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.
22 of 365 - Constancy design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
22 of 365 – Constancy design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Constancy is the idea that we see a particular object in the size, color, shape, feel, and other senses that we expect. We always see humans, for instance, in the same way. We expect that they will be 6 foot tall or less, and see multiple humans in that context. If we introduce comparative objects that we recognize the size of, it will alter our perception of scale.
In this illustration, I decided to alter the relative size of human silhouettes to expand the depth of the piece.
21 of 365 - Consistency design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
21 of 365 – Consistency design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Consistency is important in design because it allows you to create the same quality of experience across pages (such as the use of grids in magazines), spaces (the common layout of department stores of a chain), objects (the dashboard of a car), buttons (standardized web browser dialogs), or other design elements. It allows for recognizance in the sense that very particular colors (Facebook blue), fonts (Marlboro font), layouts (Target stores), or uniforms (Best Buy blue and khaki) will breed familiarity and comfort despite a difference in place, space, or format.
In this illustration I used the Burger King logo as a basis for a genre called ad-busting, where the highly recognized brand becomes a vehicle for a countermeasure to the brand, in this case, Coronary King, associating the mostly high fat foods sold at Burger King with coronary disease.
20 of 365 - Confirmation design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
20 of 365 – Confirmation design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Confirmation is necessary when you want to remind, warn, or make a user especially aware of the importance of a change or choice that they are about to make. Confirmation can happen in industrial design, such as when you have to confirm your intention to arm a device by lifting a protective flap over a trigger, but we meet it far more often in software, where we are asked if we really want to perform an action. A very simple implementation of confirmation occurs on websites with the JavaScript alert function.
In this illustration, I thought it would be a wonderful thing to have a tool that would simply remove you from all social media presence in an instant. Given all the potential cascading changes to your online identity as a result, you would almost certainly want to have your decision confirmed.
Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Brand is not a logo by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Today, I had the pleasure of a return visit to Rossmoor, a gated community near Monroe, NJ. In the past I’ve talked about the Chromebook, Social Media, and graphic design at this 55 plus Computer Users Group, but today I talked about something more akin to Psychology or Business meetups than computer groups: Organizational and personal branding. I was a bit worried about how it would be received because I have only given the talk to more brand minded groups, but figured that if I really believe that brand is universal, which I do, that the talk would be appropriate.
It was received very well. The people there talked about their communication methods, their platforms, their keywords, and discovered their brand. We discussed abstraction and concretia in branding, such as the idea of loving as a keyword versus technology as a keyword. We talked about how everyday meetups and conversations are opportunities for branding, and that even though not everyone is familiar with their brand, that everyone has one and that it is beneficial to become familiar with it, shape it, and strengthen it.
Thanks very much to Rossmoor, Paul, and Gano for the kind reception, patient ear, and engaged responses.
19 of 365 - Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
19 of 365 – Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Comparison as a design principle takes into account the effect of illustration of differences in a controlled system. Comparison is most effective when it is benchmarked against standard systems, enforced by fact and citation, and when apples are compared to apples. It is easy but not recommended to create a false reality by manipulating scale, standards, and perspective through selective framing.
In this illustration, I decided to compare both the populations and land masses of the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania to emphasize that the population difference is far smaller than the land mass difference, which underlines the crowded experience that many New Jerseyans feel in this state. .
