Universal Principles of Design - Decisions

How can I make better design decisions?

Principle 1 - Accessibility

As a middle school teacher this is something that I have to constantly consider in my design of visuals, instruction and other materials.  How can I assure that my design is perceivable to my colorblind students or my hearing impaired students?  How can I assure that my design in operable by physically handicapped students?  How can I assure that my design is simple enough--especially in wording--for my learning disabled students?  As the end of the page in Lidwell discusses, my best design to account for this not only considers the questions above but utilizes Affordance and Forgiveness.

Principle 2 - Weakest Link

This Principle reminds me of two things.  The first is that game show that had its 15 minutes of fame a few years ago in which the rude British woman would say "I'm sorry Beatrice, but you are the Weakest Link."  Ouch.  The secod thing that it reminds me of are my numerous car accidents as a teenager.  Fortunately the crumple zones of the numerous crumpled cars that I drove when I was younger kept me safe from impact (impact which I normally caused).

Universal Principles of Design - Learning

How can I help people learn from a design?

Principle 1 - Signal -to-Noise Ratio

My students finished off this past school year with a project that required that they complete at least one graphical representation of data.  Many students, in an attempt at creativity, created displays with a very low signal-to-noise ratio that involved styles of shading and coloring much like the 3 left-hand graphs on Pg. 183.  It was hard for the reader(s) to interpret the graph, because they tried to comprehend how the shading styles relate, and they often did not.

Principle 2 - Progressive Disclosure

This principle first reminds me of the way that a good lesson in math class doesn't normally start with all of the problems (or topics) that will be covered readily visible at the board, rather it builds them up--progressively--one at a time.  This also reminds me of a concept that is of importance in a recent assignment in this class: many resumes end with the statement "References available upon request." to avoid overwhelming a potential employer with information that they are not ready to consider.

Moodle "Topic Outline"

"You need to keep blogging about your experiences. What have you learned this week? (You do not need to outline the chapters or “sum up” the chapters….I like random musings about your thoughts and feelings!)"

I like using the Topic Outline in Moodle as a "checklist" to keep myself progressing through the course.  I do things in the order that they are discussed, to ensure that I don't skip anything.  I often don't read the entire Topic Outline postings until finishing all of the work for the week, as I stop at each assignment or reading and complete that, before moving on.  You can probably guess how disappointed I was upon reading this after completing each of this week's readings and then painstakingly posting about each of them!  I assume that the hours that I have spent on my readings and postings have been unnecessary .  .  . So, I apologize to the readers of my blog, as it is probably a lot to process!

Color Matters: Color & Cultural Matters

Color & Cultural Matters

I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed that I was born on St. Patrick's Day, nor what to think of my wife's white wedding dress!  I can see that different cultures and backgrounds see colors in such contrast and contradiction, that it would be difficult to take these things into account unless a "design" was to be geared to one particular culture (i.e., advertising a wedding dress in China!).

Color Matters: Design And Art: Color & E-Commerce

Color & E-Commerce

After reading all of the readings and articles in this section, it has become very obvious to me that someone designing a website in hopes of making a profit must take many things into account, especially in terms of color.  This site provides a nice, concise checklist of the things to keep in mind.  If I wasn't a math teacher, this would hang on my bulletin board . . . 

Website: Color Matters

Color Matters

Computer Color Matters

I was glad to read this as it helped me get a somewhat better understanding of RGB (which was the first thing that I have not understood from Williams' description) as well as why color appears different on different sources.  This reminds me of watching TV on an older TV, and trying to figure out why your favorite sports team is wearing a different colored jersey!

I also enjoyed seeing the point that all Mac's come with video  cards and good monitors.  Point, Mac.

Is your Computer ColorBlind?

White pixel test - I felt like the color on my monitor was brighter than that of a piece of white paper . . . 

Gamma Test - I read mine as a 1.8.  Is that good or bad?  The article doesn't say.

Lightness & Darkness Test - I could see all 10 sections as different shades & tints.

Color Test - My computer passed this, too.  Though I must say, in the 4th color, they almost set us up to see the last color as white-like, as they put it on a poorly contrasted white background.

The Power of Gamma

My computer, it seems, has good gamma readings.  I can tell because in the test above, I got a 1.8, and the first picture lists 1.8 as "fully corrected."  My first thought on these issues was that you can see how correcting your pictures in software like iPhoto or Photoshop may actually make them look right on your computer and terribly wrong on other computers, or in print for that matter.

Color, the Chameleon of the Web

This portion of the site is a bit depressing.  Here the points on how Van Gogh's works would appear different on different monitors could make a designer only want to consider the colors they use when dealing with print or, worse yet, use only cheesy clipart.

