The Design Proposal: How can the design for the web influence and create trust for the audience who use it?
This investigation will consider how design for web-based communication can influence and create trust for the audience who use it. It shall take apart key components that make up the web, gathering supporting knowledge to challenge how it is designed.
Relevant literature compares experiments conducted in 1955, far before the Internet existed. The problem is that these theories practitioners discuss have been conducted outside of the digital realm. This investigation will see if these, and similar experiments, bring back similar results when taken in to the design of interactivity of the Web.
Design takes many artefacts of science and humanities. Cognitive psychology and the psychology of the Internet can be considered. Susan M. Weinschenk (2009, 2011) is a key psychologist who focuses her practice on the design of technology and she has a wealth of knowledge in human behaviour. This investigation shall see if such cases are supported in design for the web when in the digital environment and interactivity. Such experiments highlighted by Weinschenk have already been conducted to understand the human mind. This investigation will work on how these existing ideas and Solomon Asch – Conformity, the Framing Effect, Gestalt Theory and other theories, would apply to the web and if behaviour changes.
Research within history of graphic design shows that it is the visual that creates meaning, as Nicholas Mirzoeff (1999, 2002, 2009) states in his books. The advancement of technology has opened up new possibilities visually and looking at how communication has changed will help this investigation manifest. Mirzoeff explains further that the audience create the meaning of signs and images. Therefore as designers can we influence what these meanings are by how we design the web? The ‘Framing Effect’ discovered by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (1981) discusses how presenting things using a frame can control and influence how and what people see. As discussed by S.M, Weinschenk (2009, 2011) the Gestalt Theory also looks at the visual and how placement can impact the viewers’ decisions and movement throughout the web.
To embrace these examples and assist in the investigation this experiment shall present a series of visuals, placed in a sequential form to ensure there is a predefine route and flow supported by research. This shall show if people follow the route provided and what would happen when presented with unfamiliar or familiar visual elements, or story. If people expect a particular result, what happens if it changes causing questioning, how does this alter the outcome?
Data gathered from online, public experiments should show where people react most or do not react at all, what evokes emotions, reactions and cause people to interact with that particular image, graphic, icon and others. The aim of this practice is to redefine already existing research and also to assist in getting people to consider whether to think of the Internet as a different world for human interaction and therefore treating the design of the Web differently to conventional design. This discovery shall be interesting and evolve further studies, giving a better indication of areas to investigate.
Design Proposal 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). New Jersey, 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.
Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing Interactions. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, UK: The MIT Press.
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.
