Possible Contests

1.

Posterheroes is an international communication and social graphic art contest organized by PLUG – non profit cultural association. Deadline: Midnight of February 18, 2013 I like working for non profit companies and I like makeing posters, I think that the message is 

THE ONLY TRUE CITIZENSHIP IS THE ONE THAT EXTENDS TO THE WHOLE WORLD 

so I would have to design around that and find a way that I can draw a connection to the universe. I think my medium will be watercolor and pencil to represent a life that is grey and then add color that engulfs it. Im not exactly sure what the it will be yet still thinking of possibilities sketches will come next week if I choose to submit to this one.

http://www.posterheroes.org/regulation/?lang=en

2.

 Logo Design Contest for Sumner Eye Care
I love doing logo work after working for non profits in Student studio this would be a fun contest to enter. I would probably play with focus of the logo where some things appear to be in focus and then there name stands out.


http://www.hatchwise.com/logo-design-for-SumnerEyeCare-962714

3.

Create an original poster design that expresses the theme “You Can Create Tomorrow.” Your work will be judged on originality, visual impact, required elements and demonstration of basic concepts. Get the details.

I think what I might do for this one is take a photo of my vision of tomorrow and then use illustrator and re draw it. or I might make a short video in after effects.

http://artinstitutes.promo.eprize.com/poster2013/

Unit 3 How People Remember

This chapter is on how people remember.

The first thing that is addressed is our short term memory which is limited. This type of memory is used when you are memorizing a phone number to call someone and don't have a pen you need that information for a second but it wont be important enough to remember it later. there is only so much information you can have in your short term memory before you forget it. So don't ask people to remember information from one place to another, if you they will probably forget especially if ask them to do anything else before they have completed that task .

People remember only four items at once. people can remember three to four things in their working memory as long as they are not distracted one of the strategies to remember information that is used so they don't forget is chunking information into groups. for this reason phone numbers are separated into groups instead of a long string.

which one is easier to memorize?    509-698-3378 or  5096983378  

most people would automatically shift towards the numbers that are separated by the hyphen. This  four rule applies to both short and long term memory. So if you limit the information to four items or group them into four chunks. people try to use external aids to keep from using there memory, so giving options like lists, calendars, notes, or appointment reminders can be very helpful.

Continuing on to more of the long term memory;  for information to stick people have to use it over and over again. The transition of moving something from short term memory to long term memory is by repeating it a lot or applying it to something else already learned. Repetition physically changes the brain. This topic leads into talking about schema which is basically what we perceive things to be, an example is, if we said what an eye is we might say it consists of eyelashes, eye lid, and eyeball, in reality its a lot more than that, our idea of it is the schema. People use schemata to store information in long term memory. So one of the major reasons we do user research is to identify there schemata that the audience your going after has. Other ways to help with memory is to eliminate memory loads, its better to not have people recall any information if possible it's much easier for someone to recognize information than recall it. ways to help people recognize information is by using concrete terms and icons, let them rest and recover, try not to interrupt them if they are in the process of remembering. Make the most important things at the beginning and end of whatever you are trying to convey stuff in the middle is often forgotten.

People reconstruct memory each time they remember them, memories change and thats why eyewhitness testimonies are unreliable. you can alter peoples perception in the way you talk and the words you say can effect greatly what they remember.

It is impossible for your brain to remember every event in your life, it just is not possible so it has to decided what to remember and what to forget. and it does not always makes decisions that we would find helpful. People are always going to forget and what they forget is not something they can help.

Designing with forgetting in mind is a must. If information is important it need to be repeated and not assumed that it is learned, provide it for the learners in your design or have a way for them to find it easily.

This was a shorter chapter but it was interesting I felt like I could really relate to this chapter in the way I think about things and when I was reading it, I was like wow that does makes sense, and yeah I do do that. This was a very interesting chapter.

Thesis response 4

I just got done reading a Thesis by Ayen Cabasag on math strategies and design during early childhood.

I read through this whole thing and thought it was going to be something different than it was. The title of the article was math strategies and design during early childhood, in my head I thought it was going to talk about the relationship between math and design. I thought that maybe she would talk about studies she had found where children that had been exposed to math at an earlier age effected the way in which they perceived or created a design. This thesis basically went through and talked about how children at a young age learn and through those studies how a designer can design for it. for instance designers need to know that when designing activities for children, using consistent colors, shapes, and patterns to grab their attention will help children retain information, and when Using consistency, children are more likely to remember those memories. She concentrated her article on how children's minds worked and how we, as designers could design to help them learn at a fast rate. However I found this conflicting because everyone learns and understands differently so these design methods don't work for everyone. 

