On Sep 21, 2009, at 3:45 AM, Eric Reiss wrote:
There's a definition of kitsch that states that anything that purports
to be one thing, but actually does something else is kitsch. A pepper
mill in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, for example. I think Starck's
lemon squeezer falls into that category - sculpture pretending to be a
useful tool.
So, I've recently had the opportunity to watch a couple dozen people
buy personal checks for their bank accounts.
Personal checks are a functional item. You use them as a transaction
instrument. An individual, writing a check, spends only a few moments
with them. When used to pay bills, most of the recipients don't know
the check owner (and in many cases are automated processors), so
really don't pay attention to the check's design.
Yet, most of the people buying the checks in our study spent
considerable time choosing the right check for themselves. They were
very particular about the designs they looked at. They showed definite
preferences.
One study participant, was a 45-year-old male lube-and-oil mechanic
who works for a major speedy-oil-change chain. He took considerable
time studying the designs, gravitating to designs that were
particularly, shall I say, girlie. Flowers, bright colors, kittens.
Each time he found one of these he liked, he said, "My girls would
like this." Interviewing him revealed that he's divorced and his two
girls, ages 6 and 8, don't live with him. He was picking out checks
that he thought they'd like.
The design of these checks were important to him. It's unlikely they'd
see the checks -- at most only when he sent them a money gift, maybe
in a card. The designs were less about what the girls would actually
like and more about what he wanted -- a connection to his daughters.
We saw this frequently in the study. People were using the check's
design as an emotional connection. Some were using it as a way to
introduce something pleasant into an inherently unpleasant activity --
paying bills. Others were using it as an extension of themselves
("When I hand a check to someone, it needs to say something about who
I am.") or a tie to their context ("I want Texas scenes on my checks
because I love Texas.").
Independent of the design, the utility of the checks were identical.
There was no reason to pick one check over the other except for its
emotional appeal. The cheapest check is the Blue Safety Check -- a
simple blue-lined pattern which everyone referred to as "boring," even
those who bought them. I was surprised, in the study, at how many
people spent the time and money on buying the fancier checks and their
rationale for choosing them.
The checks with designs would fit under your definition of Kitsch.
They purport to be a financial instrument, but, in fact, they are
something quite more.
I think that's what the emotional design thing is all about.
Jared
p.s. Congrats at getting The Norman pissed off at you. Now, I sat
through the same UX London presentation that you did and I came away
with the same impression: Don did say that he loved his Phillipe
Starck juicer even though it didn't work. However, I do think the book
takes a more complete survey of what the emotional design discussion
is about.
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