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“Attractive things work better” says usability expert Don Norman in his article Emotion & Design. I fully agree with this statement since I have seen and experienced myself how something that is attractive can turn on a switch inside my brain by which I tend to overlook flaws and problems and re-prioritize what I want.

I use the iPhone analogy a lot but have you ever thought why the iPhone is so popular among people? It is not only because of its colorful and seamless interface but also because of the way the body of the phone is crafted that you feel like you want own it. And why do we want to own those expensive, sleek cars that don’t give a good mileage and also aren’t very economical? Because they make us feel good and attract people around us which makes us feel even better since it reflects something about our personality.

So we all know that attractive things are certainly more preferred than not so attractive things, but why would they work better? In many of the experiments that scientist have conducted to study the human psychology, they have all found that emotion has a huge role to play in how we perceive things and how we solve problems. Positive emotions broaden the thought processes and enhance creative thinking. So how does that make something easier to use? Simple, when people feel good about something it makes it easier for them to find solutions to the problems they encounter.

Considering the theory above, QlikView applications that we design should work the same way. The more attractive they are the more the customers will like them, will like to own them, and will like to use them. And the most important of all, they will be more tolerant to minor difficulties and issues. But that certainly doesn’t imply that it is okay to ignore the usability quotient. As I quote Don Norman “True beauty in a product has to be more than skin deep, more than a façade. To be truly beautiful, wondrous, and pleasurable, the product has to fulfill a useful function, work well, and be usable and understandable.”

To hear more on this topic you can watch this video.

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