She then went on to talk about Cultural and gender differences which addressed my disagreement in the line prior. She talks about how female brains work better with actual number and male brains work better with the mathematical reasoning . The same goes for cultures and demographics where some cultures there is a lack of confidence or pressures. 

Ultimately after all of the facts she had to back up her study it came down to the same way I feel like any designer would do to tackle a problem, and that is to know their audience. The designer will have to consider the design of the activities towards the child's background,and gender, then use certain colors, different shapes and sizes to get there attention. The only way in which the design is ultimately different is that you can't put things in a design and assume that they will understand it, it needs to be more obvious than that because, children don't see things the way adults do. It is good to embrace a variety of methods.

I felt like this was a good paper but I felt like it was a research paper not really a thesis.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1683194/ais_classes/portfolio_pres/12sp/theses/cabasag_ayen_thesis.pdf

Thesis Response 3

I read Miguel Solorio's Senior Thesis on the Aesthetic Information Design in public Transportation. He talks about how a good amount of people use transit systems and lots of them rely on them to get to work, to go to social events, and to travel. Because of the growing amount of people using transportation systems it makes sense that you would want to make them easy to read, and easy to understand, however Miguel says that the design on transportation systems lacks a sense of aesthetic he shows many examples where the information is overloaded with un-useful things, his idea is to simplify the interface. He says that using relevant mediums to translate information in a way that can be understood across cultures will ultimately impact the way humans interact with  the information presented in front of them. I also Agree with this statement, he goes on to further talk about changing things in a certain way but not drastically changing the aesthetics this makes since because when it is used across a wide range of mediums you need some type of consistency or people are going to get confused; he says its important to not disregard the unity of a design for this purpose. Miguel talks a lot about the different design principles of other countries like London and Tokyo as well talking about the new design aesthetics that they are implementing where things like readability, usability, and simplicity are there main focus. The overall message is that you need to know what, and who you are designing for. The group he is talking about encompasses a large demographic so you need to compare it to the larger whole. When comparing it to the larger whole you need to remember and understand the basic design principles that have been shown to work and implement them with the right medium so it makes sense to the users and  then allows for the bridging of the aesthetic and information.

This was a very interesting read but I felt like a lot of it was things that I already kind of knew he was just applying it to an idea that I never really thought of before. I guess it make me question what a thesis is, is it coming up with a whole new idea entirely, is it a creation of ideas with your own turn on it, or is it just an application to the knowledge you have learned in school and applying it to work with something never thought of before?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1683194/ais_classes/portfolio_pres/12su/thesis/solorio_miguel_thesis.pd

Project Two Refined

For project two I would like to create a logo for myself that will represent my website, and business card. I want the focus to be on type.  Since I have a web background I have not experienced treating fonts or learning how to create my own own typeface, so for this project I want to create a typeface that is unique to me to be the logo. I will be looking through fonts and learning how to manipulate them so they convey the message that I want, or that I feel represent myself the best.

Project 2 prem proposal and Schedule

Project 2 Proposal

I would like to create my own type, it's something that I have always wanted to do but because I was not in the graphic design program I never learned how, this project I will be able to apply to my logo for my website and business cards. A lot of my time will be spent in the research phase and understanding  the emotional feel behind type itself.

P2 Schedule

week 3 research/ sketches a-l, m-t, u-z
week 4 first draft/ ask people what they think
week 5 revisions
week 6 second draft
week 7 ask faculty for suggestions
week 8 present project

Unit 2 how people read

Reading 2 responses

How people read

80% of people can read worldwide because of that it is a primary form of communication for most individuals. This chapter talks about how those 80 percent.

early on designers would say that reading uppercase letters is harder than reading lower case letters , this is a myth; that for a long time I myself was taught to believe. In reality people perceive all capitals as shouting and they are not used to reading them (thus they read them slower), and because of that we should use them sparingly and in the right context. A good place to use capital letters is for headings and when you need to get someone's attention, or if something is important.

Reading and comprehending are two different things you can read an example in a biology book for instance and read it fine but not actually understand the words or meaning. New words that are not commonly used are assimilated better if used in existing cognitive structures. An example of this is a sonnet by Shakespeare.

From off a hill whose concave womb reworded
A plaintful story from a sist'ring vale,
My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale,
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings atwain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.
Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage
Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age.

