Visual Treatment in Interactive Media

Layout and Interface Design:

Usability:

Usability is the ease with which people can employ on a particular interface or object in order to achieve something. Usability can also be used to judge how user friendly something is – how efficient it is with its purpose. For example a Playstation controller must be easy to hold and interact with.

Language and Terminology:

Language and Terminology is very important when looking at the layout of an interface. The language has to be clear enough for the user to understand and easy enough to read.

Design:

Colour – is very important for the aesthetic appeal of an interface. Using colours that contrast helps make the text stand out and using warmer or cooler colours gives a mood to your websites. Say you were watching a horror movie on your DVD the selection menu interface may be using dark and scary colours to emphasise the mood such as black and dark shades of colour.

Images – using images on websites help draw attention and make the page more interesting. An example of a good use of images on a website is the BBC website – on more important stories they use a larger image to catch the users attention, whereas smaller stories are given smaller images next to links.

Typography – typography is important at catching the viewer’s eye. The type or font that will be used must be easy to read. Headings must be bolder and given a larger font to catch the reader’s eye, subheadings or descriptive first paragraphs must have larger writing and then the actual text must be an easy to read font. A good example of this would be a newspaper layout.

Effective Use of Layout:

An effective use of layout would be using the rules of white, grey and black space. The white space being the blank or background of a website, the grey being the text and the black – images and graphics. If a website interface has too much grey space/text then the website looks too boring and has too much information which may put the viewer off. If a website interface has too many black space/images and graphics then it looks too cluttered and the viewer may not know where exactly to look. A good balanced website must compliment and balance within the three. It must have plenty of white space which draws attention to small pieces of text and images.

Identification of Users:

Identification of users is really important when creating an interface – this is basically your target audience and which group of people you’re creating your interface for. If you choose a target audience of an older group of people that enjoy gardening for a website then you must consider facts like that your audience is older - so they may not be so used to using websites; so an easy menu bar situated to the left, with clear easy to read text. Also the colours must come into consideration. Gardening relates to greens, so maybe a green background with plenty of space for texts and images.

Use of Navigation:

Use of navigation is important when creating an interface. For example a website such as the BBC has easy to use navigation. It has a menu bar situated to the left which is where people would look to first. It also has appropriate links so that a website isn’t more than two pages long of information. Also when looking at a news story it has stories related which are small links to other pages. This makes the website more user friendly and easier to understand.

Visual Treatment in Interactive Media:

Visual Cues:

Visual cues allow users to see the results of their own interaction with an interface immediately. There are two different types of cues; textual cues and graphical cues. Graphical cues are graphics such as the mouse and the keyboard; the graphical cue for the mouse is the pointer for example. The pointer indicates the user about the destination of where they are on the interface. A textual cue is when the user needs help or more information to be shown. A textual cue consists of a help box describing the current situation.

Colour – another way of showing a visual cue is through colour. For example when an action hasn’t worked on a computer then a help box with maybe a red cross will appear that indicated to the user that there is a problem.

Metaphor – a metaphor on an interface shows a symbol which represents an action. Such as the recycle bin indicates deleted files.

Prioritising – information means using suitable uses of headings and subheadings to show the reader which parts of a piece of text is important and to catch the readers eye.

Accessibility:

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree in which a product is accessible to as many people as possible, including those that are disabled; hearing or visual impairments. Accessibility is related strongly to universal design. This is about making products accessible to people whether they may be disabled or not. Because a lot of designs have been made to be universal; they are often very similar in design; example: the on button symbol etc.

Screen Design:

Screen design is showing the user of an interface the way that the information is presented and prioritised. It is important to have the right layout and structure so that the user is comfortable with the design. The amount of information presented is important. An interface must be easy to function and easy on the eye. If an interface ahs too much information it can become confusing and the rules of a good layout have been broken. Groping and prioritising the information is more suitable. A good way designers do this is by grouping text and graphics into a table so the information becomes more laid out and easy to read.

Balance:

The balance of an interface is important. If a screen becomes too hectic with information or pictures or even just too blank it becomes hard to understand or too blank and vague.

White Space - is referred to as the blank area or an interface (the area that hasn’t been filled). White space draws attention to text and graphics/images around it.

Grey Space – is referred to as being the text on a page. If there is too much grey space then the page becomes too dull or it becomes hard to pick out useful information. If the grey space is a small amount then the white space draws attention to it and makes the interface more balanced.

Black Space – is referred to as being the graphics or images. If a page has too many graphics then it becomes clustered and too busy – not sure where to look at first. With only a few images it becomes more balanced as white space draws attention to the images.

Use of Images and Composition:

Rule of Thirds - is a rule of compisition. If the main objects in a photograph line up along thirds on the page then the compisition will be balanced and catch the eye greater.

Focal Point - is a principle of contrast, size and placement, lines and visual rythems.

Use of Colour - this is catching the viewers eye through colour. Different colours effect the viewers mood towards a piece; for example: cool colours - blues and green and warm colours reds and yellows.

Colour Theory:

Primary Colours - these colours are red, blue and yellow. These colours can be mixed to create almost any colour besides shades and tinits which you must mix black and white.

Complementary Colours - usually these colours look good together even though they are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. When placed with each toher they tend to look brighter and more outstanding - they give balance for example yellow and purple.

Colour Wheel - this is an organisation of colour hues around a circle showing a relationship between colours. It shows primary colours, secondary colous and complementary colours.