The Aesthetic Usability Effect is a design principle and theory that says that a design that is more aesthetic (e.g. attractive, visually appealing) is more likely to be used, chosen, or be interpreted as better. Aesthetic designs are also more likely to be perceived as easier to use that less aesthetic designs, even if that is not actually the case.
Welcome, all, to the 2014 edition of 365 sketches. This is a simple offering for the first sketch, but gives some idea of what I intend to talk about. In this series, I intend to learn more about design principles, because in the past I focused mostly on method and technique. I hope that this series teaches me as much about design ideology as past series have taught me about design method. It is perhaps evidence of “a cart before the horse” which I am trying to remedy.
The 80/20 Principle is one in which a well-working system of any kind (book, technology, structure, organization) has distributed value and power, where the 20 percent represents the most important, the most valuable, and the most protected, and the rest supports it. We are experiencing political difficulty in this country at the moment, according to this theory, because the 20 percent has been reduced too far. The same is true in design, books, movies, or other organizations of content: If there is too little to gain from participation in the whole, e.g., if only a small percentage holds the entire value, then the entire structure falls apart, and holds no value at all. The best design, according to the theory, balances value and support at a ratio near to, but not necessarily equal to, 80/20.
I think that perhaps the greatest design work I’ve ever done was for the 365 Sketches project formerly at http://365sketches.org. I did it for 3 years between 2009 and 2012, with a one year break. You can see the best work from that project at the portfolio page. The concept is simple:
It helped me to learn how to use Inkscape thoroughly, build an audience, develop my design, layout and typography skills, develop a portfolio, and get feedback and advice from stakeholders like you.
I will do a few things differently this time. I’ll screencast (record my screen to show the method) more often. I’ll be more explicit in my exposition. I’ll use and show classic design principles. I’ll use Drupal to develop the collection as a very clean portfolio version, while using WordPress, here, for the details. Both will be located here on lemasney.com, and I will likely migrate the existing content from 365 to this site as a category.
On January 1st, 2014, it begins.
I really love design play that takes the expected and twists it. This is a prime example. By starting with a photo of an original game cartridge for the atari 2600, and replacing and repainting the firefox logo into it, then adding the title in the Atari 2600 font (Mumbai.ttf) it’s fairly easy to pull off this kind of substitution. In retrospect, I should have used ALL CAPS for the title, as they did for their cartridges, but still, a fun project.
Hi, all. There’s a lot going on this week, and I wanted to make you aware of some of the offerings and events that might help you. Also, you can always click on the link at the bottom of my site to see what classes and other public offerings I am taking part in. For the sake of simplicity, you can visit the link here:Â Upcoming talks with LeMasney Consulting
First, tonight at 7:30 to 8:30, I’m offering the first of a two-week class for free on WordPress at Princeton Public Library in the Tech Center. In the class, we go over the benefits of using WordPress to publish, discover how to get started, and next week we have a follow-up that allows you to share what you are doing. We learn about pages, posts, plugins, asides, statistics, sharing and more. Please visit!
Tonight I’ll be speaking with Brian Kelley about Technology and Art. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking with Sean Piotrowski about Customer Service. I usually advertise these on Facebook, but archives and podcasts are available. Probably the best way to get those is by subscribing to my YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/lemasney
I’m teaching a class on Tuesday nights at Rider University on Media and Technology for Organizations, and while registration for the class is complete, I’d love to sit with you and share what I’m teaching and learning there. If you’d like to sit down, consider grabbing a spot on my schedule at and remember that the first hour of a new consulting relationship is always free.
On Wednesday, I’ll be visiting the Mary Jacobs Memorial Library to talk about using Android. In the class, we’ll discover how to make the most of the popular mobile platform, why you should consider it if you are using something else, the benefits and differences of the platform and more. Mary Jacobs Memorial Library is at 64 Washington St. Rocky Hill, NJ 08553
Next week, in addition to the second WordPress class, I’ll be starting my classes at the Princeton Adult School, including creating a site, graphic design, personal and organizational branding, and photomanipulation. Visit their site to register:Â http://www.ssreg.com/princeton/classes/results.asp?string=lemasney
I hope that we get a chance to visit this week and in upcoming weeks, and thanks, as always, for your support!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
7:30pm until 8:15pm
In this session, local graphic designer and technology consultant John LeMasney will demonstrate how to get started with digital graphic design using free (open source) software, and will introduce the concepts of color choice, font choice, visual inspiration, best practices, and resources. If you ever find yourself tasked with putting words and images on a page in an interesting way, but have never had any training in how to do that effectively, this class is for you!
365 Days of Art Challenge
Design | Covert to Inkscape illustration software now
The Graphic Design Experience Every Student Needs to Succeed