Reading is all about interpenetrating the next word so the words can be scrambled but we can still pick up on them, this means when we read we don't absorb exact letters and words and interperate them later.

Titles and headlines are critical you sort the titles into like categories like color, texture, or type: so make sure you provide a meaning title or headline. But providing a meaning headline or title you are reinforcing what the reader just read. Make sure you are also tailoring to the reading level of you audience. You can do this by using simple words and fewer syllables to make your material accessible to a wider audience.

Pattern recognition helps people identify letters in different fonts. if the font is hard to read the meaning of the text will be lost. Serif and San Serif fonts are equal in terms of readability. Stay away from decorative fonts because they lose pattern recognition and make the reader read slower, it can also deter people from reading it all together. Along the lines of readability choose a point size that is large enough for people of various ages to read comfortably, and even a larger one if it is intended for the computer to minimize eye strain. People also don't like to read text on a page, and sometimes it can be looked at as overwhelming. imagine yourself as a child and when you picked up a book you wanted to see lots of pictures if all you say was text it was probably a big possibility that you put it down. We are all little kids at heart we want something that provides interest and we want something to pull us into the reading this can be done through breaking text up, using bullets, short paragraphs and pictures. provide high contrast between foreground and background  black text on a white background is more readable.

another rule of thumb is line length. People read faster with a longer line length, but they prefer shorter ones. it is suggested when using a shorter line length to have it approximately 100 characters per line. and to have a shorter line length of 45 to 72 characters per line if reading speed is less critical. for multiple page articles use a few columns with shorter line lengths.

I really find it interesting when I have been told something for so long and then hear a different persons opinion or statistic on that subject that differs from mine. Everything that the author says about readability makes since (that might have differed from my original theory), I think after reading this what I came away with it was that I should always question everything, because what the first person says isn't always the right thing.

Thesis Response 1

 The first thesis I looked at was by Cassie Bales on museums. She talks about how museums have become part of our international culture do to the access of the Internet. People used to travel all over the world to see pieces of art and now you can sit at home on the comfort of your couch and look at a museum far away through the use of these websites, virtual museums, and virtual exhibitions.

Because of the technology boom museums have changed up there mission on the ways that they collect preserve and display information. Intangible content is now being collected and put into museums this is the start of a new decade that is starting with collection management systems and working towards multimedia interactive exhibition systems. Cassia talks about how they are trying to keep up with societies needs but they are still very far behind but they are making progress.

She goes onto talk about the ways museums have used websites, virtual museums and virtual exhibitions to reach people from all over and the conclusion was that when a system merges it disconnects the sense of the real world and connects them with a virtual one. When entering this world the main sense that is used is sight, you dont experience the smells or the sounds you might hear when going to a museum in person but that is not always applicable or financial available when you are on the other side of the world. The draw back to these new innovations don’t always come cheap and because of the limited funds that the museum has its up to that factor to see if they will be able to keep up with the rapid changing world at hand.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1683194/ais_classes/portfolio_pres/12fa/thesis/bales_cassie_thesis.pdf

Thesis Response 2

The second thesis I read was by  Kayano Takuzato her title was what first intregread me to read it, it was called, American as Sake and Apple Pie.

The thesis itself was about  the transfer of culturally dependent products to international markets. Her topic for this was sake, an alchoholic beverage from japan. She used sake as an example because it is a product that is available in western cultural but it is just brought here as a product the culture isnt shipped with it, so it is limited to people who are interested in japanese cuisine traditions. It is hard to transfer a culturally based product the a different market that does not practice the same cultures. Many times the product is used or interpreted incorrectly and in that it kind of creates a new brand entirely with the mix of both places. She goes on to talk about the traditions of how to use the sake at a traditional cuasine. She compares the way that some places market and uses the example of wine. Wine in America has a label that has information that focus on the grape variety, europe focuses on where the wine comes from.  So depending on where you are coming from there are different things culturely that people find important so it is hard to decide how you want your product to be conveyed because everyone finds something else important.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1683194/ais_classes/portfolio_pres/12su/thesis/tokuzato_kayano_thesis.pdf

Unit 1 - How People See

In this chapter the author Susan Weinschenk talks about how we see. She talks about the brain as being a powerful thing that gets a different message than what your eyes sometimes show you. your brain is constantly interpreting everything. your brain sees what it wants to see and creates shortcuts to quickly make sense of a situation; a good example of these are optical illusions, or particular illusions that the author used in the book called Kanizsa Triangle.

