Product Design and Commercialization

Abstract

There are three characteristics to every design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. These three characteristics are interwoven through every design, eliciting both an emotional and a cognitive response. Our emotions are inseparable from and are a necessary part of our perceptions (i.e., cognitive functions). Emotions are also a necessary part of life because they affect how our feelings, behavior, and thoughts. In fact, without an emotional response to different situations, our decision-making abilities would be seriously impaired. Our emotional response to our immediate environment is how information is transmitted to our conscious awareness. For example, fear is an emotional response to a dangerous situation, and joy is the response to pleasant situations. Some objects, or situations, we encounter will evoke a strong emotion such as love or hate, happiness or disgust. Take for example how you felt the first time at seeing an original Shelby Cobra GT, or a photograph of the Grand Canyon at sunrise. Now compare that to how you would feel while touring the Holocaust Museum, the Viet Nam War Memorial.