Before my summer in Silicon Valley, I looked at designers and thought it was a vocation of art with lots of colored pencils, graphics of Pokemon, and gallery flamboyance. Boy was I wrong. While I’m sure I’ve always had an eye for particular types of design, my appreciation for choice architecture and user experience design has grown exponentially. While BJ Fogg’s framework gives me appreciation for the behaviors of emotion, triggers, and meaning, Desmet and Hebert provide a higher level of aesthetic and emotional connection to products. It’s no surprise that when I first came to design, I thought of it only in the software world. Earnest, Digit, and Quickbooks all have creative and minimalistic design that’s functional for the user. But my experience with a mult-function keychain, as well as an alarm clock, also illustrate how the physical dimensions of the design create an emotional connection to the utility and function of the product. It’s in the art of combining the physical and software design that I look to define desirability. Another aspect of the design that I have come to appreciate is the choice of color. This is the “art” of design that I never quite understood. My lessons from Product Experience connect me to the points about a designers choice for particular colors like Pink or Purple do not actually connect with the consumer. It creates an emotion that consumers may not even feel. So we as designers must test and understand these “sensory modalities” far more closely to engage users in our products. I look at desirability with the lense of choice architecture, minimalism, and sleekness. How can we engage and nudge a positive behavior that’s beneficial for both the consumer and the company? How can we make the experience quirky and memorable while a good use of that moment? How can we minimize functionality while maximizing content, brand loyalty, and conversion? I look at design in BJ Frogg’s framework that good design has the right amount of triggers for consumers that are willing to experiment. There’s an inherent social good by saving people time, saving people money, and saving people headache. Desirable design