GOOD DESIGN/BAD DESIGN

GOOD DESIGN

http://www.exinteriordesign.com/innovative-design-coconut-chair-by-ascent/

This is an example of good design because of its use of syntactical guidelines.  For example, the contrast of black and white give the chair an elegant balance of color.  It also allows the user to distinguish the contrast of possitive (white) and negative (black) space.  The elegance of the chair gives the perception that it will be relaxing and confortable.

BAD DESIGN

http://www.montparnas.com/articles/oops-award-for-bad-product-design-2009/

This is an example of bad design because of the use of syntactical guidelines.  First of all, this is a perfect example of how balance can work against a design.  Because the designer used virtical symmetery to make this chair, people that try and sit down are forced to actually climb over it to get in.  Furthermore, the design of the chair gives little support for the users back making it very unconfortable.

Visual and Symbolic Language

                                    http://mscareergirl.com/

Tired              Desparate            
Lonely           Sad
Alone             Usless
Desparate      Direct

Some of the visual cues that make this a powerful photo is the lady, her expression, and her desperation.  For instance, just looking at the lady people notice that she is alone.  The expression on her face reveals that she is sad and frustrated.  Some of the symbols in the picture are the sign and her ring.  On the sign are direct words saying Hire Me!  This also shows how desparate she is.  On her left ring finger is a symbol known as a wedding ring.  This makes people that see her wonder if she is married and has a family.  This helps add sympathy to her situation.  If i was to explain this to a blind person, I would describe it like a girl losing her puppy.  It means a lot to her and she doesn't know what to do.
    

Week 4: Visual Thinking Research

        In the first picture on above I guessed the answer was D because i saw that box 1 and 3 made box 4.  So I assumed that box 2 and 4 made box 5.  Although I still feel like my answer could have been right by using an induction method where i find patterns between the figures the answer was quite simple.  At closer inspection from my friend he used finding as his pattern perception.  Imbedded inside each square is a number therefore the fifth square is E.

        In the second experiment with the cat I had to figure out how many triangles there are in the figure.  Again using finding as my pattern perception I counted 20 triangles embedded in the cat figure, which is the correct answer.

Feature Hierarchies

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A2KJkIQSoohMJE4AlfWjzbkF/SIG=12mtei10p/EXP=1284109202/**http%3a//mojosavings.com/2010/01/06/safeway-post-cereal-money-maker/

This cereal box is a good example of how a designer can use visual features to sell a product.  The first visual feature that jumps off of this box is color.  The cereal is colorful, the words are colorful, and the characters are colorful.  Color (as discussed in class) is the most powerful feature channel that someone can use to make thier product standout.  Another feature that is used on the box is spacial layout.  By spacial layout i mean depth.  The background on the box is almost entirely red, which leaves all the other colors to be contrasted in the forground. Lastly, the typography on the box uses many of the cues in its own hierarchy.  For example, the words are large.  They are almost as big as the characters.  It makes them stand out.  Then the colors of the letters also make them stand out.  Finally the font of the letters are in a stoney 3D which make them jump off of the box at the customer.  The features on this box becomes a visual playground.

Top Down Products

www.babson.edu/onecard/machinesp...north.htm

This soda machine is a good example of how to market and exploit top down processing.  Firstly when people are looking for a beverage to drink they visually see the huge soda and make the connection that they can get a drink here.  When they get to the machine there are visual pictures on the buttons to help people locate which soda they may be looking for.  There is also a picture to show people where to put the money and how to insert it.  Furthermore, when people come up to this machine, the top down visual ques tell people if put money in, a soda comes out.