12 of 365 - Cathedral effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
12 of 365 – Cathedral effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
There is research that suggests that people complete tasks differently in environments where there are notably high or notably low ceilings. In environments where the ceiling is not noticeably high or low, it did not have an effect. High ceilings tend to have a cognitive effect of opening up creative and big-picture thinking, whereas lower ceilings have the effect of more detail oriented thinking.
In this illustration, I’m demonstrating the idea of people in both high- and low-ceiling environments.
11 of 365 - Biophilia effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
11 of 365 – Biophilia effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
The biophilia effect is the idea that when we are placed in environments that contain or seem to contain nature, we are more likely to be able to heal physically and emotionally, think more creatively, and generally function better. In environments where these outcomes are intended, it is preferable to create a natural environment or one where nature appears by posters, installations, or other means.
In this illustration, I show two large plate window environments, one where there is a brick walled view, and one in which there is a bamboo grove. The bamboo grove view, fairly immersive, would theoretically create a more creative, healing environment, regardless of if they were actually there or simply appeared to be there.
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.
9 of 365 - attractiveness bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
9 of 365 – attractiveness bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Attractiveness bias is a design principle that allows designers to act upon noted preferences in humans for (typically) other humans who seem to be whole, symmetrical, appear genetically and otherwise healthy, and nutritionally sound. A commonly cited example for attractiveness bias is the televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy, where people who saw the debate said overwhelmingly that Kennedy won the debate, and those who only listened to the debate felt generally that Nixon won the debate. The difference can be explained in the differences in their appearances, where Kennedy is said to have looked younger, stronger, more healthy, more attractive, and more steady than Nixon in the debate.
In my illustration here, I decided to take an attractive image of a female and alter her feature symmetry and skin tone to make her less attractive, and thus less preferred.
8 of 365 - Area alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Area alignment design principle cc-by lemasney.com
The design principle of area alignment says that when you have a series of objects to be aligned that do not have regular shapes, that it is more aesthetically pleasing to centrally align them according to their area and weight than by central alignment of the bounding boxes.
In the illustration I’ve made here, the birds to the left are centrally aligned according to the centers of the bounding boxes, and the birds to the right are centrally aligned according to their area, form, and weight. The area aligned images are more pleasing as a series of aligned objects. These are two different ways of thinking about layout of related objects in a design plane.
“Alignment based on the area of elements versus the edges of elements. With the advent of professional design and engineering software, elements in a design can be aligned with exacting precision. However, the alignment supported by software is based on the edges of elements — including center alignment, which calculates a center based on the edges. This method works well when elements are relatively uniform and symmetrical, but less well when the elements are nonuniform and asymmetrical. In these latter cases, it is preferable to align based on the visual weight or area of the elements, a technique that must be performed using the designer’s eye and judgment. Using edge alignment when area alignment is called for is one of the …” found in Area Alignment – Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design [Book] at https://goo.gl/exykFB
7 of 365 - Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
7 of 365 – Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Archetypes allow designers to make good design decisions about the alignment of the emotional content of a design and the best use of color, line, fonts and other design elements. Archetypes can be classic ones, such as good and evil, sweet and bitter, happy and sad, but can also be much more subtle. Nike tends to make use of the battered hero archetype, using photos of athletes in heroic poses and stark visual conditions. Coca Cola makes use of the happy stereotype, always showing people in the best of moods. These brands could go against archetype, but because there is a certain kind of alignment between those types and the brand, it should not.
In my illustration here, I used a Zen, minimalist archetype to illustrate the traditional zen quote “Catch the vigorous horse of your mind”. I might have chosen to go with a pop approach, or an angry type, but the message and its treatment would have been in conflict.
