DESIGN WE LOVE
At a shopping excursion with my then fifteen-year-old fashionista daughter , she not only pronounced her unending love for a pair of Jeffrey Campbell 1 shoes but finally declared “ I want to marry these shoes !”
Now , I probably spend too much time trying to persuade my busy customers that they really should separate themselves from their money and attend my next course , or even better our executive innovation programs . You may even be one of those willing souls that have participated , but I do wonder if I could ever get my customers to love any of my products that much .
So what is it that makes us love the design of some products ?
Emotional Design , both a book and concept by Donald Norman , provides some insight into this notion . Norman is an academic and consultant in the field of cognitive science , design and usability engineering . Much of his initial book The Design of Everyday Things 2 focused on the concept of user-centered design , a sort of natural segue to the form-follows-function design philosophy that came out of the Bauhaus , except Norman ’ s initial focus was on the ease of functionality for the user . Along with human factors , ergonomics and other usercentered concepts , we certainly were on track to better-liked and more user-friendly designs . by Teresa Di Cairano
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