Day one of the MA begins.
I thought I would start as I mean, or hope, to carry on! Plus I need to write…it can be an area of weakness for me, and there is no way I am letting it let me down!
My brain hurts with so many ideas, thoughts, concerns, excitement about my practise. I know what I want to study but just don’t know how and to what detail. So prepare for a brain dump on what I am thinking right now!
I want to look at the psychology of how people use the web. How people see things and interact with things, on the web. How the design of the web can influence what people do, the decisions people make, persuade people to see/do things in how we design the web.
Our brains create shortcuts in order to try and quickly make sense out of the world around us. In relation to the web, you need to grab the customer before they get frustrated, can’t find what they are looking for, or get distracted and go elsewhere. How can this be done successfully?
I work in ecommerce, and have done for 6 years. Day in day out questions are raised. Is model imagery better, or flat shots? Should this button be green or orange? Should there be a key line round this box or should it be open? The questions are endless, but the same answer comes round. “Lets see how others do it and do it that way!” “That must be right if they do it!” How do we know that is right, have we tried and tested it? This is what I want to do. Break all rules, try the extremes, and find out some answers with evidence to support it.
I want to look at colours and if this effects decisions and choices that people make. How language used has impact. How speed, efficiency and convenience accounts for so much or so little. Can peoples recommendations really influence decisions…even from people you don’t know! I want to research what our eyes see may not be what the brain sees. Look at how shapes put together can be interpreted in different ways by different people. How you can evoke emotions through imagery, colours, language. Just showing that everyone can see things differently or are we all programmed the same.
Looking around for research I have come across some great reads, be it that it may not be helping me refine my practise but still very interesting! Such are: 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph. D. I have also been looking at The Framing Effect: Infuence Your Audience By Setting The Context by Steven Bradley found on www.vanseodesign.com, which talks about how your design sets a mood, creates the emotion and puts the audience in the right frame of mind to absorb your message…”your visuals set the context for the message.” This is what I want to achieve following my research and experiments.
From todays tutorial I realise I need to begin by looking at technology, who has access to it and interacts with it. I need to stop and think…what is the internet used for. If I start from the top here and work from there I hope to refine the path I want to take in my practise. Days are yet young so its still early days. I have time to work this all out, the main thing is I have ideas, I am extremely enthusiastic and excited about this course and I love what I am doing therefore it will all pan out. I hope!
