Thursday, March 14, 2013

Psychology and Design

Designing a product or service takes a lot of thought and effort. In order to make a successful product or service we must understand how the customer will interact with what we make and their possible reactions to our product/service and/or interface. Using psychology to understand how and why people act in a given situation and then recreating that situation either in a product; such as "Facebook" or "LinkedIn" is one way to implement psychology in design. This approach uses a broader scope on design, which includes the product or service being offered. The other approach has a more limited scope involved and only includes the choices made by the designer that dictates functionality. These choices are based on things such as aesthetics, colors, button shapes/textures, layout and typography. Obviously these are not the only concerns or applications when using psychology and design together, but they are certainly things to be taken into consideration.







Examining psychology and how it effects the design process is very important to both the user and the designer. The user needs to have a successful and pleasant experience with the product/service and the design ensures that this happens. Incorporating psychologically motivated design decisions can be a successful way to persuade or direct users towards a specific or non-specific action. An example of this implicit influence would be the use of "Hick's Law". "Hick's Law" or the "Hick-Hyman Law" is a model of human-computer interaction that describes the time it takes for a user to make a decision as a function of the possible choices he or she has."(Wikipedia)


T = blog2(n + 1)

Above: Hick's Law Equation


So overall the psychological influence in design is a very important factor to be taken into account when designing products, services and the aesthetics of a system. Neglecting the the implicit and explicit psychological influences can and will most likely hinder how you want the user to interact with what product/service you are providing. In all when designing, it is recommended to do the proper research on who your target user(s) is/are and how you want them to interact with the product/service being offered. Investing the time into these design decisions and research will pay off for anyone willing to implement them into their products/services and digital interfaces.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Mirror's Edge: Fan Illustration

Here is another fan illustration made by me for the video game Mirror's Edge published by EA and created by DICE. I was very much a fan of the game environment/mood and how it looked visually. It was a larger influence on how I saw mono/dual colored design, since most of the environments and rooms tend to adopt a dual or mono colored schema. Overall all I was happy with the illustration as a whole, however looking at it again I see some mistakes I could possibly correct in the future.



 Above: Faith Illustration
All rights reserved EA Games/DICE Studios

Monday, March 4, 2013

Conceptual: Nanotechnology

I have recently finished designing a personal project for nanotechnology. The premise was to create an information brochure to raise interest and awareness about the applications and possibilities of nanotechnology. The main image that reoccurs between both the brochure and the poster was actually influenced by an architectural installation piece. The information was taken form the National nanotechnology Initiative website and designed to fit into these three pieces below. Overall I consider this project a success and am satisfied with the final result:





Above: Nanotechnology Poster






 Above: Brochure, Outside






Above: Brochure, Inside