Project 1: Identifying Communication Design
(51–262) Communication Design Fundamentals
Introduction
Project 1: Identifying Communication Design
The prompt for the first project was to 1) introduce ourselves, and 2) find an example of effective communication design and an example of ineffective communication design.
My choice for an ineffective communication design was the software used to handle CMU mailing list:
The way that the information is structured here makes the software difficult for a user. There are too many categories and information overload. The balance is not wise because the top half of the page is cluttered with hyperlinks while the second half contains unnecessary amount of space for the section header “Topics” and the unhelpful description directly below it. There is also a lot of important content buried within the categories. All of this contributes to the software being difficult to navigate. Therefore, the design is not very successful for its targeted audience and for its general purpose. It is not acting as a convenient tool for people to handle mailing lists.
Stylistically, the font choices were poor as well. There is a lot of small text in a serif font and a larger font size was used to place emphasis in the wrong places (i.e: “Logout”). The color of the hyperlinks–blue and purple–clash with the beige and white. Overall, all these points make the software not visually appealing or user-friendly.
Moving on, my choice for an effective communication design was the book cover for Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua:
This cover does a good job of achieving its purpose which is to introduce the book. The hierarchy plays an important role here. The first thing that captures the user’s eye is definitely the title since it is a in different color, font, and significantly larger than the rest of the text. The audience will then read the author’s name since it is directly underneath and second biggest, followed by details and acclaims. The choice to include the picture is not irrelevant, it adds values and communicates the book’s theme. Visually, the color palette is agreeable and the use of orange references the word “tiger” in the title. The elements are consistently aligned in the middle, well-balanced, and symmetrical. This cover is pleasing to look at and good impression of what the rest of the book will be like.
Date: 03 Sep 2020
