Category: technology

These are posts that show LeMasney Consulting’s experiences with contemporary technology, services, innovations and computers of many kinds.

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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
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
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.

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23 of 365: Constraint #design principle

23 of 365 - Constraint design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
23 of 365 - Constraint design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
23 of 365 - Constraint design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
23 of 365 – Constraint design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Constraint is built into systems to allow limits to negative actions a user might otherwise take in that system. In mechanical systems where too much power, volume, or other resources could be over-applied, constraints prevent the user from doing so. We also can be psychologically or physically constrained from entering dangerous areas by a do not enter sign, or areas where our presence might cause alarm or discomfort, such as a bathroom intended for the opposite sex.

In this illustration, I made a constrained variable slider control going from low to high, which does not allow for setting too low or too high.

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brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights portfolio professional activities research interests teaching teaching experience technology

20 of 365: Confirmation #design principle

20 of 365 - Confirmation design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
20 of 365 - Confirmation design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
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.

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brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights portfolio research interests teaching teaching experience technology

18 of 365: Common fate #design principle

18 of 365 - Common fate design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
18 of 365 - Common fate design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
18 of 365 - Common fate design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
18 of 365 – Common fate design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Common fate is another of the gestalt principles, and states that objects that are closer to each other or grouped in some way comparative to the overall set seem to be together, on a common path, or associated more closely than other design elements.

In this illustration, I started with a line of identical circles, evenly spaced. As the story progresses, the line of circles breaks into two even lines, creating two distinct groups. In the third part of the story, some of the circles go off on their own, and some of the circle pairs start to travel together, but none are a part of the original lines anymore.

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brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles insights portfolio professional activities professional experience teaching experience technology

10 of 365: Baby face bias #design #design-principles

10 of 365 - babyface bias by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
10 of 365 - babyface bias by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
10 of 365 - babyface bias by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
10 of 365 – babyface bias by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Baby face bias is a design principle in which designers use the generalized human interpretation of baby-faced features (such as large eyes, round head, small nose and mouth) to represent and codify naiveté, innocence and kindness. By emphasizing or exaggerating baby like features in faces, a design can evoke a feeling of protection, ownership, or forgiveness in a viewer. Alternatively. more angular features, less elongated heads, and other more adult features are less likely to be interpreted as innocent, kind, or naïve.

In the illustration I’ve made here, I took an average image of a female face and exaggerated the eyes, and diminished the nose and mouth to make a baby-faced bias in the viewer.