1. Passage
“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.”
This brief passage focuses on techniques of improving reflective design. This passage really connects design to the psychology of the mind and how humans think about what they purchase. It is somewhat saddening even how humanity is so focused on buying expensive products to show off to their peers. The discussion held on Monday definitely touched on this point, and it was interesting that the entire discussion was dominated by the idea of reflective design. Everyone was simply more interested in the psychological aspect of product design, and visceral and behavioral design simply does not offer such an intriguing topic. This passage gives many relatable examples as to how people act when buying things.
2. The terms Norman uses to describe the types of design in this chapter – visceral, behavioral, and reflective – are all pretty accurate and understandable. Visceral by definition relates to an instinctual reaction of the body. As Norman said in the opening pages, there is a certain “wow” factor to products that attracts people to them. This is a gut instinct feeling, and Norman coining this ‘visceral design’ is very appropriate. Behavioral design is also a pertinent term because this relates to primarily the function or behavior of a product. The design has to function correctly for it to even be considered for purchasing. The other factors of behavioral design that Norman discusses are understandability, usability, and physical feel. All of these aspects relate to the behavior of an object. Lastly, reflective design, perhaps the most ambiguous term, is still appropriate. The only reason for ambiguity is that readers might not first think of ‘reflective’ in the psychological sense of people thinking about how products relate to them as a person. A better term for ‘reflective design’ may be ‘personal design.’ Much of what Norman discusses as reflective design truly depends on the character of the buyer, and certain things that may have sentimental value to one person could have no meaning at all to another. Thus, ‘personal design’ may be a clearer term to use.
3. Depending on the product, a designer may need to make one of the three types of design that Norman mentions stand out more than the others. For example, there are some products that simply have such a good visceral design – the object just looks so cool and fun to play with – that a person will buy the device no matter what. Somebody may see a watch that is incredibly creative, and despite problems in its behavioral design, the visceral reaction will overcome this and lead to a purchase. Products such as household appliances generally have to have a good behavioral design. Many people do not care what a microwave looks like so long as it heats up food. A washing machine that cleans clothes is as good as it will get, so other details of visceral and reflective design do not matter as much. A consumer will not buy a household appliance that does not work, so thus the designer must focus on the behavioral design. Reflective design is a little more difficult for designers to cater to because it is on a much more personal level. However, designers could tailor products to different regions of the world. For example, the youth in China all adore American pop culture. If a designer wants to sell products in China, it would greatly help if they put pictures of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, or any written English on all types of things such as clothing, watches, backpacks, etc. Chinese people love to show off their American pop culture paraphernalia, so reflective design is extremely important here. Most Chinese people are used to cheap quality too, so they do not expect a great behavioral design. All of the examples provided above are examples of products that emphasize one of the types of design. Designers that pay attention to how products will be use can better assess which type of design they should highlight.
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