Design - Graphic

Graphic Design Books

I was putting together a reading list yesterday, of good books on the fundamentals of Graphic Design for a User Experience 'faucet of knowledge' for the design team here at 'The Corporation'. Here's what I compiled with help from Miss Caroline Smith, a fellow reprobate and pretender.

• Grid Systems in Graphic Design/Raster Systeme Fur Die Visuele Gestaltung by Josef Muller-Brockmann
• Joseph Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design by Lars Muller
• Soak Wash Rinse Spin by Tolleson Design
• Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice by Armin Hoffman
• Typographie: Ein Gestaltungslehrbuch = Typography : a manual of design by Emil Ruder

Visualising Information

Links to Information Visualisation things from Stamford university and Cybergeography's equivalent. This site also has lots of lush topics like 'Network Topology Maps' and 'Global Internet Diffusion'... ooer, don't that sound fancy?

Nice Image Retrospective

I can't read a word of it, but this guy's blog has got some luscious images from yesteryear on it. http://ostblog.nullserver.net/

ForUSE – Debate: Patterns or Process – Constantine and Lockwood

Debate: Patterns or Process? What works for Usage Centred Design? Lucy Lockwood (process) vs Larry Constantine (patterns).

Patterns are a way to capture the wisdom of many years of design experience. They help to expand and extend the awareness of the experienced designer and aid to save the inexperienced designer. Or are they just a poor, inefficient substitute for well implemented process.

For Patterns Larry Constantine
A pattern is an idea that is useful in one practical context and probably be useful in others. Patterns describe repeated problems along with effective solutions in a standardised useful form. Variations may included name, description of problem, applicability of pattern, solutions, consequences results. Some are just Thou Shalts... or shalt nots.

Welie patterns are some well known and often used patterns. They are a bit "Like, duh" though. Patterns can be from ways to display tables with alternating colours in the rows, to the metaphor of a shopping cart. Good patterns through, capture best practices gained through experience. Patterns describe simple and elegant solutions to problems and capture solutions that have developed and evolved over time. hence they aren't the designs people tend to generate initially,. they reflect untold redesign, as developers have struggled design patterns capture these solutions in a succinct and easily applied form. Design Patterns Addison-Wesley, 1995

Best practice patterns should be Non obvious or even counter intuitive. Broad but specific application. Clearly spell out problem to be solved. Clearly articulate solution and tradeoffs. Exemplify best practices. Basically they are the subtleties within the obvious patterns. The should be based on substantial substantiated patterns.

Against Patterns Lucy Lockwood.
UI design is still at the arts and crafts stage. Early civil engineering and architecture was mostly learned by apprenticeship. They copied what they had seen that worked. Very limited number of 3rd degree wizards. The development of engineering principles and processes allowed for expansion of engineering corps. There is no one size fits all yet, because there just isn't the depth of knowledge to be able to say "This worked here in exactly this situation, so it will work here". Patterns still rely on the '3rd degree wizard' to be able to make best practice. Process allows those who aren't '3rd degree wizards' to work within a framework to achieve best practice.

Practicing designers need help recognising problems and poor design... concrete principles, not cognitive psychology. They need direction for improvements, practical guidance, not canned solutions. There is no such thing as "UI standards". Patterns also only cover 10 - 20% of problems. they are often misapplied. The DO NOT support creativity or innovation.

Who Captures and maintains patterns? A company wants designers to design, not waste time capturing and maintaining patterns and they won't pay for a designer to do this. How do we decide what's a good pattern. It's totally subjective. How do we know that the pattern we have is the best pattern that can be trusted? If a pattern written to be timeless it is too abstract and vague. Description is so general that it doesn't offer specific guidance. Patterns are too tied to current technology and fashion or a particular context.

Where do you find patterns? How do you know which pattern you need? They assume that the designer has analysed the problem well enough to choose a suitable pattern. Patterns can compound a problem that wasn't adequately solved in the inception of the pattern.

[Thought: Competitor analysis is really about gathering patterns...]

Five general rules of usability that patterns are trying to achieve....
Access: make the system usable without help of of instruction.
Efficacy: Don't interfere with those who know it already.
Progression: Facilitate knowledge advancement
Support: Support the real work users are trying to accomplish.
Context: Suit the system to conditions and environment.
Basic Usability principles: Visibility, Feedback, Structure (layout dictated by meaning and use), Reuse (use interface components and behaviors consistently), Tolerance (forgive mistakes), Simplicity.

Visual Style History

Lovely pictorial history of visual style using a case study in H.G. Wells War of the Worlds book covers from 1895 - present day.

Thanks to Gideon Bullock for sending me this one.

An analysis of hated typefaces

Reviled fonts justified on Joe Clark's site. Thanks to Priya Prakash for rooting out this one...

Trend toward Aesthetics? Nah...

Review on Boxes and Arrows about The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness

"Postrel points out that “'form follows emotion' has supplanted 'form follows function'.” How else do you explain the success of the iMac, Volkswagen Beetle, and the Michael Graves Toaster at Target?"

Sorry, this is just rubbish. Of course form still follows function. If the iMac, Volkswagen Beetle etc didn't function exceptionally well, they'd have been a flop.

The notion that people value aesthetics more now than they did then is a misnomer. People can afford aesthetics now, where before this was a luxury. As the population becomes more affluent and companies cotton on to the fact that people have always wanted aesthetics, goods become cheaper and more aesthetic.

People in poorer countries (or westerners earlier this century) couldn't care less about aesthetics. If something works, and they can afford it, then that's enough for them. If aesthetic goods were cheap enough, they'd have those instead, because the desire for beauty and individuality is something that runs deeper than trend. It roots in the way humans value themselves. This isn't transient, in my opinion.

Colour Scheme Generator

This Colour Scheme Generator, is way cool. Thanks to Dan at City of Sound for blogging this one.

Links a plenty

DigID

Ooer! Wired article "The SenSay cellular phone, still in prototype stage, keeps tabs on e-mails sent, phone calls made and the user's location. The phone also adapts to the user's environment."

RFID more privacy and identity issues here... Radio Frequency Identification - tag items with a radio chip the size of a pin head.

IA, ID & Graphic Design

Useful IA and Design Resources for sorting out work practices and process.

Deciding which usability test method to use. Nice overview of different usability methods

Found Gold on colour theory and international interpretations of it in design. Colour Matters, Symbolism of Color in different cultures. Also, Colorcom colour consultants.

"Create-ivity"

The trouble with out of the Box thinking article on Ubiquity magazine site.

Random

Grays Anatomy Online. I always loved the book, now it's online.