DD 3 - Theories of Design

The chapter begins with the sentence: "Sometimes visual design seems simple." From my standpoint - the standpoint of someone who has never considered all that goes into designing a website - this is true, but after reading what goes into the thought process to conceive of how best to formulate a site, there's lot's more to it than a clever banner, an artsy or plain background, and ease of use. 


This chapter focused on how to visually approach a document by using perception to attract, culture to explain, and rhetoric to persuade. The example the book gave of the museum leaflet geared toward kids effectively demonstrated all three of those theories. The designer of the leaflet used vivid colors to attract his audience, used magnifying glasses - a cultural touch associated with being a detective - and rhetoric to engage the kids in solving a mystery. 


Though Gestalt laws of perception seem to be the standard that document designers subscribe to, the authors point out that "other explanations of perception have something to add to our understanding as well."


I have to say, all the neurophysiology talk made my neurons hurt...

Design Tool & Design Web Page 28

The design tool I found was the site search at http://www.bravenet.com/?afilid=47985953. It allows visitors to search the web as well as your site. It's also a way for you to keep tabs on what visitors to your site are looking for by the phrases they use. I think it might be the single most important tool to include on a website, particularly if the site is sales oriented.


The design web page I found was http://www.wpdfd.com/, Webpage Design for Designers. It's a nice looking site all on it's own. It's easy to peruse, and it includes web design articles, design resources, featured designs, web design forums, and tools and software - although those software downloads are trial versions.  


p.s. I also stumbled upon a cool site for cropping pictures, http://www.picresize.com/; it's free, too.

DD 1-2

Chapter 1


The idea that "The first person who carved an arrow into a tree trunk to mark a path for travelers was an information designer" is a unique way to think about all the symbols, pictures, words, and documents that inundate daily living "so much so that at times they seem to be invisible." It's easy to discount early communication as primitive, but at its heart, that arrow met the challenges set forth in this book for successful document design, I think: Communicate in a complex, inter-cultural world of technology and community; analyze human communication situations to create documents that solve human problems.


Chapter 2


It's not surprising all the tricks that information designers have to use to create pathos and ethos in what they create, but using them effectively by employing the six principles of design, takes skill. 

PC pp 51-56

Limiting yourself to two fonts, and using a sans serif (a term I had to look up, because though I've seen the word, I never knew there was a difference between it and serif) for headings and serif for the text of the piece.

I don't know if it's just me, but the Helvetica/Avant Garde competition didn't look like a competition to me. I liked Avant Garde better than Helvetica because I like more rounded letters. To me the fonts looked very different, but then I don't have a typesetter's eye.

PC pp 25-40

Trying to figure out that puzzle gave me a bit of a headache. I'm a little ashamed to say that I didn't figure out the proverbs, but I get the point the author was making about using all caps and the inability to tell them apart.

I like to play around with different fonts, though I have an affinity for art deco shapes; I'm not sure why, but the idea that someone would use all caps with a calligraphy type font, boggles the mind.

Tech bio

Hi,

Welcome to my blog. Pardon me while I shiver in horror… Okay, feeling a bit better now. So, our assignment for class is to write about our experiences with technology. Here goes…

I own a computer, I own a cell phone. I use them like I use a fork and spoon: they are beneficial to my life, but not essential to it—or so I like to think. Truthfully, though, there have been days that I’ve gone without speaking to or texting anyone on my phone, and I have even gone a day, or so without hopping on my computer the minute I wake up. Really. Course I’m on the computer practically all day at my job, so maybe that’s not much to crow about, but still… While I have a basic knowledge of how to work most technology, an in depth understanding of how most technology works—such as their innards (Mother what?) and their myriad of uses (because I’m sure my computer can do more than just play YouTube videos of Bon Qui Qui at King Burger, or a cute rat lovin’ on a cute cat)—are mostly beyond me. Folk who take computers apart for fun have my utmost respect because if I did that, the resulting image would be one of me surrounded by a heap of screws, wires, and some other terribly important stuff, clueless, with my top lip bent out of shape in a scowl, or maybe frustrated tears falling to mingle with a runner of snot as I sob pitifully and wonder how I’m expected to do the jigsaw puzzle on Shockwave without my trusty HP.

Having said that, my experiences using technology have been mostly positive. For example, I don’t have to waste gas and time driving to the bank to transfer money from one account to another; I don’t have to waste gas and time driving to Office Depot to buy printer ink or paper; I don’t have to waste gas and time driving clear across town to Old Navy to get that $25 pair of jeans that promise to lift and shape my butt. Because of the wonders of modern technology, I can do all that and more with a click of my mouse. Now, while I do shop online a lot, I have yet to fall prey to the wiles of Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other social networking doodads; I just don’t find myself so interesting as to warrant a minute by minute, blow by blow update of me frying up some eggs or the like. I don’t know. Maybe I need to broaden my horizons.

A.