Activity 3.3 – Visual Design

Exploring Visual Design

“At the beginning of a project, the screen is a blank canvas, ready for you, the multimedia designer, to express your craft. The screen will change again and again during the course of your project as you experiment, as you stretch and reshape elements, draw new objects and throw out old ones, and test various colors and effects – creating a vehicle for your message…many multimedia designers are known to experience a mild shiver when they pull down the New… menu and draw their first colors onto a fresh screen…this screen represents a powerful and seductive avenue for channelling creativity.”

Tay Vaughan, 1998

Visual design takes the composite of elements: text, symbols, photos, colours, video, in fact any graphic element and much more, to communicate your message – it is your primary connection with the learner.

Visual design is the process of producing visual images that are able to communicate information to other people.

Visual images are made up of lines, colours, textures, tones, hues and shapes applied in a spatial composition. We are surrounded by visual images in our everyday lives. Each visual image is trying to tell us something.

To produce images that people understand, you need to consider the following:

1. What message are you trying to communicate?

2. What audience are you trying to communicate with?

3. What is the best way to visually communicate that message?

4. What are the elements and tools necessary to produce the visual image?

Understanding Perception

When you look at a visual image you see lines, shapes, colours, tones, hues and objects in a spatial dimension.

The eye collects visual information from these images and objects and this information is transmitted to the brain. The brain interprets and constructs meaning from this visual information.

To design visual images that are meaningful to an audience you need to understand the way your audience actually sees. That is, how does the eye collect visual information and how does the brain interpret it? This line of inquiry is called the science of perception.

Discovering the way the eye works will help you understand how visual elements function in visual design.

Understanding Visual Communication

No two people ever see the same thing quite the same way. Cultural differences, the level of acquired knowledge, an individual’s psychology and socialisation will all affect the way we construct meaning from a visual image.

Physiology can also affect the way a person sees. The eye itself can have defects in the retina lens or suffer from colour blindness. The brain can also have its own problems that affect perception such as brain dysfunction, and alcohol and drugs.

To cater for these differences in perception you need to construct a clear, unambiguous image and know your audience well enough to construct visual images that they will easily recognise and comprehend. For example, a road sign needs to communicate its message to a wide audience instantaneously.

Review the image below:

The image above plays tricks on your mind. At first glance i can count five legs but then I know that an elephant only has four legs but when I concentrate on the image I can’t make out four clearly defined legs. I think if you were to ask different people the numbers may vary. In relation to visual design, the slightest markings can make a difference to how the image turns out. We see the role that lines can play in conveying different elements of the image and how it can change perception.

Visual hierarchy

Read: About Page Design and Visual Hierarchy from the Webstyle Guide http://www.webstyleguide.com/page/index.html

How would visual hierarchy influence learners?

The way in which visual hierarchy influences learners is by directing the learners eyes through the page. Page layout, typography and illustration are used to emphasize particular content or to draw attention to this content. Visual hierarchy essentially describes the visual elements that stand out the most in comparison to those which are not as predominant. Thus in regards to the learner, having specific content highlighted will emphasize its importance to what they are learning and will also aid them in remembering content.