This is week 6 of the course I am taking on design. Week 6 focused on aesthetics in design.
So why do aesthetics matter, especially when concerned with process design? Aesthetics matter for the following reasons:
- We, as humans, value beauty
- First impressions matter
- Aesthetics are a signal to the user of other unobservable characteristics.
As designer, the I think the third reason is the most important. How many times do we see an attractive object, and want to investigate it further? Cool looking software makes us want to use it, even if “ugly” software is more functional. We need to consider the aesthetics of the software and processes we design.
The aesthetic response it involuntary, and immediate. The following chart shows how our response to an object changes over time. The first responses are all sense – with sight first, followed by smell and feel – and utility and function only coming later during an analytical response.
There is a lot of theory behind why we consider certain objects beautiful – we like glossy things because they remind us of water, we like animate objects because they remind us of life, and we make functional predictions based on how objects look.
Check out the book this course is based on – “Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society” by Karl Ulrich if you would like to pursue aesthetics in design with more depth.
