Visual trickery!
Powers of Ten
Report Assignment 1
Progress Assignment 2
First peek at our final concept
Circular designs
Symbol development
Concept development
Research results
Last adaptations
Process report published
February 17, 2011
Kick-off!
By Joris van Kruyssen
Hi everyone!
Welcome to our blog. With this blog we’ll keep you up to date about our progress in
the IDE course Visual Communication Design.
For the first assignment we have to analyse four pictures, using the book Visual
Thinking for Design by Colin Ware. The results will be disclosed in a report of
approximately 12 pages.
If you have any questions or remarks please don’t hesitate to contact us!
Larissa
Lisa
Stijn
& Joris
February 21, 2011
Visual trickery!
By stijnjanmaat
Hi all,
We found a cool clip of an optical illusion on the net. This illustrates how eager your
mind is to fill in unknown factors in a visual.
A similar artwork is displayed in the Escher museum in The Hague, so if you TU Delft
students want to see how your 2,5D visual ability is fooled: check it out!
Group U
March 10th, 2011 at 10:17 am | edit
Powers of Ten
By stijnjanmaat
I looked up the movie mentioned in Chapter 5 in the book Visual Thinking for Design
by Colin Ware. It’s a beautiful clip made by the Eames office about zoom levels and
how fast you can go from the largest imaginable to the smallest in seconds.
March 1, 2011
Report Assignment 1
By Joris van Kruyssen
Hi all!
Progress Assignment 2
By Joris van Kruyssen
Hi all!
We’ve been working on assignment 2 for a while now. To get some insights into our
process you can check out our concept presentation page.
What direction would you walk when you see this stripped version of the map? You
can leave your answer in the comments!
VCD group N
March 31st, 2011 at 10:58 am | edit
I think this concept works very well, you walk with the reading direction.
o stijnjanmaat
March 31st, 2011 at 11:26 am | edit
Circular designs
By stijnjanmaat
Hi all,
To inspire our map designs we searched for some inspiring circular designs.
These examples also have a feeling of movement and direction. We will get back to
your soon with our final concept!
Symbol development
By stijnjanmaat
At the moment we are working on symbol development. Since no extra text is used,
the facilities important to the tourist have to be communicated non-textually.
This is a preview of the icons we have at the moment. Can you name all the
categories? Please leave a message in the comments if something is not clear!
See ya!
VCD group N
March 31st, 2011 at 10:56 am | edit
but i have to admit i had to look for a little while before i reconized the movie one and i’m not
sure which catergory the one above is. a square?
Do you think it is wise to tell people what is where? will you not direct the people to what the
prefer to do (shopping/culture?) we have encounterd this problem our selfes. We used pictures
and somepoeople ignore all visual cues and really look into the content of what to do. So we
tried to not really make clear if you could go shopping or go to cultural things. It is just a tip
o stijnjanmaat
March 31st, 2011 at 11:06 am | edit
The square icon is representing a painting, soa museum. I admit it could be clearer.
Thanks for the tip!
About your other comment, you shouldn’t make too clear the direction you’re taking is
culture of shopping right? We just point out what is to do where, it is not a true
directional cue.
VCD group U
March 31st, 2011 at 11:28 am | edit
I really like your symbols, nice detail that they are shaped as the things you can do there, like
look at pictures or take the train. The contrast between the white background and the yellow
train makes it quite hard to see it. Also the yellow for the train is brighter than the other colours
you have chosen, and seems a bit different than the others. Is this done with purpose? (nice
overall choise of colours btw, they create a whole even though they’re different). Agree with
group N about the movie-symbol, but the meaning of the painting was clear to me.
teamdryeyes
March 31st, 2011 at 1:13 pm | edit
Hi Visualisers! Very nice styling of the labels indeed, although the clarity may not be totally
clear for the movies and the person……..the person doesn’t ring a bell so far.
[...] this we came up with some icons to simplify the specific buildings and color coded
them. That time the phase of brainstorming about [...]
April 2, 2011
Concept development
By stijnjanmaat
We developed icons and color coded them. Then the group went
their way and tried some implementations of the theory from
Visual Thinking for Design:
Thanks!
