Norman’s Three Levels of Design
user experience is a delicate balance between aesthetics, usability, and emotions. To provide a good experience, we can use aesthetics and emotion to our advantage, to cover minor usability issues
In the human mind, there are numerous areas responsible for what we refer to as emotion; collectively, these regions comprise the emotional system. Don Norman proposes the emotional system consists of three different, yet interconnected levels, each of which influences our experience of the world in a particular way. The three levels are visceral, behavioral, and reflective.
The visceral level is responsible for the ingrained, automatic, and almost animalistic qualities of human emotion, which are almost entirely out of our control. An unconscious event, which allows us to make judgments instantly, such as whether we like the appearance of something or whether it poses us any potential threat or danger.
The behavioral level refers to the controlled aspects of human action, where we unconsciously analyze a situation so as to develop goal-directed strategies most likely to prove effective in the shortest time, or with the fewest actions, possible.
The reflective level is, as Don Norman states, “…the home of reflection, of conscious thought, of learning of new concepts and generalizations about the world”.
According to Don Norman, reflective processing is the only conscious form of processing. This process involves the active consideration of a product, encompassing how it relates to us personally, its place in our wider environment, and how it reflects upon us to own and use it. Reflective design is, therefore, concerned with how users rationalize and intellectualize a product according to highly personal and subjective factors (Norman, 2004). At this level, people might ask how the product fits in with their current self-image, whether it reflects upon them in a positive or negative way, whether they would be able to tell a personally meaningful story about it, and whether it would enable them to connect with other people.
The visceral level of design refers to the first impression of a design, both in terms of how the user perceives the product and how it makes the user feel.
The behavioral level refers to the experience of the product in use. We often think of this level when we think of user experience.
The reflective level refers to the user’s reflections about the product, both before, during, and after use. The three levels all combine to form the entire product experience.
