I just finished reading the book Designing for Emotion by AArron Walter, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. This certainly is not the first book on emotional design, but definitely a good one. This book gets you to understand why the need for good design goes beyond usability and aesthetics.

The base requirement for any of the product we use is that it should meet the all the functional needs. Progressively one would also need it to reliable and usable in the same order of importance.  A product being usable is analogous to food being edible, so would you rather serve edible food or delicious food? Delicious food is what makes it enjoyable and pleasurable. So if one really wants to delight the user the products we build should be to pleasurable to use. This is where designing for emotion comes into play. Emotion is the like the ultimate holy grail for product success.

Why is Emotional Design Important?

• People will forgive shortcomings, follow your lead, and sing your praises if you reward them with positive emotion.
• Great content delivered in an emotionally engaging manner is like kryptonite for user apathy.
• Emotional design is your insurance to maintain audience trust when things aren’t going your way.

The author definitely made a compelling case about the need for an emotional design with all the examples. For anyone who is remotely interested in learning a thing or two about design should start with this book.