Design and Me

I definitely think this year has opened my eyes to the depths of design, allowing me to explore principles which feel relevant to my style of design. I know that as a designer I personally want to design products that are simple but effective in there functions, with more attention being paid to the aesthetics to improve user likeability.

I also understand now that psychological behaviour has a big role in defining and shaping designs and as I develop as a designer I'd like to explore and research further into Gestalts principles of psychology. Lastly I have also realised after a university lecture describing where design could be going, that I want to focus on improving my knowledge of technology and simplistic design too.

This blog was a good way of expressing my opinions and criticisms on principles within design and I hope to further carry on this blog.....

Aesthetic-Usability Effect

This principle has been described as looking into the way people perceive more-aesthetic designs as being more user friendly than less-aesthetic designs, whether they are or not. My opinion on this is that by designing under the influence of this principle I can manufacture products that will sell successfully. It is apparent that we live in a world were aesthetic designs receive more positive attitudes.

In the essay it was mentioned that this effect formed through evolution. This statement is still true in my opinion, as over time we have evolved within an ecosystem that includes animals which use intimidating looks as a warning or predatory defense. We have therefore been psychologically conditioned over time to believe less-aesthetic objects bring more hassle, explaining why most people prefer aesthetic design.

To prove that more-aesthetic design is more popular than less-aesthetic design I will do a comparison between the following two designs.

As you can see from the images of the two bikes one has the original paint scheme with the other having a basic black and white combination, Which would you chose? the design on the left is definitely more desirable as it has some colour to brighten up the bodywork and give it character. Colours allow a product to be personalised, creating bonds between the user and product. Customisation allows the users personality to reflect in the design and helps sell vast amounts of the products, an example of this is the Ipod nano shown in the link below.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_nano?cid=OAS-EMEA-KWG-UK_Top_KW_Exact-UK

Sometimes in design you want to keep things simple sticking to basic colour schemes but from now on I am going to create products which focus more on aesthetically pleasing designs, encouraging positive attitudes towards the products I produce.

Use of Closure in Design

This is one of my favourite principles that influences my graphical designs, it is described as the tendency of peoples mind to perceive a collection of individual objects as a single, recognisable pattern. This is caused by the subconscious mind which fills in the blanks between the graphics.

A simple example to show that this principle is very relevant can be found using your keyboard.

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by using the dash key your can see that the mind processes the single dashes into a long line. Another form of evidence is text messages as most of us shorten words missing out letters in order to narrow the length of the message. When we read texts our mind fills in any missing letters allowing us to read the message clearly with understanding. An example of this is below.

Hello, hw was ur dy? did u hav fun thgh u wer cold.

This principle is fantastic for creating simple logos that can be used on posters or advertisements. The most recent example of closure being used can be seen in the campaign and design of the logo badge for the new Alfa Romeo Mito as shown in the link.

http://www.alfaromeo.co.uk/uk/cmsen/models/mito/Pages/mito-landing.aspx?outputXml=true&CustomResponse=WebCrawler

Alfa have proved that by using the closure principle you can come up with an unusual yet cool logo design that in my opinion stands out from the crowd making your design more noticeable, making it perfect for advertising.

Closure is also useful in the design of web pages as you can use a set of images pieced together to animate a product or online advert. Software such as Adobe Photoshop can be used to import a set of still photographs into an animator included with the software, these stills can then be modified and used to create a virtual animated flick book. These animations are simple and reduce memory usage compared to normal mpeg videos as they only use a minimal number of slides which your mind then merges together to complete the animation. an example of this can be found on Youtube.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYONNDwcvEA

Looking back at the critical essay I have not changed my opinion on closure, I still feel it will influence my graphical work and believe it's a modern looking form of graphics that will become more popular with companies as time passes.

Consistency in Design

Consistency in design is very common within certain products as it allows better usability and makes them easier to learn. The most common forms of it are Aesthetic consistency which looks at using similar styles and appearances, and Functional consistency which refers to similar action and meanings between products.

Aesthetic consistency mainly relates to the world of graphics/logos and is very useful for enhancing recognition of a brand along with the companies values. This consistency makes it easier for customers to make decisions on purchases, for example clothing labels use the same logo on their designs for brand recognition. Take a look at the logo below, most people will instantly be able to list values/qualities it indicates.

This logo as most would have recognised is nikes swoosh and when seen on any item of clothing will indicate to the customer that the product is manufactured to a high standard.

Other benefits to companies using aesthetic consistency for their logos are that they can explore new business avenues with similar logos, providing recognition of the company values within the new venture. A good example of this is shown below.

The three Virgin logos are for three different companies of Richard Bransons and because of there similarity in colour and font they all carry the same values, indicating reliable, affordable and quality services/products.

Functional consistency relates to products of the same type using similar meanings within they're design. This consistency is seen in the audio/technology and appliance market regarding button symbols indicating certain actions. It allows a design to be learnt and understood quickly without confusion. Examples of universal symbols used in different designs to indicate actions are as follows.

Each of these symbols can be found consistently on any device that provides audio including MP3's, Stereos, Laptops, Voice Recorders, etc.

Keeping consistency in design is vital and as a designer this principle already shapes my own personal designs. It improves the simplicity of the design, with the user not having to re-learn symbol meanings or new logos.