Chapter 1 – Designing for Emotion

This last week in my PR Pubs class, we were given a book to read. The first chapter is definitely an overview of the entire book, but it has some great points. I would like to briefly write about a few things that I really agreed with and a few things that I didn’t necessarily agree.

Let’s begin with the things that I thought were good. First, I completely agreed that web design needs to be first and foremost functional. If it is not functional, then the point of even visiting the site is pointless. Second, I completely agreed that people remember the really good things in life. It is our goal as creators and innovators to supply people with an experience that is not only helpful but pleasurable and fun. Lastly, I completely agreed that sometimes you have to look at older brands to see how not to do things. The book mentioned Ping that Apple created and how it didn’t really work as well as the early shortcomings of Twitter. These are both large brands, but they definitely had their share of setbacks along their way to success.

We have covered the things that I agreed were true, but now let’s talk about the main thing that I didn’t necessarily agree with in the book. I don’t think that ever staying to the original product when it comes to website design is ever a good idea. I think that people get bored easily and if you don’t change and adapt the layout and look, then your company will become irrelevant. I understand the argument for keeping it the same, but I think there is always room for improvement and I am pretty sure that the customer would like a fresh face every now and then. Also, I don’t agree with the attitude that creating something that elicits a positive memory is so easy. The book makes it sound like it is such a simple thing, but the truth is that it is hard to have that type of power and to maintain that type of power. It might be easy to bring a person a good memory, but to keep them coming back is much more of a challenge. The thing about web design is that people want to be entertained. They want to feel connected to the mission of the organization and sometimes that is hard to maintain.

There might be a few things that I do not necessarily agree with in the book, but I do agree with most parts. It is a great perspective on web design and I cannot wait to learn more and dig deeper into the book.