Designing Pleasurable Products

by Patrick W. Jordan

Human factors considerations are increasingly being incorporated into the product design process. Users are seen more as being important factors in the overall look and usability of products than just as passive users. We are now treated as cognitive and physical components of the person/product system. The author, who is one of the leading lights in the field of cognitive ergonomics, looks at approaches that assume that if a task can be accomplished with a reasonable degree of efficiency and within acceptable levels of comfort, then the product can be seen as fitting to the user. In this book it is argued that in practice these approaches can be dehumanizing. People are more than merely physical and cognitive processors. They have hopes, fears, dreams, values and aspirations, indeed these are the very things that make us human.
Designing Pleasurable Products looks both at and beyond usability, considering how products can appeal to use holistically, leading to products that are a joy to own.

Genres: Design

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2000

Reviews

[Michael Hard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whole new way of thinking about user-product interaction