Avoiding Design Problems: Difference between revisions

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| When there are embellishments, such as arrowheads, this distractability is enhanced, and we create perceived shapes between the lines. Someone might believe that a second arrow here merely enforces the meaning, when actually this pair becomes a distraction and creates visual elements that were not intended.
| When there are embellishments, such as arrowheads, this distractability is enhanced, and we create perceived shapes between the lines. Someone might believe that a second arrow here merely enforces the meaning, when actually this pair becomes a distraction and creates visual elements that were not intended.
| [[Image:Twoarrows.png]]
| [[Image:Twoarrows.png]]
|-
| To see the effect magnified, look at this set of lines. Imagine someone using this as a border around another object. There is almost a perceptual vibration this pattern creates, and in case you think this relates to viewing this on a monitor, print something like this on paper and you will see the same effect.
| [[Image:Jaggedlines.png]]


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===Photo Montage Example===

Revision as of 01:46, 9 October 2007

There are many design problems which can occur, some of which involve a matter of style, color choices, placement of elements in a pleasing way, but what will be discussed here are things that have to do with visual perception.

Design and layout can have quite a range of appearance, depending on the purpose of the document, poster, or presentation you might be working on. In some cases, a goal is first of all to attract attention to your design, but even then, once you have that attention, you want to convey some information or meaning. Certain elements can either guide the eye to the important portion or maybe even guide the eye along a certain path. What you don't want to do is have non-informational elements blocking eye flow or causing the eye to keep returning to non-information.

Problems with Lines

Twolines.png Look at this pair of lines. Regardless of the angle of orientation, the brain reacts very strongly to the edges, especially when there is a sharp contrast, in this case black to white and black again. What you may also notice is that it's hard to block out these lines as you read this text, and that your eyes keep getting drawn back to them. The information is here in the text, the lines are a prop, yet they command your attention.
This is why in many cases, in Wikis for example, it is recommended to be very sparing in the use of horizontal lines -- they impede eye flow.

The other thing to notice above is that while there are two black lines drawn on the white background, the positioning creates what has been termed a '1 + 1 = 3 effect', so that what you perceive is two black lines, with a third white line created by the boundaries of the black lines.

When there are embellishments, such as arrowheads, this distractability is enhanced, and we create perceived shapes between the lines. Someone might believe that a second arrow here merely enforces the meaning, when actually this pair becomes a distraction and creates visual elements that were not intended. Twoarrows.png
To see the effect magnified, look at this set of lines. Imagine someone using this as a border around another object. There is almost a perceptual vibration this pattern creates, and in case you think this relates to viewing this on a monitor, print something like this on paper and you will see the same effect. Jaggedlines.png

Photo Montage Example