Isn’t it strange how attractive things appear to work better.  Is this just a placebo, we expect things to  work better because we’re approaching them from a more positive stance.

According to Alice Isen – ‘Being happy broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking.’ This is something that is explored in creative facitilitation – making brainstorming sessions more creative and fun returns better results. Is this common sense if people are relaxed and happy they’re more likely to be productive than if they’re stressed and unhappy?

In Donald Norman’s book  Emotional Design, he defines the brain as having three levels of processing, the visceral, behavioral and the reflective states.

In this instance visceral refers to the immediate physical response to a situation. Behavioral is more of a physical action or a skilled action whilst reflective  is  thinking about a situation, analysing and interpreting. According to Norman in design the visceral level is about the initial impact of a product, about it’s appearance shape, texture, colour –  how it looks and feels. Behavioural is about the products use, about the users experience with the product and how it functions and performs, how easy and satisfying is it to use.  Lastly the reflective level is about interpreting and reasoning.