Title
Is observation a basic building block of graphic design?
How are observation methods affecting design practice?
Abstract
This report will look into how the observation of people and the way they react to certain things in life could be interlinked with a piece of design or advertising. It will also include how observation can help designers create a stronger piece of design. This report’s aim is to also explore into the social sciences such as psychology and sociology, to see if there are particular reasons to people having different reactions towards certain design pieces depending on colour, text, texture or past experiences they may have had, and many other factors.
The project will also be aiming to look into more detail about visual ethnography and visual anthropology, or just ethnography and anthropology. This will aid my report as anthropology focuses on human beings, everywhere and throughout time, and asks questions such as “How do we behave?” and “Why are there variations and differences among different groups of humans?”. Whilst ethnography is a methodological strategy used to provide descriptions of human societies by writing in detail instead of using methods such as questionnaires.
With this as a basic starting point, this report will also be aiming to look into these areas:
What methods are designers using to observe in the 21st century?
Gathering ways of how people observe design.
How do designers and design companies draw people in?
How is observational useful for designers?
Look into strategies for visual research.
Are posters always telling the truth? Are there certain elements in a poster which people observe that draws them in more?
Look at the social sciences, and social scientists, and how they gather data.
Look at ‘live work’ and what they’re doing. How is it affecting their practice?
How did people observe design 10 years ago?
Look at how most designers now test their products before publishing them to see how people react to them.
How different people observe and notice different things in comparison to other people.
Chapter Headings
I’m not really sure what chapter headings I want to look into at the moment as I need to read a lot more to gain a better understanding of what I feel needs to be raised. Here are a few possible chapter headings?
The definition of observation
Why do we observe others?
How do people observe information e.g. hearing, sight, taste, touch.
Strategies for visual research
Ethnography and Anthropology
How is observational useful for designers?
Graphic Deisgn: Fine art or social science?
Action Plan
In order to achieve the best understanding possible of the subject I will have to read books, reports, journals, blogs and websites and highlight the most important issues or factors which are being raised within the extracts. This will be done mainly over the summer. When we return I will start interviewing people within the design industry that observe their target audiences to help their designs. I will also start to think of some experiments I could start to do myself to help me understand, and gather some results.
Bibliography
In defense of observational practice in arts and design education Volume 38, Number 1, 2004– Howard Cannatella
Design Studies: Theory and research into graphic design – Audrey Bennett (2006)
Overview of Clinical research design- Daniel Hartung
Inspiring Graphic Design through Human Behaviours – Roshi Givenchi & Ian Groulx
Experiment, design and statistics in psychology- Colin Robson (1994)
Design Theory in Communication- Peter Storkerson
Ways of Seeing- John Berger (1990)
Designing Services with Innovative Methods- Satu Mienttinen
Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research- Sarah Pink (2001)
Emotional Design : Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things – Donald A. Norman
Reports
Strategy by Design- Tim Brown
Design Thinking- Tim Brown
Question Everything – Interview with Jane Fulton Suri (‘Thoughtless Acts’)
Design Research for Radical Innovation- Jane Fulton Suri
Can Designers Help Deliver Better Services? – Fran Saamalionis
Quotes
“Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them” Meditations.iv. 36- Marcus Aurelius
“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life” - Marcus Aurelius
“Observation is a design method to identify the problems that can arise when people interact with products, services and environments”
You need to make your bibliography Harvard reference style.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a strong foundation for an interesting report – I think as you move through and do the report it’ll become leaner and more focused.
I’d be careful you don’t go too deep into Visual Anthropology and Ethnography – they’re interesting subjects but remember your focus should be on design. Companies like IDEO document how they use these areas very well. Find as many examples of design that uses observational methods as possible.
An idea could be to do a search of other social science methods that designers don’t currently use but which you think could be useful? You could do some practical experiments to try them out and judge whether they’re useful or not.
The book, Visocky O'Grady, J and Visocky O'Grady, K. (2006) A Designer's Research Manual. Rockport Publishers talks at length about these sorts of methods.
The Design Council would be a good place to look too – they had a design unit called Red that did a lot of this sort of work.
You should also look into areas such as co-design and service design – they work with stakeholders closely to ensure that the end design works – methods such as focus groups help the designers observe the end users.
Very interesting stuff…