Module 1: Play, Experience, Design
Static: Of forces not causing movement. Motionless.
Kinetic: Relating to change over time or motion.
Who is Andy Polaine?
Describes himself as:
“An experienced designer focusing on playful interactions and service design research.”
“Interactive concept development.”
Polaine is currently based in Germany but at times he is a local, moving to Australia in 1999. He helped establish the interactive department Animal Logic and he also write for Desktop magazine.
Polaine completed his PhD at UTS:
Developing a language of interactivity through the theory of play.
Why?
Interactivity through the concept of ‘play’
Play>Experience>Design
Very important in game design and interactive design
Polaine’s Definition fo Interactive Design:
“I think it’s simple: we design interactions. Those might be interactions between people, machines and screens or they might be interactions between two or more people. It is a combination of how the elements function – what they do, what they look like and what they look like they do – and the experience of using them. In many cases it is about making complicated things easier and more pleasurable to use.”
Polaine, Andrew. “Any Polaine.” Desktop 251 (2009): 30 – 31
A break down:
“It is a combination of how the elements function:
- What they do
- What they look like
- What they look like they do
- The experience of using them
In many cases it is about making complicated things easier and more pleasurable to use.”
Static Graphic Composition
User = All sense and capacities, especially sight.
User = View + Use
User Inteface (UI) includes visual composition.
Eye-Tracking: is the process of measuring where we are looking or the motion of the eye relative to the head.
Module 2: Using What you Know
Static Composition and Visual Hierarchy
Visual Hierarchy: In a graphic sense, it is the consideration and treatment of graphics or visual forms on a page. Composing elements into a logical order.
“Making complicated things easier and more pleasurable to use” by understanding visual hierarchy.
Infographics
- Navigation
- Mapping
- Information Architecture
The principles of relaying information are shared by all fields:
Graphic Design > Information Design > Interactive Design
Visual Spatial Design
Gestalt Psychology
“The use of Gestalt principles can help designers signal to users which elements in the interaface are most useful or significant. This includes how information is grouped and how visual elements are interrelated to collectively function as a single whole.”
Craig M Baehr, Web Development: A Visual-Spatial Approach, Pearson, New Jersey, 2007, p.125
Methods
Point of interest, use of contrast, focus point
Point of interest
- The focus point or draw card of a composition
- Usually the most important element of a composition
- The entry or starting point of reading or digesting the visual information in a layout
- Leader of visual hierarchy
Visual Hierarchy
- Point of interest (first level)
- Sub points (second level)
- Sub sub points (third level)
- etc.
Composition is visual ecology
- A point of interest should not overtake a whole composition
- A point of interest should not be too weak and hidden
- No right or wrong, only appropriateness to purpose or brief
Contrast
- The difference between visual elements within a work.
- The relative difference between light and dark areas.
Tone
- The relative lightness or darkness of a colour.
- Strengthen or weaken a point.
Scale and weight
- The relative size of graphic form.
- Closely related to perspective and depth.
Colour
Typography
Legibility: How clear the text is visually.
Readability: The degree to which meaning of text is understandable, visually and conceptually.
Readability is not legibility.
- Good designers treat text as content.
- Great designers treat text as UI.
-Cameron Moll
Sources
- Hughes, Greg. “The Static and Kinetic Screen – Module 1: Play, Experience Design.” Interactive Design 1. University Of Western Sydney. Online, vUWS. 21 Mar. 2011. Class lecture.
- Hughes, Greg. “The Static and Kinetic Screen – Module 2: Using What You Know.” Interactive Design 1. University Of Western Sydney. Online, vUWS. 21 Mar. 2011. Class lecture.
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