Component 1: The Literature Search
In my practice I am interested in answering how the design of the web can influence and create trust for the audience who use it. There are many resources on user experience and accessibility however I have found there to be no in depth research in to the user within the digital environment. Many refer to past cognitive/behavioural experiments conducted many years prior to the existence of the web. I want to investigate in more detail the design of the web, to get more specific research on how to influence and create trust by the way we design in the digital era. I am interested in understanding how images, words, sounds, video and others alike, are key to the user as they interact with the computer.
To successfully achieve and understand this I shall carry out research into the areas of history of graphic design and how communication has changed following the creation of the Internet. I will also investigate visual culture and the practises of seeing, looking and interpreting. In order to support this I will consider the discipline of cognitive psychology and how peoples’ minds work when presented with images, words and other visual elements for influence and persuasion.
I think it is key to understand how graphic design has shifted through the years to draw upon the changes that have happened within design and communication and ask the question should we be treating the design for the web differently than traditional design? If so, how and why?
Investigating the history of design will allow a better understanding of how the advancement of design has opened up new visual possibilities. The digital era has now meant faster production of pieces of work, with the opportunity to cut, copy, paste, delete at a press or click of a button as opposed to traditional methods, whereby changes could potentially involved reproducing the piece again from scratch. Like me many web designers come from a graphic design/print background, where working on a canvas of varying sizes allows a greater scope for creativity. At present the web designer is now faced with many limitations such as the browser window size and limited fonts. Designers of the digital era have to work within the confines of what is provided within the menu and the palette supplied by the program. But we must not forget print designers too have constraints to work within such as the printer rollers and grippers. This shows that limitations have always existed. Design is not just about the canvas. It is how, as designers, we use the tools we have and the importance of understanding the mind of the onlooker to communicate successfully.
J Drucker and E McVarish (2009) suggest that, graphic design “…initially meant manipulating type, vector graphics, and pixel-based images in the display space of an application. But interactivity itself soon became a focus of design, a focus that required attention to user scenarios and behaviours.” (p.329). This observation by Drucker and McVarish has influenced my research greatly; this has become a key text in my investigation.
Traditionally graphic design was about making the subject matter visually attractive, eye catching, head turning. The original intention of the Internet was to communicate information. It was never intended for visual purposes but this soon changed. Design has now become more than communication of the image it is about the positioning and sharing of information. Graphic design is now referred to as information design, the passing on of messages through use of visual elements. Many researcher including J Drucker and E McVarnish (2009) and also R Hollis (1994) discuss this change, as we rely more on images to communicate with one another.
Communication used to be about the object and its location, for example the television. At least one sits in every home, and it communicates messages to us however we cannot do so back. Since the boom of the World Wide Web communication is now multidirectional such as by email, websites, instant messaging, video calling and many more. By this we communicate and interact with each other as discussed by M Sturken and L Cartwright (2001). It has become a global form of transferring information from one to another no matter the location or time.
By understanding this area I hope it shall give me a better insight to know how to position, design and present things, to communicate to the best and therefore influencing the audience resulting in the desired outcome from the design. The question I want to answer is should we be thinking of the Internet and treating it as a different visual space?
Nicholas Mirzoeff (1999, 2000, 2002, 2009) is a key voice within visual culture and I am interested in pursuing his texts in more detail. He writes about creating meaning with the visual and how we in society create meanings by interpreting what we see. I intend to research and understand his practice further and apply similar theories to my practice. I am interested in understanding how presenting something in a particular way creates the meaning/purpose however what would happen if you took that away? Or that particular way changed and was presented in a different environment…does the meaning remain? By doing this I shall become aware of what it is that humans engage more with, and what it takes to influences the audience. Mirzoeff continues to explore that with the creation of the computer the visual possibilities are far greater.
On my initial search it has become clear that there are many texts relating to user experience and interactivity comparing experiments conducted as early as 1955 far before the Internet appeared. Susan M. Weinschenk (2009, 2011) a well-known psychologist focuses her practice on the design of technology. She refers to how the user best interacts and navigates the website in relation to past cognitive/behavioural experiments from other famous psychologists that have been done many years ago. The problem is that these theories are not true to the area they are trying to investigate. The research and experiments they discuss have been conducted outside of the digital realm, so is it possible to support their claims when it is used in such a different environment? I will investigate similar other experiments conducted by key psychologists for example Solomon Asch (1990, 1997) and conformity, and the Gestalt Theory also investigated by Weinschenk. Would the results change when taken in to the design of interactivity of the web?
Links to my Practice
To pull together my practice I shall be looking at techniques including sequential art as researched by S McCloud (1993). He discusses sequential art in the form of comics and how pictorial and other images placed in a thought out sequence can share information and in addition produce a response from the viewer. I would like to take this theory and explore it within my practice and I believe this will enable me to create similar sequences, to ensure there is a route and flow, and encourage a response from the viewer who interacts with it. J Drucker (1994, 2004) also discusses sequential form in relation to the book as a sequence and discusses how “…sequence participates in the distribution of elements into an organized system where location helps to provide access.” She continues to look at the movement of left to right and how this “…can be relied upon unless there are instructions (or obstructions) which disrupt the readers’ expectations.” This shall be a good resource for further investigation within my practice, on the impact of the positioning and placement of elements on the canvas that is the web page and how this has an effect on the user.
I would like to investigate further the opportunities drawn upon in my research of the change of graphic design and if this could have an impact on how the user interacts. To highlight as an example, M Sturken and L Cartwright (2001) discuss in their texts how there are many forms of communication appearing in recent years. I would like to investigate if these various form of communications such as images, words, audio, video and so on, have different influences on the user and their trust?
My aim within all these key areas is to draw upon history not only within graphic design but also in visual culture and cognitive psychology. I shall continue to research and draw upon the information, investigation and evidential work being done today within the digital environment but still drawing upon the theories of human behaviour in everyday environments and seeing if this still stands true when placed in to interactivity of the web. With this detailed research, I hope to pull together enough supporting knowledge and evidence, gained from my own practice, to confidently answer if the design of the web can influence and create trust for the audience who use it and if the way we design it should be different to that of traditional, conventional design.
Literature Search Bibliography
Behrens, R. R. (1998). Art, Design and Gestalt Theory. Leonardo 31(4), 299-303
Bradley, S. (2010). The Framing Effect: Influence Your Audience By Setting The Context. Retrieved from http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/framing-expectation-exposure-effect/
Drucker, J. (1994, 2004). The Book as Sequence: Narrative and Non-Narrative. The Century of Artists’ Books. New York, NY: Granary Books.
Drucker, J., & McVarnish, E. (2009). Digital design after the 1970s. Graphic Design History. A Critical Guide (pp. 323-339). United States of America: Pearson Education
Gleitman, H., Rozin, P., & Sabini, J. (1997). Solomon E. Asch (1907–1996): Obituary, 52(9), 984-985.
Hollis, R. (2001). From 1990 to the New Millennium. After Modernism: The End of Design? Graphic Design. A Concise History. (pp.216-223). London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Hollis, R. (2001). The 1970s and 1980s. New Waves: Electronic Technology. Graphic Design. A Concise History. (pp.186-215). London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Joinson, A. N. (2003). Understanding the Psychology of Internet Behaviour. Virtual Worlds, Real Lives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
Lindgaard, G., Fernandes, G., Dudek, C., & Brown, J. (2006). Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression! Behaviour and Information Technology, 25(2), 115-126.
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. United States of America: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Meggs, P. (1998). The Digital Revolution. A History of Graphic Design (pp. 455-475). United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mirzoeff, N. (1999). Introduction. What is visual culture? An Introduction to Visual Culture. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2002). The Visual Culture Reader. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2009). An Introduction to Visual Culture. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Oh, H., & Price, J. (2012). How do storefront window displays influence entering decisions of clothing stores? Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 19(1), 27-35.
Rock, I. (1990). The Legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays in Cognition and Social Psychology. Hillsdale NJ: Psychology Press.
Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001) The Internet: global village or multinational corporate marketplace? Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press Ltd.
Wallace, P. (1999). The Psychology of the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Weinschenk, S. M. (2009). Neuro Web Design. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Weinschenk, S. M. (2011). 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
