Designing for Emotion Chapter 6: Review

Hello again,

This week in my PR Publications class we were asked to read and discuss the any remaining chapter of “Designing for Emotion” by Aarron Walter. I chose chapter six, which focuses on forgiveness as a tool to soothe disgruntled customers.

This was a chapter that I was not completely sold on.  I was skeptical from the minute I read the title.  I mean, I like the idea of using a forgiveness in a design as a tool to influence emotions. However, it seems a bit too frou-frou for my tastes.

Yes, the Flickr example does show that it can be effective, but I feel that this case is not ordinary.  The reason I say that is because no real harm was done to Flickr’s customers.  Sure, they were without access to their photos for a short time, but in the end, nothing was harmed.  I feel that if Flickr’s users had actually lost their photographs then a cute design and clever distraction would have merely infuriated them.

That being said, emotional interaction is a useful tool if it is ongoing and ever-present. However, just using emotional interaction in a design created to handle crisis communication will not be beneficial and could potentially harm the brand.

Until next time!