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.
15 of 365 - Closure design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
15 of 365 – Closure design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Closure is part of a set of design principles called the Gestalt principles of perception. Closure says that when we see a set of individual elements, we tend to put them together as a set in our mind. Humans fill in missing information to try to solve each shape as part of a set with collective meaning.
In this illustration, I took the image of a rabbit, and broke it down into a series of lines. By using the viewer’s innate ability to resolve missing parts, it makes the image of the rabbit simpler, design wise, and more interesting aesthetically.
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Andy Rutledge – Gestalt Principles of Perception – 1: Figure Ground Relationships
13 of 365 - Chunking design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
13 of 365 – Chunking design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Chunking is a method by which you take ideas that need to be taught or remembered, and break them down into memorable, consumable chunks. Studies show that we have more difficulty remembering a list of ten words than two lists of five words each. The most effective chunking consists of four items, give or take one. It can be used to help remember numbers, ideas, and lots of other chunks.
In this illustration, I decided to show that trying to convey a birthday, social security number, and phone number is more difficult as a single string, less difficult with chunk based formatting, and easier still with one idea per line.
6 of 365 - anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
6 of 365 – anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Anthropomorphic design is a method by which a designer makes use of angles and curves that are inspired by the human form to evoke certain emotional responses from the user of the design. For example, the classic Coca Cola bottle makes use of anthropomorphic design and reminds the user of the curves of the female body. One might also play with the proportions and silhouette of a form to remind the user of babies or men to evoke reasonable emotional responses to those ends. Designs that have content that is aggressive, safe, loving, stable, or kind might make use of anthropomorphic forms to evoke those responses in a subconscious way.
In this illustration, I decided to start with 4 female silhouettes, using half of each to create a form that repeats and reverses the half. Then, I created a container inspired by the result of the silhouette experiment. There is no clear connection between the end results and their inspirations, but each of them has a character to them that speaks to the original forms.
4 of 365 - affordance - place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
4 of 365 – affordance – place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Affordance is the design principle in which a designer considers the ease with which the user can make use of the design, in comparison to other solutions. A design with high affordance is valued because it makes more logical sense than other solutions. It allows for more understanding, and less misunderstanding. An example is a door with a handle on one side and a push plate on the other, in which the suggestion to pull is clear from one side and the suggestion to push is clear from the other. Another example is that both a round wheel and a square wheel will roll, but one clearly makes easier work of rolling. Good design that incorporates affordance considers the clarity and ease with which a task is done.
I recently attended a lovely lunch with a friend, and it seemed as though there was no design to the layout of the table, that anything could go anywhere. In learning about affordance, I thought that designing a placemat in which places were predetermined for the various dishes, drinks, and accoutrement would have been helpful. Since there is a shared central dish in the design, all of the places would be connected by it. The design could work in a round table, a long table, or a square table. By suggesting actions, the design considers affordance. In the same way that you can push on a handled door, you could place dishes anywhere on this place setting, but the most sensible action suggested by the design brings ease and order. This placemat would be reversible, in the event that a left handed person was seated.
3 of 365 - aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
3 of 365 – aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
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.
