Designing for Emotion Chp 5 – Extra Credit

Chapter 5 of designing for emotion is about how humans make decisions and how design can tap into that and “help users follow their gut instincts.” By this he means that as humans we can’t use just logic to make our decisions so we often go with our gut instinct.

One thing I found particularly interesting was that Walter says that getting people to take action, he used a sign up sheet as an example, isn’t in the small details, but in the big picture: type, color, layout.

A great example of this was Mint money management service. As a free service that helps you manage your money, many people would be skeptical, especially considering users have to give over their bank and credit card information. Their solution to this problem was a well designed interface that was sleek, used shadows, and clear icons to inspire trust within users.

I think it’s really crazy that a well designed interface can help inspire people to give over their bank account information, but it just goes to show the great influence that emotion has when you’re making a decision.

One thing I don’t necessarily agree with is Walter’s abstract and interchangeable use of the terms emotion, intuition, instinct, and gut, because to me all of those words have very definite meanings and he uses them a synonyms.