The Visualisers
April 5, 2011
Research results
By stijnjanmaat
We tested our final prototype in Amsterdam and below are the results.
Yes – 17
No – 3
Yes – 14
No – 6
Writing direction – 7
Use of Color – 10
Bold letters – 6
This is the conclusion of our research. With these results, and especially the
Differences the users indicated, we made a redesign again.
Cheers!
The Visualisers
April 7, 2011
Last adaptations
By stijnjanmaat
This will be one of our last blog posts, at least of Assignment 2. We will get back to
you with our evaluation of the use of this medium: blogging.
Greetings,
The Visualisers
April 7, 2011
Dear readers,
Cheers,
The Visualisers
Intermediate concept
presentation
Check out our two concepts! Both concepts have two routes: the K route is the
cultural route and the P route is the shopping route.
Concept 1 – Route K
Concept 1 – Route P
Concept 2 – Route K
Concept 2 – Route P
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Here are some interesting examples of simplified maps with well-known landmarks.
Always good for a bit of inspiration!
__________________________________________________________
To get a clear overview of the route of assignment 2 we highlighted the streets that
are involved.
Group U
March 14th, 2011 at 11:27 pm | edit
Hello visualisers!
Your blog looks interesting. The inspiration-part is nice!
I took a look at your concepts and I like the fact that they are totally different.
I was wondering if (in the first concept) the people are really going left when they see one map,
and right when they see the other map.
I do think the map for the musea-route is clearly different from the map for the shopping-route.
In the first one, the musea are really popping out and you harly see the shops (only when you
are really looking for them) and in the second one, this is the other way around.
VCD group N
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:04 pm | edit
Hi,
We just looked at your concepts and will give you some comments which will maybe be relevant
for you. By the way how did your presentation went? Got some good feedback? Probably you
also got the comment that you may not use the circle as a guide. Otherwhise this is our first
comment.
Further we think that the two routes of the first concept are too different, probably people will
notice this difference. Besides when people like the shopping route they will still see there are
more shops on the right side of the city. Maybe the discount symbol is not strong enough to
represent shops.
The file of route P of the second concept gives an error so we cannot say much about this.
Probably you need to use a circle in this concept. Furthermore the shopping bag is a more clear
symbol. However also in this concept it is to clear were the shopping area and were the cultural
area is, so probably people will go there own way, despite the visual cues.
Good luck with developing the concept and starting with the movie.
vcdgroupn
GroupU
March 27th, 2011 at 1:18 pm | edit
I like the way the routes are abstract and not like a normal map. This way you have a little bit
more freedom and more ways to direct people in a certain way. Maybe a little bit too abstract in
concept 2. Don’t know if users would recognize all the street names. And in concept 1 I find the
differences a bit too much. Think users would see the difference right away between the two
routes. Try to find a right balance . Good luck!
Route P
Route K
In this post we have summarized our process of Assignment 2. All posts in the
category Assignment 2 are to be found here. Here and there are references to other
posts for a more complete image.
Happy reading!
Greetings,
The Visualisers
Starting up
The process started with the theory from the book; Visual Thinking for Design by
Colin Ware. In Assignment 1 the result of this phase can be reviewed. We looked
closely to the chapters as we started Assignment 2.
The assignment started with exploring the map. In Google Maps the route was filled
out and the ‘circle’, what is actually rectangular, was made visible.
K-route
P-route
Choorstraat
Breestraat
Pijnepoort
Bastiaansplein
Kruisstraat
Vrouw Juttenland
After this we came up with some icons to simplify the specific buildings and color
coded them. That time the phase of brainstorming about concepts arrived. We came
up with two different ideas and worked them out in concepts: our intermediate
concepts.
First concept
Route P Route K
Fig. 2 – Concept 1
The starting point of this concept was to recreate the map of Delft by replace the
streets by their names in perspective. This turned out to be very difficult and
unfortunately a lot of small streets have long names; this resulted in unreadable
streets or incorrect ratios.
We let go the perspective and relative ratios, and created a chain of street names. The
perspective of the street names was preserved for a playful effect.