Article: Symbolism of Color: Using Color for Meaning

Symbolism of Color: Using Color for Meaning

I was initially surprised to see such a large resource dedicated to the different meanings of colors, as I thought that colors didn't typically have meanings.  However, once I started reading, I found that it was all rather obvious to me (black = death, blue = water, green & red = Christmas).  I initially considered referencing what the colors meant in the backgrounds of students that I have that are from other countries, but realized that so many of them carried opposite meanings, that it would be impossible to find something that works in all settings.

Fortunately, the decision has been made for me: our school copier is black and white only.  Sorry kids, but your worksheet is death colored today, again.

Article: Color in Education

Color in Education by Sheri Thompson

While I found this article interesting, especially in the fact that the color in the room can lead to learning and motivational results, not just results in "feeling."  Given the opportunity to repaint my classroom, or to repaint an entire school building I would certainly look back at this article.  Unfortunately, classrooms in my building rarely (if ever) get repainted.  In my 5 years, I spent one in a room that needed repainted and it was requested, but never happened, and the other four in a room that doesn't need it as badly, but still has not been repainted (as the article suggests is important).

I will say, however, that I would consider some of these ideas someday when I have children and look to paint a bedroom (that is, if my wife let's me help pick the colors!).

Universal Principles of Design - Appeal

Concept 1 - Archetypes

This is a concept that often is employed in visual design, but subconsciously.  We often don't realize that we select our font, color, imagery, etc. based on the topic and the feeling that we hope to put out, but we are using this exact concept.  I especially liked the discussion of the "Hero's Journey."  It is a given that at least one movie per summer (a low estimate!) involves this exact story.  For example, I haven't seen it yet, but I can make this prediction, "Indiana Jones, you must save the world."  "No."  "Indiana Jones, I want you to save the world."  "OK, but I hate snakes."  "Doctor Jones, look out."  "Wow Indy, you saved the world."  The End.

Concept 2 - Attractiveness Bias

This is sad, but so true.

Concept 3 - Baby-Face Bias

An interesting principle.  I was particularly surprised by the statistics relating abuse of premature babies to normal-term babies.  It is astonishing.  However, I wonder if there are other factors that lead to premature births that may also relate to higher probability of abuse.  I can say, though, that there is an obviously different perception in personality of the people on the left of page 29 from those at the right.

Concept 4 - Color

While I read this section in one of the prior reading assignments, I decided to review it since it was relevant to the current assignment.  In re-reading it, I caught the sidenote about the effect of colors on peoples' attitudes -- " . . . the only observable influence of color on behavior is its ability to lead people to repaint walls unnecessarily.  For those determined to use colors to calm drunks and win football games through the application of color . . . "  HA!

Concepts 5 & 6 - Fibonacci Sequence/The Golden Ratio

Finally, something of importance to a math teacher!  However, it's importance in design is directly downplayed by the author's in the final few sentences.  A fun story though: my first year of teaching in my current district came during the height of the popularity of the Da Vinci Code.  As a true procrastinator, I had yet to read it, but have since.  On a test in my Advanced Math class, I asked the students to list two irrational numbers (numbers that go on forever without repeating; i.e., pi, the square root of 5, and 2.362357...).  On one of the first papers, someone listed "pi and phi."  I laughed. I thought it was a hysterical display of sense of humor when they didn't know another correct answer.  Then another student listed "phi."  "A cheater!" I deduced.  And another.  "Yet another copier!" I figured.  After a few dozen listings of "phi" I decided that I should ask Google where they had found this word, only to discover that my 8th grade students were aware of the Golden Ratio, while I was not.

The Non-Designers Design Book, Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Using Color

When starting this Chapter, I had the thought in my mind that there were rules to color selections, but in reality any combinations of colors worked--if they looked okay.  After a few pages, I thought that was wrong--as I learned about combining complementary colors--and then became more assured that the theory behind this stuff was irrelevant (sorry!) as it just came down to how it looks.  I became more assured in this thought after learning about split complementary triads, analogous colors, monochromatic colors and then, most importantly, in this quote from Pg. 102: "Are there any colors that don't look great together?  Not if you subscribe to the Robin's Wildflower Theory of Color . . . "  So, while I found the terminology and manners of selecting colors, I realized that in the future I will simply check with my senses on this matter, i.e, what looks good?

I did find a few things rather interesting in this chapter though.  First, I was interested to learn how the color wheel was created from the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  I was also interested in learning of the difference between shade and tint.  I looked around myself in the room that I was in, which is painted what my wife and I call a "shade of yellow."  Now I know: it's a tint of yellow!  D'oh!  I also made mental notes to "watch the tones" in my color selections and to use warm colors and cool colors appropriately.

I must admit though, CMYK and RGB made my head spin.  I understand the main characteristics (CMYK is based on combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and a key in rosette patterns and RGB acts differently because it is used on screens on which light is not being reflected, rather being sent right to our eyes), but not the how.  This is especially true of RGB.  How the heck does red and green give you yellow?  Also, I did not know that I could select which I worked with.  Maybe the distinction between CMYK and RGB is a moot point for an 8th grade math teacher?