I didn’t expect to agree so much with Don Norman when I first read Attractive Things Work Better. The title itself almost sounds like clickbait; it feels like he’s just saying “make things pretty.” But as I went through the reading, I realized he wasn’t talking about surface-level beauty at all. He was talking about how our emotions actually change the way we think and interact with design. One thing that really stuck with me was his story about the three teapots. He describes one that’s intentionally unusable (the “coffeepot for masochists”), another that’s kind of ugly but works well, and a third that’s beautifully designed and practical at the same time. It sounds funny at first, but it captures something real about how we connect with the things we use.
Norman also connects emotion and cognition in a way that made a lot of sense. He explains how positive affect (basically being in a good mood) helps people think more creatively and handle problems better, while negative affect makes us focus and think more carefully but also more rigidly. I liked his point that when people are relaxed or happy, they become more flexible, patient, and open-minded; they’re even more forgiving of little design flaws. That feels true in life too. When I’m in a good mood, I don’t mind if my phone glitches or my m1 macbook gets loud; but, as you can imagine, when I’m stressed, every small thing feels like a disaster. When something looks and feels good to use, it changes our attitude toward it; we engage more willingly and think more clearly. I liked how Norman ended by saying that good design balances beauty and usability. A product shouldn’t be just functional or just nice to look at; it should feel right to use.