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17 posts categorized "design"
Feb 22, 2012
Feb 20, 2012
Interactive Starry Night
Greek artist, Petros Vrellis converted Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” into swirling animation and interactivity.
Feb 08, 2012
Inform & Entertain
Using design to communicate information through infographics.
Francesco Franchi: On Visual Storytelling and New Languages in Journalism from Gestalten on Vimeo.
Jan 18, 2012
Organizing UX for Large Scale Mobile Apps
Just wanted to share a few pics of the inter-workings of designing a large scale app that crosses vast social media integration and numerous content touch points. A considerable amount of time is put into organizing, structuring and designing such a product so that it will make sense for end users and appear simple and easy to use.
Forgoing these steps at this level will ensure confusion and ultimately the absence of returning users to your ecosystem. I have taken traditional website building methods and modified them to develop a system of what I am calling a 'Tap Map'. Very similar to a site map, but in this instance you can easily see where particular parts of the app are nested inside each of other and how many taps deep a particular piece of content is. This also allow certain pieces of information to be accessed in multiple ways inside the app without having flow lines and arrows running wild.
Mobile is definitely a different animal and as such the traditional web way of tackling things no longer makes as much sense. Within the confines of iOS and android each screen has to have special attention paid to it whereas in many web design instances content flows more freely and design is more about building buckets to drop things in. A few dozen page designs for the web will quickly turn into a few hundred for an app if attention to detail is taken into account. Adding touch and gestures to the user experience changes the architecture and every element has to fit in a particular place within the fixed dimensions of the screen. Links and more info to come soon - once this product is launched. Big stuff on the way, stay tuned.
Forgoing these steps at this level will ensure confusion and ultimately the absence of returning users to your ecosystem. I have taken traditional website building methods and modified them to develop a system of what I am calling a 'Tap Map'. Very similar to a site map, but in this instance you can easily see where particular parts of the app are nested inside each of other and how many taps deep a particular piece of content is. This also allow certain pieces of information to be accessed in multiple ways inside the app without having flow lines and arrows running wild.
Mobile is definitely a different animal and as such the traditional web way of tackling things no longer makes as much sense. Within the confines of iOS and android each screen has to have special attention paid to it whereas in many web design instances content flows more freely and design is more about building buckets to drop things in. A few dozen page designs for the web will quickly turn into a few hundred for an app if attention to detail is taken into account. Adding touch and gestures to the user experience changes the architecture and every element has to fit in a particular place within the fixed dimensions of the screen. Links and more info to come soon - once this product is launched. Big stuff on the way, stay tuned.
Jan 03, 2012
Skewing Truth With Design
Dartmouth College Political Scientists recently released a report saying that infographics might be the best way to alter peoples beliefs about a particular subject. More specifically, they were looking at two items, 1. "people tend to resist unwelcome information", and 2. "whether graphical corrections may be more effective than text" at changing peoples minds. What they found: "Graphical corrections are also found to successfully reduce incorrect beliefs among potentially resistant subjects and to perform better than an equivalent textual correction."
Well, duh! Designers have known this for decades. This is how we get you to buy a coke, think Target clothes are cool and convince you to buy a product you don't need. Design is a visual solution to deliver information. However, when that information is handled poorly or in a misleading manner it becomes propaganda.
Bloomberg's Businessweek created a nice example of how easy it is to visually skew non-related data to mislead consumers into false conclusions. These are pretty funny but they do illustrate a real truth of how design could transform into propaganda.
One of my favorite books dealing with this issue is by Edward R Tufte. In The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Tufte deals extensively with the propensity of designers to unknowingly (or knowingly) skew data when compiling it visually. Trying to make data fun or decorative lends itself to creating propaganda if the information is not properly cared for and treated with great respect.
Tufte goes into great detail along with real world examples of how data should be treated and displayed to attain the most unbiased positions possible. An obvious must read for anyone creating infographics, but more importantly a must read for anyone who is interested in being able to recognize false information and disseminate the truth.
Obviously people look at graphics before digging into text. We are visual creatures. The old example was a newspaper - have you ever read the entire thing, or just flipped through to find something interesting? Now its, do you read all the text on all the websites you visit - or just look for something interesting and then dig in? Why does a book have a fancy cover and not simply the first page of text from the book?
A better study for Dartmouth might have been to calculate the percentage of false information that is communicated through misleading graphics instead of trying to decide if design works.
Well, duh! Designers have known this for decades. This is how we get you to buy a coke, think Target clothes are cool and convince you to buy a product you don't need. Design is a visual solution to deliver information. However, when that information is handled poorly or in a misleading manner it becomes propaganda.
