3.2: Designing for Human Instincts

While taking a break from design, I dig into Chapter 2 of Designing for Emotion and see what Aarron Walter means about designing for humans.

Chapter 2 covers a number of topics I’ve used for design inspiration. Now, I might not be the type to add an adorable mascot character to my brand strategy, but I aim to create comfortable spaces by triggering the unconscious when I have the time to sit and work things out. Another way to say it would be that I don’t want people to see my design, at all. When someone picks up an app I’ve designed, I want it to simply make sense to them, as if they’ve used it for years. Once I reach that point with the vast majority of my users, I have succeeded in creating something wonderful. That is not to say I don’t also want there to be a visual experience; there is great value in making something that functions well beautiful in its own right. Still, when it comes down to it, I will always aim for the crystal goblet effect in my work. As typographer Beatrice Warde once wrote in her famous essay, The Crystal Goblet,

Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine… if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.

(The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible by Beatrice Warde)

Additionally, I want to pitch a brief defense of the power of aesthetics—the part that people do consciously perceive. On first glance, there’s certainly something sour about the idea that looks matter—like, really matter—when it comes to the impressions things leave on people. Why shouldn’t a person be allowed to enter a job interview in their pajamas? Why do we expect people to look a certain way?

Well, it comes down to one of the ideas Walter presents throughout the chapter: we are creatures of instinct. We don’t have the time of day to look at each person we pass and make a fair judgment of their character, so instead, we generalize and create groups of people unconsciously. When a person walks into an interview in dirty cargo shorts, our eyes lock on and see something out of place, something that fundamentally contrasts with what we expect from professionals and draws attention to itself. Our brains don’t like to find something out of place that’s not aesthetically pleasing, even if our surface selves push past the stereotypes we latch on to. The best we can do is try to take control of those basic instincts and make decisions on what really matters. Thing is, when it comes to design, poor aesthetics make for poor handling, and it becomes more difficult to move deftly through an interface.

All in all, I appreciate the perspective from which Walter comes. Perhaps mentioning the Golden Ratio is too easy a way of gaining favor with me, but I love looking at how and why we choose to design something the way we do. Good design reaches humans, but great design also taps into human instincts.

P.S. All hail contrast, the ruler of design!