Designing For Emotion: Chapter Five

In chapter five in “Designing For Emotion” we read about overcoming obstacles. I enjoyed this chapter because it combined a lot of elements we learned in the past four chapters. The main purpose of this chapter was to examine the decision making process and realize how it might effect/help with certain web obstacles. I enjoyed this chapter because it was very real and told us the truth about problems we most likely will face as designers. I think it is extremely important for us to realize that things will go wrong and that we need to trust in our skills and continue to use emotional engagement in order to reach out to our target audiences.

In this chapter, I agreed with the author, Aaron Walter, that “appearance can greatly influence perceptions” in websites. I think that if people see a clean, organized website than they are more willing to trust it than a scattered, messy one. I think people really do go with their “gut opinion” and take the path that looks more reliable and welcoming.

One thing that I disagreed with was when Walter talked about skepticism, laziness and apathy. Walter stated that apathy is the worst characteristic out of these three. In my opinion, I think they are all equally hard and can’t be ranked. I think that overcoming these three characteristics would be a huge challenge and would all take equal amount of time and planning.

Overall, I have really enjoyed reading “Designing For Emotion.” I think it is a very well written book and has amazing insight/information on web design and human nature.