Emotional Design

Nobody likes ugly design but should functionality be overridden by the consumer’s desire for a design with a high aesthetics value?

This clip forces us as designers to question ‘should aesthetic value be put over functionality‘. Philippe Starks lemon juicers have had designers and their critics asking this controversial question for years.  However hate or love it this design is a symbol of the shift of the consumers priority being one of need to one of want. This shift has caused the increase in high technological products. In this clip Norman forces us to ask is this high technology development enhancing the consumer’s experiences or just complicating simple tasks? Norman makes it obvious that many designers see technology components as the consumers priority hence attempt to use technology as a solution to an array of problems. They also see technology as an easy way to enhance the aesthetic value of a design for example reduce clutter so the design can appear cleaner. Norman emphasizes the incorporation of technology may allow the aesthetics of designs to become enhanced however it does not always provide an enhanced level of functionality. Many critics could argue that functionality can be sacrificed for a pleasing aesthetics however in relation to design areas like car design where lives are at stake function must come before aesthetics time and time again.

From this clip I have learnt that the aesthetics of a design is valued so highly that many are willing to settle for an unfunctional design over an ugly design. It has also been made clear to me that technology may be appealing however it is not always the most appropriate solution and in some cases can cause a task to become more complicated than it should be.

It is important for a designer to view sources like this one as a good designer will study previous design successes and failures to acknowledge the design concepts and executions which worked or failed. Smart designers incorporate the knowledge they have gained from looking at previous designs and try not to make the mistakes that previous designers have. By doing this a designer is giving their design a higher chance of succeeding.  This video allows us to see some successful and some not so successful design concepts hence provides designers like myself guidelines of what to and what not to incorporate in our future designs.