The Surface Plane Flashcards
Touch falls under what real of design?
Industrial design - industrial designers are concerned with primarily a user’s physical engagement with a product… Shape, textures and materials can all come into play, and even vibration
If the skeleton plane deals with logical arrangements, the surface plane deals with..
Sensory design and the presentation of the logical arrangements in the wireframe
What are sounds good for in interactive products?
Informing the user and imbuing the product with a sense of personality
Visual design shouldn’t just focus on aesthetics, it should also focus on
Supporting the objectives defined in the lower planes - it’s great for helping enhance user understanding and communicating brand identity
What’s a simple way to evaluate visual design?
See where the eye goes first.
You can do this with sophisticated eye tracking software, asking people or the squint test
A successful visual design will cause user’s eyes to
1) flow smoothly, it won’t be cluttered
2) give them a guided tour of the options available to them
What’s the primary visual design tool for drawing user attention?
Contrast.
Contrast is vital to drawing the user’s attention to essential aspects of the interface, contrast helps the user understand the relationships between the navigational elements on the page, and contrast is the primary means of communicating conceptual groups in information design. When elements in a design are different, users pay attention. They can’t help it.
Maintaining uniformity in design is important. Give an example of this.
For example, if all the graphic buttons you use for navigation are the same height, they can be mixed and matched as needed without creating a cluttered layout or requiring that new graphics be produced.
What is grid based layout and why is it useful?
Grid- based layout is one technique from print design that carries over effectively to the Web. This approach ensures uniformity of design through a master layout that is used as a template for creating layout variations.
The way websites are produced has traditionally caused problems with
Internal consistency within the site
External consistency when compared to other company design
The best approach to containing internal consistency is to…
Identify the various pieces used throughout the site from the skeleton, design the elements once, then test the, throughout the design and rework them as needed
The core brand colors are usually part of a broader color palette,,, how are these selected and what are they good for?
Complementing each other without competing…
Must be good for contacting to highlight things
With typography and colors this is an important principle to keep in mind
Don’t choose combos that are similar but not exactly the same
What’s a design comp
A visual composition of what the finished product will look like with all the components in place
What’s a style guide
The definitive documentation of the design decisions we have made is the style guide . This compendium defines every aspect of the visual design,
Having a style guide you can refer to is the single most effective way to get your product looking like a cohesive whole instead of just a jumble of tacked- on pieces.