Bloomberg's Businessweek created a nice example of how easy it is to visually skew non-related data to mislead consumers into false conclusions. These are pretty funny but they do illustrate a real truth of how design could transform into propaganda.
One of my favorite books dealing with this issue is by Edward R Tufte. In The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Tufte deals extensively with the propensity of designers to unknowingly (or knowingly) skew data when compiling it visually. Trying to make data fun or decorative lends itself to creating propaganda if the information is not properly cared for and treated with great respect.
Tufte goes into great detail along with real world examples of how data should be treated and displayed to attain the most unbiased positions possible. An obvious must read for anyone creating infographics, but more importantly a must read for anyone who is interested in being able to recognize false information and disseminate the truth.
Obviously people look at graphics before digging into text. We are visual creatures. The old example was a newspaper - have you ever read the entire thing, or just flipped through to find something interesting? Now its, do you read all the text on all the websites you visit - or just look for something interesting and then dig in? Why does a book have a fancy cover and not simply the first page of text from the book?
A better study for Dartmouth might have been to calculate the percentage of false information that is communicated through misleading graphics instead of trying to decide if design works.
Dec 29, 2011
Product Design
Good short on Product Design by PBS Arts...
Dec 22, 2011
Small Businesses & Domain Name Strategy
In the past few months I have sat down with several small business owners looking to kick off their online presence. Typically these clients have little to no money and just need something - anything - online that makes them look more legit than just having a business card.
Concerning selecting a name for the business domain… Usually business owners have an idea in mind of what they want, normally they have been through a hundred names on Godaddy only to find out that Name.com is taken and is for sale for $100,000. Discouraging as this may seem it really presents a great opportunity to capitalize on a longer domain name that could actually be more relevant in a niche market.
Everything goes back to the user so when selecting a potential name, I like to recommend imagining how people search using Google. While there is obviously something to be said for having a short memorable name there is also an equal if not greater argument for selecting a domain that coincides with how people search.
For instance, pretend sites with close to identical information on each site: GlobalTextiles.com vs. CustomRestaurantUniforms.com (just fake examples)
People will inevitably search for terms like "Custom Restaurant Uniforms" and Google will index such a site with a domain that is a search term much higher. People will rarely search "Global Textiles" looking for custom-made restaurant uniforms, and those that do search for "Global Textiles" might be looking for info on world textile import/exports or some other materials. Even if the legal company name was "Global Textiles Inc." a different website name (or sub-site) with a more specific product domain name to the actual product is going to yield a higher return for smaller businesses with little to no brand recognition and marketing budgets. Additionally this more generic domain could actually be more memorable when speaking with potential leads.
Just something to keep in mind while spending nights searching for the next cool.com domain name and when really trying to utilize the internet to your sales advantage. And also remember, if you are not updating your site's content regularly then it doesn't matter what you name it. Your dusty old site with a recent post from a year and a half ago is pretty much worthless and showing up on page 12 of googles search results. You could pretty much rename it turd.com cause that is about all its worth. (And incase you are wondering, yes turd.com is taken - but available for the low low price of only…)
Concerning selecting a name for the business domain… Usually business owners have an idea in mind of what they want, normally they have been through a hundred names on Godaddy only to find out that Name.com is taken and is for sale for $100,000. Discouraging as this may seem it really presents a great opportunity to capitalize on a longer domain name that could actually be more relevant in a niche market.
Everything goes back to the user so when selecting a potential name, I like to recommend imagining how people search using Google. While there is obviously something to be said for having a short memorable name there is also an equal if not greater argument for selecting a domain that coincides with how people search.
For instance, pretend sites with close to identical information on each site: GlobalTextiles.com vs. CustomRestaurantUniforms.com (just fake examples)
People will inevitably search for terms like "Custom Restaurant Uniforms" and Google will index such a site with a domain that is a search term much higher. People will rarely search "Global Textiles" looking for custom-made restaurant uniforms, and those that do search for "Global Textiles" might be looking for info on world textile import/exports or some other materials. Even if the legal company name was "Global Textiles Inc." a different website name (or sub-site) with a more specific product domain name to the actual product is going to yield a higher return for smaller businesses with little to no brand recognition and marketing budgets. Additionally this more generic domain could actually be more memorable when speaking with potential leads.