Opacity is widely used to make the object pop out less. Actually it is a less saturated
display of the original object; a mixture of the color of the object and the background.
This causes it to fade to the back. We think this works well as a directional cue.
We made the opacity gradually decrease on the ‘circle’. It starts with bright white and
ends in grey-blue. Also the cultural figures have a decreased opacity, whereas the
shopping bags have not.
We varied the size of the street names to provide direction and the shopping icons
and cultural figures to slightly emphasize the type of route.
Additionally, we indicated the shopping streets by giving the street names a yellowish
color.
Second concept
Route P Route K
Fig. 3 – Concept 2
With the second concept we wanted to use the original map of Delft as a background
on which we created a circle. The circle has different shells. The directional cues we
used in this concept are: Gradient, Color, Shadow andSize.
The gradient indicates the direction in the circle. The gradients move up a piece in
every next shell so the reader will be forced in that direction.
The size of the icons makes sure this type stands out. We also make use
of color difference in the icond. We made the background blue and white: quite
neutral. The icons of the route that should stand out are colored yellow and the ones
that shouldn’t were colored dark blue.
We also attached the shadows to the icons that should pop out. So they have two
cues to pop out extra, yellow and have a drop shadow.
These were the two concepts that were presented in the first presentation.
On the first concept, we got the comment the basis of the design should be a perfect
circle, so we modified the street names into the circle.
The tutors also gave us tips regarding our second concept. He stated that the
difference was too obvious using the yellow and blue icons to let them pop out, this
difference could be more subtle. Another tip was to look at the use of the gradient in
the circle, the comment was that it wasn’t evident enough. The last doubt was about
the use of the map itself.
Then the group went their way and tried some new implementations of the theory
from Visual Thinking for Design.
We first aimed to guide the observer by changing the size of the street names. Size is a
very strong pop out effect.
Additionally, in this phase we discovered the text orientation could be a cue to choose
a direction. We are aware it is not a subject in the book of Colin Ware, but we have
the opinion it definitely influences the perception of the viewer. So we wanted to
implement that feature in our final design to check out if it is true and usable.
1) The user might follow the normal reading pattern of moving down a line every
time. If the user start with Delft CS and then moves to Barbarasteeg, this may direct
them counter clockwise.
Note: This theory is not applicable for Chinese tourists since they sometimes
read/write vertically and read upwards. For the reliability of the concept, this has to
be accounted for.
2) The user might read the side that is easily readable, so the left side first.
Because of this, the map may guide them clockwise.
The next plan was to merge the two concepts with our final concepts, but
we realized that through intermediate steps.
First the next step was testing out our theories concerning the reading direction.
While working on the concepts we asked people in our environment to look at the
concept, ask which way they would take and in this way we tried to find out which
theory is (the most) valid. The short conclusion was that Theory 2 turned out to be
the most true (the outcome was not unanimous). So we embraced this idea and went
further exploring the opportunities of our concept. We implemented the perfect
circle simultaneously with this idea.
At first, the idea was to ‘fill up’ the cicle with words by deformation of the texts (see
Fig. 5 & 6). Later we simplified this to a straight textblocks, to make the overall view
calmer (Fig. 7). We also explored the use of color. We wanted to make the map ‘Delft’-
ish so the color blue should play the leading part (Fig. 6 & 7). We came up with yellow
for shopping and orange/red for the culture route, related to the Delft tourist website.
The background of the final design is also a result to make it more Delftish.
The use of icons is a difficult one. As can be seen in our symbol developmentpost we
tried out all sorts of indicators. We ended up with tabs in the colors of the routes. The
tabs are attached to the applicable streets.
Final Design
Route K Route P
After adding features for some time, we stripped everything down and went back to
the essence (Fig. 8). But after a look at the assignment this left ‘rich information’
untouched, so we added the icons and color coding again (Fig. 9).
Here the two versions of our final design are shown. The presentation page can be
found here.
Route K Route P
Color
In the final design we make use of the added color coding of the icons to the street
names to identify the shopping streets, like used in Fig. 8. Blue colors used in the
create a neutral theme that fits Delft. The yellow and red/orange pop out against this
white and light blue setting.
