Assignment 1 - Product and Emotion

Visceral Design - Nokia 7360

Visceral design gets people's attention primarily from initial impact to its appearance. For this product I chose Nokia 7360 that comes in golden and pink colors, which is part of L'amour co llection, designed for female. In terms of features, it is just a very ordinary phone with

• 128 x 160 pixels 16-bit color display
• FM stereo radio
• Integrated VGA camera
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• XHTML mobile browsing
• IrDA
• Pop-Port™ connector

Visceral: feminine, cute
Behavioral: Not a great performer, not durable

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Behavioral Design - Nokia 1112

Behavioral design is about the total experience of using a product. It is based on the thought process on usability. This Nokia phone that is priced at $60 has the most basic features to make a call, send a text message, etc.

Visceral: Not attractive
Behavioral: Affordable, reliable, easy to use, practical

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Reflective design - Continental Luxury mobile phone

Reflective design is about how it makes one feel and about the social status that one is telling others.

This diamond encrusted 24 carat yellow gold plated hand-made Continental mobile phone is from the Obsession collection, which is sculpted and touched with the beauty of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, lust and beauty. Obsession mobile engineers work painstakingly hard to create a handset which is visually and naturally stunning in every sense. This skill in itself can take a lifetime to achieve. The price of the phone is around S$5000 and the features are as followed:

• Sapphire Crystal Glass LCD screen 2"
• HD colour resolution
• 2 Megapixel integrated digital camera
• PC Synchronisation via USB/USB connectivity
• MMS (multimedia message service)
• EAT (Enhanced Acoustics Technology)
• Multi Lingual
• Dual Sim card technology - allows the use of 2 different sim cards remaining active on the phone at the same time & during conversations.
• Unique Ocean Blue Floodlit keypad. The Keypad also uses a patented "soft key" technology which allows effortless key strokes
• External Memory - T-Flash Card
• Handsfree facility
• GPRS
• MP3
• MP4
• Calculator
• World Time
• To Do List
• Unit Converter
• Standby - 120hrs
• Talk time - 5 hours
• Travel charger
• Dimensions: 110*47*18mm
• Operating Frequency: Dual band GSM 900/1800

Visceral: Attractive, Luxurious
Behavioral: Have the features that most average 3G phones would have
Reflective: Status symbol, self-image, show off

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My reflection

I think the impressions of the different products are very subjective and personal feelings, and those impressions can change over time. For example, when I first saw Nokia 7360, I was very tempted to own one immediately. However, after a few days of visiting the stores and looking at the phones, I feel that it's just an eye candy phone and I would rather go for a more functional and affordable phone. On the other hand, when I first saw the Continental phone advertorial on a news program, I thought the phone was ugly and is more suitable for old people. However, now when I have a look at it, I feel like owning one like that. And I am currently using the cheap practical phone like Nokia 1112.