Just something to keep in mind while spending nights searching for the next cool.com domain name and when really trying to utilize the internet to your sales advantage. And also remember, if you are not updating your site's content regularly then it doesn't matter what you name it. Your dusty old site with a recent post from a year and a half ago is pretty much worthless and showing up on page 12 of googles search results. You could pretty much rename it turd.com cause that is about all its worth. (And incase you are wondering, yes turd.com is taken - but available for the low low price of only…)
Aug 03, 2011
Design & Thinking
A new film up for a shot on the big screen on Kickstarter, Design & Thinking, is focused on how designers think, design theories, and design as a means of problem solving. Check out their site for more info.
Jul 26, 2011
Sans-Serif For President?!?
With the upcoming election just 16 months away, the public is about to be littered with poorly designed political posters and propaganda from Local and State Government to the GOP Presidential candidates and then the final showdown.
I decided to take a look back through the last 13 election cycles, beginning with Kennedy's campaign in 1960. Spanning the course of over 50 years, these campaigns existed through a tremendous time of technological growth - yet overall it seems that there has been little to no growth design wise. While there are seemingly endless variations of each design for a single campaign, this article will attempt to review the most generic versions of the winners. I omitted a few evaluations that I did like Stacked names vs. Side-by-side, All caps vs. Mixed Case, Justified Alignment vs. Offset, Slogan vs. No Slogan and many other obscure analysis points - with the hope of not making this thing overwhelming.
While there are some interesting similarities here I would not be an advocate of actually using this as a design guideline unless you wanted to create, as I mentioned, a very "boring" poster. It would be nice to see some innovation in this space.
Obviously a campaign actually #winning is not based solely on signage design. However, as with any brand I believe that to the degree at which professionalism is exhibited there is at the very minimum a subconscious impact - just as any product branding would have. With so many other factors at play in a campaign; policy debates, voting records, current issues and events - a cohesively designed campaign would only be necessary checkbox of done correctly. We saw Obama's campaign dominate in this space in the last cycle - probably as the first candidate who's campaign actually understood branding and how it should extend across all efforts, especially through social media.
A polar opposite of this would be the 1988 Dukakis-Bentsen campaign featuring blue text on top of a flag… If a student or employee of mine in all seriousness showed me a design like this I would fail or fire them. Also, I love that the 2000 Gore-Liberman showcased the iconic dot com "Swoosh" - classy.
As one last bonus I couldn't help but tossing in this poster from the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. While it might make a fun t-shirt I can't imagine who actually thought this was good bumper sticker design. Unless I know sign language, I would have no idea who this sticker was for - and that is assuming I always carry binoculars in my car to read bumper stickers with tiny, detailed line art.
Perhaps once I have a substancial number of 2012 campaign posters I will post them and do a little analysis/prediction for fun based on their design alone.
I decided to take a look back through the last 13 election cycles, beginning with Kennedy's campaign in 1960. Spanning the course of over 50 years, these campaigns existed through a tremendous time of technological growth - yet overall it seems that there has been little to no growth design wise. While there are seemingly endless variations of each design for a single campaign, this article will attempt to review the most generic versions of the winners. I omitted a few evaluations that I did like Stacked names vs. Side-by-side, All caps vs. Mixed Case, Justified Alignment vs. Offset, Slogan vs. No Slogan and many other obscure analysis points - with the hope of not making this thing overwhelming.
While there are some interesting similarities here I would not be an advocate of actually using this as a design guideline unless you wanted to create, as I mentioned, a very "boring" poster. It would be nice to see some innovation in this space.
Obviously a campaign actually #winning is not based solely on signage design. However, as with any brand I believe that to the degree at which professionalism is exhibited there is at the very minimum a subconscious impact - just as any product branding would have. With so many other factors at play in a campaign; policy debates, voting records, current issues and events - a cohesively designed campaign would only be necessary checkbox of done correctly. We saw Obama's campaign dominate in this space in the last cycle - probably as the first candidate who's campaign actually understood branding and how it should extend across all efforts, especially through social media.
A polar opposite of this would be the 1988 Dukakis-Bentsen campaign featuring blue text on top of a flag… If a student or employee of mine in all seriousness showed me a design like this I would fail or fire them. Also, I love that the 2000 Gore-Liberman showcased the iconic dot com "Swoosh" - classy.
As one last bonus I couldn't help but tossing in this poster from the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. While it might make a fun t-shirt I can't imagine who actually thought this was good bumper sticker design. Unless I know sign language, I would have no idea who this sticker was for - and that is assuming I always carry binoculars in my car to read bumper stickers with tiny, detailed line art.
Perhaps once I have a substancial number of 2012 campaign posters I will post them and do a little analysis/prediction for fun based on their design alone.
Jun 22, 2011
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