get.
   
   
2. Norman uses the terns Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, Reflective Design. Do these categories seem useful to you? What other names or phrases make the categories clearer?
   I cannot think of better naming of such categories, at least not right now. A Visceral Design success succeeds in visceral aspects; human emotions, instinctive human penchant, physical feelings, appeal... Behavioral Design fits even better. If the products behavior, its function and purpose, is a success, then the design is a success; pretty self explanatory. The name Reflective Design is also useful. Although I had hard times understanding what it meant at the beginning, after the discussion in class it was clear to me. If the design product successfully reflects you to others, or has successful reflections on you (like good memories) then it is successful in Reflective Design. Although I sometimes found Normans points redundant, repetitive or contradictory, these are the perfect words for these terms.
   
   
3. How could a designer decide if Visceral Design, Behavioral Design, or Reflective Design is more important for a particular product? Are some types of products more visceral, behavioral or reflective?
   
   If I was a designer I would aim to be make a product successful in more than one levels. It shouldn't be hard. A good product might even be successful in all three. I have a lighter that I bought when I was in Amsterdam with "Amsterdam" written on it. It is a simple product, press the mobile part it will be lit, successfully designed behavior; it looks good and fits my hand, successful in the visceral level; it has "Amsterdam" written on it, it shows that either I like Amsterdam or I have been there, reflects a part of me. Successful in all three levels.However, not all products will as easily be successful in all tree levels. When designing an item that might be used as a souvenir the designer should try to make it successful in the reflective level. When designing everyday products designers should aim for behavioral and visceral (especially user friendliness) success. For each product and the possible use of it might have, a level might be more important in marketing than the others, the designers should pay attention to this and try to design accordingly.