Looks Matter Because We All Have Feelings

The first person to coin the term "emotional design" was Don Norman in his highly recommended book Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Seriously, if you have never read this book I can't recommend it enough. The premise behind the book is that emotions play a huge role in how we are able to understand the world and our ability to learn new things. Norman takes the classical ABC model of attitudes, which include affect, behavior and cognition, and transforms them into visceral, behavioral and reflective. According to him the design of the objects around us are perceived on all three of these levels and because of this a good design makes sure to address all three levels.

It isn't as simple as making something look pretty though. Many designers are capable of making a site look gorgeous before you can get a chance to interact with it. However, how many times have you seen a great looking site only to try and interact with it and be left frustrated? Flip it around and how many times have you been to a generic looking site and after using it for a bit are drawn back to it consistently?

Recently there was a discussion in the Web Design Reddit about Reddit receiving a redesign. Taking a quick glance at the mockup that is being proposed it is clear that it is more attractive than the current site. Can you guess what the majority of the reaction was from the site's users? They didn't want it and some even claimed to hate it. I really didn't understand why till I started to read their responses and it helped me better understand how important of a role their experience with the site played in how they viewed the new mockup.

I agree, I hated the look of reddit at first. It was one of the primary reasons I lurked at digg instead of reddit. Now I have come to like it, purely because it's a pleasure to use and actually motivates me to contribute in discussions. Fancy graphics might make a good first impression but a functional website like reddit needs to be simple and clear to use.

You're pitching this idea of a radical overhaul to a community of people that collectively freak out when Google changes the padding on the search results. It does look nice, but to be honest I kinda miss the old reddit from a few years ago when I started coming here but such is life and all things change.

Usually when someone comes around and says they are going to make something look better you find very little resistance to it. However, in the case of Reddit, the users had become emotionally attached to the current design. How often is that the case with any community site that tries to go through a redesign? The users start to revolt because they are used to the old design and in their mind nothing can top it. There is an emotional connection that one simply can not plan for and although this connection might not stem directly from the aesthetics of the site, it is hard to say that the aesthetics and therefore design don't matter.

In the article Why I Hate Your Web App I sang the praises of Tumblr's design. I decided to try it out today and opened an account and let me tell you the whole process is a beautiful thing to behold. The design of it all is amazing and you can see why people become so attached to the platform. If the design was anything less spectacular I don't think the service would be as popular. It would still be popular, but not as much or have such a fanatical following. The design of everything makes you want to use Tumblr and become attached to it. It connects to you on a emotional level from the very second you begin to use it.

Pure aesthetics.

Granted, if the service sucked or was difficult to use, the design wouldn't make any difference in the world, but from what I have seen so far it is the perfect blend of form and function. They understand that design does matter. Does it matter to the point of pulling your hair out and causing stress? I don't think so, but it mattered enough for them to put a bit more emphasis on it than competing services.

I don't think Jason is saying that design really doesn't matter, but that it is merely part of the overall picture. When it comes to a website the aesthetics, information design, usability and content all play a role in how users perceive the site. From all of these they develop either positive or negative emotions towards the site. For community sites, the role of the community probably plays an even bigger role than the previously mentioned categories.

Take a second to think about these rivalries and how much of a role aesthetics play.

• Bing vs. Google
• Facebook vs. MySpace
• Posterous vs. Tumblr

I know these aren't exact matches as each of them do something a little bit differently, but if you don't believe that aesthetics play a role in how some people choose which one to use then you are mistaken. We use aesthetics as the trait to base our decisions for a lot of things. Cars, furniture, clothes and even potential mates. Can we overcome horrible aesthetics to attract people to our websites? Of course we can, but why would you want to make your job any harder?

How many articles on design blogs do you come across today where the validity of the article is trumped by the look of the site itself? Aesthetics play a role on a design blog because if they aren't at least aesthetically acceptable to your own eye then how can you find a way to trust the content on the page? There are so many bad websites out there that if your usability and experience design were equally as bad, but you had better aesthetics, you would probably win out.

Back to the original article that got this whole conversation started. While reading it I couldn't help but think a number of times how I would change the line-heigh, headings, and a couple of other aesthetics on the site. I'm sure that is just because I have a thing for design.

The look of something always matters, it just depends on how well the other characteristics of the design fit together that determine how much the aesthetics matter.