Designing for Emotion Chapter 3

This week, we were assigned to read Chapter 3 in Designing for Emotion, the textbook required for my PR Publications class.

I agree with the author’s perspective on the importance of evoking emotional design. I think the author makes a good point when he says, “If we’re doing our job well, the computer recedes into the background, and personalities rise to the surface.” This should be an important goal in our design process.

However, I do believe there are exceptions for when personality, is trumped by informative and functional. I do not necessarily agree with the author’s claim,”The design persona should guide anyone that crafts a pixel, a paragraph, or a process on your website.” For example, government websites. Users visit those pages for information, not necessarily for pleasure. Therefore the most important aspect of a government’s website design process should focus on being functional and informative, not necessarily evoking emotion or having personality.