Contrast
Contrast is used in the icons. Icons are cut, which creates the pop out effect. The
contrast in enhanced by using opacity of the tabs and also the boldness of the street
names. As mentioned above the colors of the tabs also contrast the background.
After finalizing our design we needed to test it. We tested our Final Design (as in Fig.
9) at Amsterdam Central Station.
First respondent
• Both versions will be shown simultaneously to the respondent (show the two
versions only 10 seconds) with the question: ‘Do you see any conspicuous differences
between these two presentations?‘ The answer has to be yes or no. If the answer is
yes, ask the respondent to name the differences.
• Now show the same respondent only one version of the map. Ask him the following
question: ‘You are going to visit Delft for shopping and visiting museums. Which
route do you choose, route K or P?‘ The respondent shouldn’t be aware that K stands
for ‘Museum route’ and P for ‘Shopping route‘.
Second respondent
The procedure is the same as with the first respondent with the difference that now
the other map is shown and the question asked is ‘You are going to visit Delft for
visiting museums and shopping. Which route do you choose, route P or K?’
Results
One of the results that is remarkable, is how many people saw differences between
the maps. The three main differences between the maps, is the writing direction, the
opacity/boldness of the letters and the gradient of the colored ‘sunbeams’, as they
described it. At their first glance (that only lasted 10 seconds), they could already
distinguish the differences in letters, colors and some even the writing direction.
We thought the writing direction is a part of the design that is harder to distinguish,
because when you go looking for differences you look at most obvious differences
(color, size). However, because some street names are written larger, these streets
stand out more and make it more obvious that the writing direction is different.
When people will see the maps one day after the other, they probably will not notice
these slight differences.
The colors were experienced as more pleasant with a higher level of opacity. This
might have also something to do with the colors chosen for the design. As blue and
orange are complementing colors, in combination with each other they are very
obviously noticeable, which makes the composition vibrant and restless.
Also, when you show them the pictures and ask them for the differences, they will try
to find all the differences. When you’re just looking at a map, you don’t go searching
for differences.
Of all persons asked:
Recommendations
After performing the test we had a group discussion and came up with several
recommendations to our final design.
Starting point
The starting point of our route is Delft CS. In our design we mirrored the vertical text.
Our recommendation is to make the text horizontal, so the starting point isn’t
different in the two versions. Also it should attract the initial attention: so it should
stand out more, especially in relation to ‘Burgwal’.
It should be taken into account that all streets should be in the same type size, no
matter the amount of letters that the street names contains. This way the streets are
all the same and one is not more obvious than the other when it comes to size
(however longer streets might also caught more attention than shorter streets).
Overall, the maps will gain a more calm composition by using the same type size.
To make a clear difference between the two routes, the weight of the text could be
adapted to the type of route that should be chosen. The streets of the route you want
the viewer to choose could be made more bold than the street names of the other
route.
Colors
In the concepts, the yellow/orange colored tags have more or less opacity according
to the route we want the people to go. As many people noticed the color differences,
the matter of opacity should be more the same within the two maps.
In order to still make a clear definition, the street names could have a certain matter
of opacity. The streets of the route we want them to go could have more opacity than
the other routes.
Also in this design we only colored the streets that have a certain amount of shopping
or culture, which brings a certain visual imbalance to the map. People tend to go for
the route with more color on its side. If all streets would have an amount of color, the
map would be more in balance.
The colors might be chosen differently. Although blue and orange are complementary
colors, the orange and yellow are too present in the composition. The combination of
yellow and blue sometimes stands for cheapness (IKEA, Zeeman). This might
influence the way tourists look at the map, which is not a reaction the map is aiming
for.
Symbols
Although we did not test the symbols, a recommendation for the symbols might be
that they could stand out more in the composition of the map. That way it provides
more information about the things to do in Delft and it is more obvious that there is a
difference in shopping or cultural route
Conclusion
Route K Route P
We hope you liked to follow our progress over the weeks and liked the end result!
Greetings,
The Visualisers