Visceral, behavioral and reflective design.

The wristwatch has been used to tell date and time, as an accessory, and a key indicator of social status, particularly in the upper echelons of society.

For this assignment, I will use watches as my example.

Visceral Design.

Frank Muller : Black Magic

The Black Magic watch is part of the jewelry line Frank Muller collection. It represents two concepts which are seduction and spirituality. These two ideas are represented by the two dominant colours of the dial, purple and black.

Purple, the emblematic colour of mysticism, is a colour particularly appreciated by women with spiritual values. Black, however, which nowadays is perceived as the colour of seduction and mystery.




Visceral design : Beautiful and simple watch, visually amazing. A classy design with good combination of colours help increase its visual attraction. It is more of an accessory than a watch used to tell time.

Behavioral design : The large number display of time makes it difficult to tell the exact time. It is also not possible to tell the date, as there are limited functions of this watch.

Reflective design : With the black diamonds on the Black Magic's casing and its brand (Frank Muller), wearing such a branded watch would signify social class and status, and help boost ones self confidence (the feel 'good' factor).

Cost : US$20,000


Behavioral Design.

Casio : G shock (DW5600E-1V)

It is known that the G shock could withstand the impact of a hockey snap shot, hence, suggesting that this watch would be able to last a lifetime.




Visceral design : Simple plain black design. Nothing fantastic. Looks more like a tool than an accessory.

Behavioral design : The G-Shock's illumminator function lights up the display for viewing when there is little or no light. The 4 user friendly side buttons are used to activate the many other functions. Also, the digital display easily allows one to tell the date, day and time.
Lastly, its shock and water resistant qualities of this watch proves its everlasting quality.

Reflective design : It is not a socially symbolic watch. And it does not show or represent anything other than time. On the other hand, it could represent humbleness, simplicity and practicality.

Cost : US$69.90


Reflective Design.

Vacheron Constantin : Tour de’Ile

This watch is the world’s most expensive watch is also the most complicated double-face watch, and only produced in a limited edition of 7.

Tour de'lle is made with a totally original combination of horological complications and astronomical indications composing a list of sixteen different points including a minute repeater, sunset time, perpetual calendar, second time zone, the equation of time and the representation of the night sky.

Visceral design : Not exactly that visually exciting. Looks complicated due to the many dials on the display.

Behavioral design : Its complicated double face display allows one to perform the basic functions of a normal watch and more. However, reading time and date would not be as easy as the digital Casio G-Shock display.

Reflective design : As there are only 7 of such watches available in the world, the Tour de'lle is set at a ridiculous price of US1.5 million dollars. Anyone who purchased such a watch is either a watch lover who is filthy rich or simply filthy rich. Hence, wearing such a watch would definitely signify ones financial success and social status (the highest and most elite social class, the top of society).

Cost : US$1,500,000

The Mouse

We use the mouse almost everyday. Without it, it would not be possible to use the desktop computer.

Yesterday, my dad bought a new mouse.

It was a cool looking mouse by Apple. However, this mouse became the WORST mouse that he had ever used in his life. Now, we know that buying a mouse based on its physical appearance and not its features is something we should never do.

This "puck" mouse only had one button instead of the usual two button mouse. In addition, the puck mouse's button was not "click able", it was touch sensitive! Imagine how many wrong "clicks" my dad made in the course of ten minutes. (The amount of irritation one could bear: Every slightest touch of the button and you have made another click on another advertisement link) And if you were a regular user of the computer, you would have realized that it would be impossible to do any left or right mouse button clicks. No more cutting and pasting through the right mouse button, and more ctrl c(copy) and ctrl v(paste) keyboard shortcuts. Hence, the mouse was user unfriendly and not able to perform many functions.

My dad tried the puck mouse for a good hour and gave up on it, opened the drawer and there the mouse stayed (for a long time I would predict). Going for the good physical looks of the mouse was definitely the wrong way of buying a new mouse. Whats wrong with the good old fashion two button mouse? How about those with the additional middle scrollable button?


Not only did the bad design of the puck mouse irritate my dad, it also lowered his impression on the brand, Apple. He generalized all Apple products to be beautiful but useless. We all know this is not true; the Ipod speaks for itself. But this happens when brand or company produces a product with a lousy design.

Sometimes practicality comes before beauty, especially in the case of a computer mouse. Being a regular computer user, I would react in the exact same way as my dad. However, condemning all other Apple products was definitely over-reacting.

The mouse is a simple product and provides simple functions. Innovation and appearance are important, but the functionality and usability of the mouse are of the highest priority when is comes to designing a mouse . Hence, maintaining the Left and Right buttons on the mouse is a MUST. Also, since the fingers are constantly placed on these buttons, it is definite NO to touch sensitive buttons.

Anyhow, this mistake taught all of us what features to look in a mouse when buying one!