Category: design principles

These are posts that emphasize John LeMasney’s understanding and appreciation of the tenets and principles of design.

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

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.

Related articles

 

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

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.

Related articles

 

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

22 of 365: Constancy #design principle

22 of 365 - Constancy design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
22 of 365 - Constancy design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
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.

Related articles
Categories
brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration insights libraries portfolio professional activities professional experience research interests teaching

21 of 365: Consistency #design principle

21 of 365 - Consistency design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
21 of 365 - Consistency design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
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.

Related articles

 

Categories
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.

Related articles

 

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

19 of 365: Comparison #design principle

19 of 365 - Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
19 of 365 - Comparison design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
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. .

Related articles