Visible Language

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.