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29 of 365: Defensible Space design principle

29 of 365 - Defensible space design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
29 of 365 – Defensible space design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Defensible space is a theory about the way that spaces (often collective residences) are arranged considering the environmental variables like Territoriality, Surveillance, and Symbolic Barriers. It is generally applied to environments for reducing crimes. Territoriality is marking a space as an owned and maintained space, such as sign on a door or a gate marker. Surveillance is adding elements that increase awareness or foot traffic, such as seating areas and lighting. Symbolic Barriers are elements that show care and ownership for the space, such as flowers or organization.

I decided to illustrate a basic infographic to show some of these elements.

“As defined in Newman’s book Design Guidelines for Creating Defensible Space, defensible space is “a residential environment whose physical characteristics—building layout and site plan—function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security.” He goes on to explain that a housing development is only defensible if residents intend to adopt this role, which is defined by good design: “Defensible space therefore is a sociophysical phenomenon,” says Newman. Both society and physical elements are parts of a successful defensible space.” ~ Defensible space theory – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://goo.gl/yvahq

 

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28 of 365: Cost-Benefit design principle

Cost-Benefit Analysis study: a font mashup between Gill Sans and Scriptina Pro
Cost-Benefit study: a font mashup between Gill Sans and Scriptina Pro

Cost-Benefit as a design principle talks about the tension between the cost of the user’s time, effort, and other resources versus the benefit to that same users. If the perceived cost of a user exceeds their perceived benefit, the user will stop the use of the design. If the value of the benefit exceeds the perceived costs, the user will sustain their use, despite sensing the cost. If a user has to wait too long to get their food at a restaurant, they might get up and leave, despite the fact that they lost time and effort in the process of waiting until that point, and that they will need to find some other way to get the food. If that same diner had waited for weeks for the reservation to open, or had some other perceived valuable benefit to staying despite the wait, they will do so.

I decided to illustrate the concept of Cost-Benefit by considering the costs and benefits of using an interesting but complex font. I was given the idea by Melissa Brisbin, who after hearing the explanation of cost-benefit in design, suggested the creation of a font that was elegant and beautiful (benefit), but not especially legible (cost). I decided to match up the major points of each character between two of my favorite fonts: Gill Sans and Scriptina Pro. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to hate both, as a sensible designer, but I can’t. I just love their lines and forms too much.

If the user finds the font more valuable for its interestingness than its legibility, the user might find a way to use it, despite difficult reading. If the user was looking for a font for a paragraph of text, they might dismiss the font as too difficult to read at that size, despite the potential for beauty or interestingness.  Special thanks to Melissa Brisbin for the inspiration for today’s sketch.

 

 

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27 of 365: Convergence design principle

27 of 365 - Convergence design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
27 of 365 – Convergence design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

“Natural or human-made systems that best approximate optimal strategies afforded by the environment tend to be successful, while systems exhibiting lesser approximations tend to become extinct. This process results in the convergence of form and function over time. The degree of convergence in an environment indicates its stability and receptivity to different kinds of innovation.” ~ Universal Principles of Design via http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9781592535873/convergence/66

 

 

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26 of 365: Control #design principle

26 of 365 - Control design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
26 of 365 – Control design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Good control design in a system allows for the ease of use for new users (beginners) or complex, customizable use by seasoned users (experts).  A new or inexperienced user of a system will benefit from fewer options, and a simple interface, where an expert user benefits from a customizable, flexible interface that offers more direct access to the functions they use most. Some systems, such as public kiosks, should assume that most users will be new ones, since anyone with ability in that same environment probably has a more dedicated interface to use than the kiosk, e.g. an employee computer.

In this illustration, I’m showing how I designed control on a consulting project using WordPress by offering an interface with both beginner and expert controls.

 

 

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25 of 365: There’s a little Carlton Banks in all of us.

25 of 365 - there's a little Carlton Banks in all of us by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
25 of 365 – there’s a little Carlton Banks in all of us by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

So, I decided to break with the design principles and do something kind of fun today. My friend Justin Hoenke, a fabulous librarian and one of my favorite humans ever, posted the selfie you see in the first quadrant. I recently saw a meme using Carlton Banks (of Fresh Prince fame), and decided to use Justin’s fun pic to do my own Carlton meme. I missed my post yesterday, so another will be coming soon today.

In the GIMP, I opened Justin’s picture, and sized it down to a quarter of the original image size. I brought it in again as a layer, sized it down less, moved it into place, and added a layer mask by selection for the second quadrant so that the rest of the picture was not overlapping any of the other quadrants. The same for the third and fourth, except that I started to munge his iris together to prepare you for the appearance of Carlton in the last quadrant. For Carlton, I added an elliptical selection the size of Justin’s iris, and made it into a layer mask, then played with layer styles and transparency until it looked like Carlton was inside Justin’s eye. Without the stamp tool to munge the iris, Justin’s pupil would have obfuscated parts of Carlton’s face.

 

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24 of 365: Contour Bias #design principle

24 of 365 - Contour bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
24 of 365 – Contour bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Contour Bias is a well-studied theory that shows that humans prefer rounded objects and choices over angled ones. The more angled, the more that human brains reacted with activity in the brain associated with fear and flight. The studies also made sure to remove objects that might normally have a fear based reaction, such as knives.

In this illustration, I show rounded objects and the same objects modified to have a more angular form. According to theory, you should be more attracted to, or choose, the more rounded form.