Designing for Emotion

This week we read Designing for Emotion, chapter 1. The chapter dealt with design and designers.

One thing I really liked that the author said was, “For a user’s needs to be met, an interface must be functional.” I absolutely agree with this statement. From personal experience both on the searching side and the designing side, I know that if say a website is not functional, it does not matter how ascetically appealing it is. The author went on to talk about how if a website or application is not user friendly, the user will not stay on that site.

One part of the chapter that I do not necessarily agree with is when the author states that, “historically, usability has been the zenith of interface design…if you can make a usable interface, you’re doing well in our industry.” I  believe that while usability and functionality have been at the forefront of most designs, I do not agree that in the past people were not concerned with the design. Even if design was less important, I do not think that even in the past the pleasing and visual aspects were not considered in the design.