Visible Language

A diary study tracked the paper documents received by nine UK informants over one month. Informants gave simple ratings of individual documents’ attractiveness and the ease of understanding them; more detailed reactions to the documents were gathered through informant diaries and follow-up interviews. The detailed reactions extended beyond the feedback gathered through the rating task. Informants showed sensitivity to the content, language, design and circumstances of receipt of documents, with indications that they developed opinions of originating organizations based on their experience of using their documents. Documents that failed to provide all the information needed, that failed to make their intentions clear (or obscured their intentions) or that were perceived as miss-targeted received negative comment. Repeat experiences of receiving either well- or poorly-conceived
documents strengthened informant reactions to individual originating organizations. The paper concludes with recommendations for steps document
originators, writers and designers need to take to prepare documents that enhance organization to consumer communication. We recommend that
organizations evaluate and act on consumers’ reactions to their documents, beyond user testing in document development or scorecard ratings in use.

October 2012  ·  issue 46.3  ·  abstract permalink

Optical illusions cause emotional surprise due to the visual experience gap between visual cognition and the actual state. Knowing the organization and layout of objects in optical illusions is important and valuable to turn a design concept of picture creation into picture and composition. This study created a composition method for optical illusions. The research method included a two-stage investigation. The first stage uses the method of literature content analyses to develop objective optical illusion design aids from literature theories and the angle of composition. The second stage uses the method of expert opinion and design aids, as developed by this study, to validate feasibility and analyze the composition of optical illusion design. The results are as follows: there are four composition methods, namely separation, tangency, superposition and transposition, for optical illusion design according to shape combinations, positions and directionality of objects using the coordinate axes tool. This study thus proposed a specific optical illusion composition method as reference for designers to create graphic designs.

October 2012  ·  issue 46.3  ·  abstract permalink

There are virtually no rules to empirically interpret the meaning inherent in typeface designs—people intuitively decipher typefaces (Van Leeuwen, 2005).
Forty-two participants examined six alphabets and responded using an online questionnaire to discover: 1) whether viewing typefaces produces emotional responses, 2) whether people have the same emotion responses to typefaces and 3) whether certain emotions are predominantly associated with the formative design features of typefaces—classification, terminal shape, character width and weight. Psychological research about the role of emotion in visual processing was combined with an interactive animated questionnaire methodology (Desmet, 2002), and the resulting data were analyzed in a matched t-Test design (α =.05, 95%). This human-centered empirical approach proved a promising methodology for design research that successfully eliminated problems evidenced in previous object-centered typography studies. Because people reported similar emotion response to the design features, this study suggests that design’s underlying features represent a common visual language.

October 2012  ·  issue 46.3  ·  abstract permalink

Due to a medical condition, I temporarily lost the ability to read and write. As an academic researcher specializing in understanding the reading process, I could benefit from this terrible experience by explaining—on a scientific level—what happened to me, and hence draw lines to existing research and my former analyses.

October 2012  ·  issue 46.3  ·  abstract permalink

Descriptions of graphic language are relatively rare compared to descriptions of spoken language. This paper presents an analytical approach to studying the visual attributes and conventions in children’s reading and information books. The approach comprises development of a checklist to record ‘features’ of visual organization, such as those relevant to typography and layout, illustration and the material qualities of the books, and consideration of the contextual factors that influence the ways that features have been organized or treated. The contextual factors particularly relevant to children’s reading include educational policy, legibility and vision research and typeface development and availability. The approach to analysis and description is illustrated with examples of children’s reading and information books from the Typographic Design for Children database, which also demonstrates an application of the checklist approach.

October 2012  ·  issue 46.3  ·  abstract permalink

This article offers a large-scale view of how design fits in the world economy today, and the role of design education in preparing designers for their economic and professional role. The current context of design involves broad-based historical changes including a major redistribution of geopolitical and industrial power from the West to the East. A model of six global economies delineates the challenge and opportunity for design practice and education. While the six economies developed over time, all fit together now and design creates value in different ways across them. Understanding the economic context of design education gives clarity to the educational mission, differentiating it from other forms of education. The author argues that design professionals now require a broad range of analytical, conceptual and creative skills related to the social and economic context of design along with advanced skills in a design specialty. A taxonomic chart of design knowledge delineates the range of skills and knowledge domains involved.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Education in design shares with other disciplines a number of perennial challenges, including the need to transfer human culture, the choice of what parts of human culture to transfer and the decision as to what approaches work best in accomplishing that transfer. Design education also faces particular challenges, which are shared with only a few other disciplines. These are a predisposition towards the future, the increasing necessity of interdisciplinary approaches and the value for students in participating early in the culture of research. I argue for curricular advancements to accommodate each of these factors, including in particular a design PhD modeled on the humanities. Finally, I emphasize the importance of providing students with sufficient time to reflect.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Arguing that the 21st century context for design is significantly different from the previous century, a set of structural suggestions are posed that can leverage change. Administrative arrangements are questioned along with the lack of clear differentiation or performance expectation among design degrees. While widespread, confusing and contradictory ideas about research complicate the situation, the leverage point is identified in graduate education.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Based on a 19th century compositional trope popularized by Frédéric Chopin, the impromptus presented here are linked as a storytelling suite. The notion within the impromptu is to seek depth through lightness, as if improvised. The five stories provide metaphors for the conundrum of design education and practice. They engage the reader in interpretation; an open-ended hermeneutic pursuit.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

