Tuesday, 1 September

Week 2: Logos and Layout 

Room Map for Sections and Their Mentors

Please sit in the area of your room assigned to your mentor

 
More Bad Design

Grading Clarification

Professionalism and Participation counts for 10% of your total grade.

Currently there are three items in that category -- the three reflection papers -- which at this point would count 3.3% of your final grade.

However there will be a number of other items, e.g. in-class writing exercises, etc., added over the course of the semester. If, for example, there were 10 total items, then each would count 1% of your final grade.


Feedback from Initial Reflection Papers, students are:

• Looking forward to working in teams.
• Looking for the connection between design and tech.
• In some cases, thinking HCI/d is only about making websites and apps.
• Have a very basic idea of HCI/d and are interested in learning more.
• Feel they can become better 'artists' through this class.
• Since most of them are software developers, they think knowing how to design will also give them an edge.
• Many students have a background in business and programming, we are interested in becoming a system analyst and product management.  
• Some are hoping this course could help them make decision about whether they want to pursuit HCI/d in their college career
• Anticipating roles as  programmers, designers, business analysists, researchers, and system analysists.

Review of Reading for Today -- we will have a quiz on these this week

What is UXD? Give an example, from your own experience, of a good and bad example. Describe why in each case.

User experience design (UXD or UED) is a user-centered approach for designing user’s overall experience of interacting with a product. It emphasizes the quality of user’s experience and user’s satisfaction of the interaction by evaluating criteria like usability, accessibility and pleasure.

[Students' examples?]

 What is "layout" and what is its purpose?

  Layout refers to the schematic arrangement of a document’s graphic elements. It establishes the overall appearance, importance levels of elements, and relationships between different elements.

The purpose of layout is to make the document (e.g. web page, book, magazine article) visually pleasing, to achieve an effective and comfortable attention flow of user; to make the content easier for user to understand; to emphasize importance and limit distraction

 What is the primary difference between layouts in print and those in electronic media?

1. Content in electronic media are more complicated than in print media – in print page, there are text and pictures; in electronic media, there are also links, videos, and icons that representing varying possible commands. 
2. Electronic media are more interactive than paper media – the layout of electronic media could change based on user's interaction with it. It could rescale, minimize, rotate, or change the order of elements. The layout in paper media is static and a singular task. 
3. Layouts for electronic media might need to be flexible for multiple devices – the layout design for electronic devices should take consideration of the capabilities of display equipment.

What is the primary tool or organizing principle commonly used in designing layouts?

Grids.

From Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think:

What is "responsive design"?

Responsive design means creating pages that could respond and adapt to their environment and user's behavior based on display size, the capacity of a device, orientation, and platform.

What is "typography? What is its significance? Cite an example of typography that you find particularly pleasing.

Typography is the art of arranging, selecting, and combining type in order to make written language organized, appealing and conveying certain characteristics when display. It is important for creating a visual hierarchy and organization, possessing a distinctive personality, as well as creating emotional responses.

[Students' examples?]

What, according to the textbook, are some of the advantages of incorporating images into a presentation?

1. Images can be visual aids to assist memory and understanding;
2. Reading experience with images is more intuitive and less frustrating; 
3. Images can help presenter to catch audience’s attention; 
4. A constant format of images helps the audience to anticipate what lies ahead.

Paul Rand Video on the Principles of Design

Sketchnoting

This is a topic we won't be addressing explicitly in this course but if you would like to attend a workshop on this topic with my colleague Omar Sosa please let your Mentor know via email.

Click here for PDF of full presentation

www.sketchnotearmy.com

How are you getting on with your logotype designs?

1. Have you identified precedents?
2. Have you experimented with iterations based on those precedents?

Reminder: Mini-Project 1 due on Wednesday, 2 September at 11:59 pm

In-class comparison with neighbor of logotype designs

Final Review of Mini-Project 1 Brief


Homework for Wednesday, 2 September at 11:59 pm through Canvas:

• Complete Mini-Project : Logotype Design exercise