Optical illusions- the brains misinterpretation of what the eyes see these lines are all the same size but they dont look like it. 

   

                  

                        

 Kaniza Triangle

Your mind uses rules of thumb from past experiences, and because of this you can use certain things like shapes and colors to influence people to see things in a certain way depending on how you present them.

Peripheral vision is another thing the brain uses, it is just as, if not, more important than the central vision in getting the gist of what we are seeing. Our central vision is good for focusing in on something but our peripheral is good when seeing the whole picture. We get information on what type of scenes we are looking at through our Peripheral. Peripheral vision is also very sensitive to movement and thats why a lot of advertisers have blinking lights on their adds this can also be distracting for a viewer if you are trying to have them focus on a certain area. Peripheral vision is used to scan a web page and decide what its about, so although the central vision is important for your website don't ignore  the viewers peripheral. 

People also identify things they see as patterns its how we read (through recognition) and when we group things. Because we as humans are looking for patterns subconsciously it is important to design in patterns because that is what they will already be expecting, anything else will start to feel uncomfortable. Simplify images can also make things more recognizable and making them 2d instead of 3d  will avoid slowing down the recognition and comprehension process.

There is a special part of the brain that recognizes shapes and objects, and there is another area of the brain that recognizes faces. An example that the book used was, when you are walking through a crowd of people and see someone that you know. You automatically recognize them even though you were not expecting to see them this is usually followed by an emotion. Using faces is a very strong technique when you see someone looking at something in a magazine your eye tends to follow what they are looking at, its a way of showing direction when navigating ones eye. The lady below is looking in the direction of the burger so your eye automatically goes there before it goes to the apple.

The next thing the author talks about is how people scan screens based on past experience and expectations. Where the person looks first and then next depends on what they are looking for and where they are coming from. If you are from the US it tends to be that you navigate from left to right, the same direction in which you read, for china it would be different and so on. For this reason it is important to put the most important things you want people to focus on in top third of the screen or in the middle. Also avoid putting anything important at the edges because people tend to not look their, and the last thing is to avoid patterns where people have to bounce back and fourth to look at the page stick to the left to right or right to left direction depending on your normal reading pattern.

Another way we see are in the form of cues that tell us what to do with an object. These cues are called affordances. They are things like doorknob that you know to turn or handles on a cup that let you know how to grab it and pick it up. To design affordances  wether it is real or on the web you need to make sure its easily perceivable, you can figure it out, and interpret what the object is and what they can do with it. By giving people cues about what they can do with an object it makes it more likely that they will take that action, you can do this by adding shading.

Another thing the author talks about is how people believe that things that are close together belong together so if you want something to connect to something else put it close in proximity. you don't need to separate items by lines  or boxes if you experiment with the proximity. Put more space between items that don't go together and less space between those that do.

There have been studies showing that red and blue when put together are hard on the eyes. So it is a rule of thumb to avoid blue and red, or green and red near each other on a page or screen. Adding to the conversation of color, the author talked about how nine percent of men and one half percent of women are color blind so when you design you need to know what your design may look like to different people. If you want to know what your website  looks to those that may be color blind you can go to www.vischeck.com or colorfilter.wickline.org. avoid red green in yellow for emphasizing a meaning. the last thing the author talks about is the meaning of colors in different cultures. Certain colors evoke certain meanings so choose colors carefully example red means negative green means positive in terms of money (just one example). This is important to know what different colors mean in different cultures because they change there meaning. To learn more about colors in other countries go to informationlsbeautiful.net this can avoid unintended color associations for that culture. 

Project 1 Proposal

For project one I would like the create a smartphone app that works for produce shoppers, the target market will be people that enjoy fresh produce (average age ranging between 18-70). The app is being purchased through Trader Joe's and will only be available at those particular locations. What the app will do is as you shop and add things to your cart you will be able to scan the phone next to the  fresh produce to get information about it. As you swipe the  information that will appear is where the produce came from, when it was picked the nutritional value of the product, and the expiration date. Once you are done shopping and buy these items they will be stored in the apps " refrigerator " this will work sort of like a calendar that keeps track of how long the product will be good for and will automatically send out reminders when it gets close to the due dates. Along with the reminders there will also be suggestions on what type of recipies you can use for that particular product.

This is my blog for Senior Design Studio winter quarter 2013. In this class I will be talking about the book we are reading  by Susan Weinschenk 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, and I will also be talking about my three projects I will be creating in this class.