The current objective, object-oriented approach to design is questioned along with design education viewed as a job-oriented endeavor. Instead relational knowledge and experience in a holistic sense, both tacit and explicit, are valued along with an appreciation of the unique character of the student. A new paradigm for design education is proposed that embraces collaboration and focuses on integration of study, experience and reflection that translates beyond design into an intelligent life.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Using typography as its exemplar with its lack of clear performance criteria, this article questions what is good design and how to measure a designer’s accountability. Evaluation criteria are teased out from various perspectives: credibility, ease of use, stakeholder inclusion in the design process, respect for cultural dimensions and whether it adds to humanity and/or the environment. The article concludes with steps to social change.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Challenging the common grand vision of Design, this article considers ‘design’ as a humble re-forming process based on evidence to substantiate its results. The designer is likened to a tinker who respects previous iterations of a design and seeks to retain what is useful while improving its performance. A design process is offered, illustrated with a real project example. The author argues for a reframing of ‘design’ as a sustainable, evolutionary process.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

This article begins by describing a desirable design approach that is only practiced by a few designers today. This design approach is desirable because it responds to a society that suffers from a number of illnesses due to communications and artifacts that do not satisfy the needs of people. The article then proposes the kind of design education that could lead to forming designers within the outlined approach, and defines necessary terms and conditions. Lastly, it proposes recommendations, and the need for a deep reflection on the nature of design and of design education.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

SITUATION Graphic design education is subject to substantial changes. Changes in professional practice and higher education aggravate insecurities about the contents and structure of courses, assessment criteria, relations between practice, research and theory and teaching methods.
ASSUMPTION Graphic design education (visual communication design education) needs to change to accommodate these changes.
APPROACH There are many possible starting points to tackle the ‘wicked problem’ of visual communication design education. The starting point for this article is professional practice. Through the observation of practice, and interviews with practicing graphic designers, a set of common activities and approaches was distilled. These commonalities—the things that all graphic designers seem to have in common—are visualized in two diagrams.
RESULTS The two diagrams can be used as a basis for a critical review of current education in visual communication design, and they indicate a motivated and testable development for the coming years.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

The persistence of past traditions and the uncertainty of change can easily immobilize teachers who see the misfit of design education, but are reluctant to adapt and evolve new approaches to the teaching- learning paradigm. Using a recent statement by a former Harvard president, a few direct and unremarkable adaptations are suggested. This special issue is organized in three sections: Clarity in educational goals and student performance; Attention to dynamic change and interconnectedness; Differentiation and research in graduate programs. The invited authors are briefly introduced. They do not provide consensus, but offer different perspectives on change.

issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

The persistence of past traditions and the uncertainty of change can easily immobilize teachers who see the misfit of design education, but are reluctant to adapt and evolve new approaches to the teaching- learning paradigm. Using a recent statement by a former Harvard president, a few direct and unremarkable adaptations are suggested. This special issue is organized in three sections: Clarity in educational goals and student performance; Attention to dynamic change and interconnectedness; Differentiation and research in graduate programs. The invited authors are briefly introduced. They do not provide consensus, but offer different perspectives on change.

May 2012  ·  issue 46.1  ·  abstract permalink

Critique is a communicative and sociable event in which students present their design and critics provide feedback. Students often find it difficult to explain their work and articulate their thoughts because most design knowledge is tacit by nature. If design is about new concepts, then in a critique, students have to describe and clearly present their idea. However, in critiques, the focus is often on the content, but not as much on the communication competencies of delivering the idea across a group of people. Using a qualitative research methodology and interviewing Western faculty and Asian students, this study explores how communication between Western faculty and Asian undergraduate design students alters the effectiveness and affectiveness of a group critique. Implications of this study provide reflective insights for faculty and students on how critiques can be improved.

December 2011  ·  issue 45.3  ·  abstract permalink

Readers need to easily discriminate between different letters, so typefaces are designed to make these differences distinctive. But there is also a uniformity of style within a typeface. These styles are recognized by typographic designers and may be categorized to enable more efficient discrimination among typefaces. The manner in which designers perceive typefaces is explored using the paradigm of Categorical Perception (CP). A continuum of fonts is created by interpolating between two typefaces, and two tasks (identification and discrimination) are used to test for CP. As the application of CP to typefaces is a new approach, various methodological issues are pursued. The experiments reveal that the conditions required to demonstrate CP are quite specific and CP was only evident inTimes and Helvetica and not Garamond and Bodoni. Possible reasons for this difference are the characteristics of the two typefaces and their context of use. Speculation as to the purpose of CP in non-designers raises the under-researched question of how we identify letters in different typefaces when reading.

December 2011  ·  issue 45.3  ·  abstract permalink

In this paper, we expand on our presentation at ICDS2010 (Dobson et al., 2010) in describing the design of several new forms of interactive visualization intended for teaching the concept of plot in fiction. The most common visualization currently used for teaching plot is a static diagram known as Freytag’s Pyramid, which was initially intended for describing classical and Shakespearean tragedy. It has subsequently been applied to a wider range of fiction, but is not always applicable. The alternative interactive forms that we propose allow a more dynamic approach that can be customized by the teachers and students to accommodate various interpretations of a single piece of fiction. We provide a mechanism for people to select significant features of a story, such as characters, objects, events and transitions in time or space, and see how the different models react to the presence of these features. Our designs include one that is primarily sequential, another that emphasizes the structural complexity of the story and a third that places a single feature as a a central focus. The data for this visualization is provided through an XML encoding of the significant features of a given story.

December 2011  ·  issue 45.3  ·  abstract permalink

Dictionary compilers and designers use punctuation to structure and clarify entries and to encode information. Dictionaries with a relatively simple structure can have simple typography and simple punctuation; as dictionaries grew more complex, and encountered the space constraints of the printed page, complex encoding systems were developed, using punctuation and symbols. Two recent trends have emerged in dictionary design: to eliminate punctuation, and sometimes to use a larger number of fonts, so that the boundaries between elements are indicated by font change, not punctuation.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink