New Works in Progress

Tags

art, ipad sketch, paintover, photoshop paint, sketching

Best Links (Visual Communication)

Tags

academia, AEJMC, research, VisComm, Visual Communication, web, web design

Sharing a collection of my favorite places on the web relating to visual communication. Feel free to contribute any that I may have missed:

• Visual Communication Division, AEJMC
• Visual Communication Quarterly
• Visual Culture and Gender
• Visual Communication and Rhetorics: University of Iowa
• VisComm AEJMC Listserv

Updates and Makeup

Tags

academia, exams, makeup, prelims, sephora, too faced, urban decay

I’m in the middle of working on my preliminary exams, and between that, finishing up doctoral coursework, teaching, and working on articles, I haven’t had much time, or really, motivation to post any new entries! As the summer months approach, I hope that will change.

I stopped at Sephora last week and picked up a couple of things. The first is the Too Faced Natural Eye kit, which I’ve been eyeing for a couple of years but never caved in. I like it, the shadows are very creamy and shimmery. I normally use the Urban Decay ‘Naked’ palette almost daily, so I’ll have to do some comparisons after I use the Too Faced kit for awhile to see which I prefer. (The version I got, by the way, is the one that came with the dual-ended 24/7 eye pencil- I would have liked the brush).

I also picked up this minis set by Benefit that has Posietint, High Beam, and Benetint. Cute for on-the-go.

Happy Holidays and Reflection

Tags

christmas, engagement, holidays, ozzie, ring, tree, wedding

Happy holidays, everyone. As I’ve been trying to put together research, turn in grades, work on a collaboration holiday painting with a good friend, I find it’s nice to take a moment and some peace and quiet. That is something I struggle with doing- taking time.

So, a couple of memories from 2010.

I got engaged in May, 2010. Wedding planning, at least on my part, is being postponed until the spring, after I am done with prelims and a few more manuscripts.  We are, however, considering looking for venues in the next couple of months, and preferably would like to get married somewhere in Indianapolis around May of 2012.

This is Ozzie, Paula’s cat and my “nephew.” This photo is one of my favorites from October of this year, when we dressed him up in a cape. He wasn’t very happy about it, but he was a good sport. I have many, many pictures of him, and he’s so cute!

 

Finally, our Christmas tree. This is our second Christmas and we’ve been collecting ornaments to put on it.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday, and some time to relax and spend time with family and friends.

Controls and Menus: Interaction

Tags

academia, cooper et al, design, design principles, usability, web

Cooper, Reimann and Cronin (2007) examine interaction elements of controls and menus in Chapters 21-22. Controls are interactive objects through which users navigate and furthermore serve as the building blocks for GUI. Examples of fundamental controls are provided, such as buttons and hyperlinks– imperative controls that provide immediate action (p.440-441). Although these chapters focus on user control, they heavily reminded me of survey building software components, such as Qualtrics. The concepts, while fundamental, relate to multiple methods of design.

Selection controls, on the other hand, provide options for users to select from via nouns (i.e., check boxes, drop-down menus). While the distinctions of each imperative and selection controls wasn’t particularly novel to me, I appreciate the discussion of flip-flop buttons (see p.445), which Cooper et al. suggest are often used in confusing manners. Flip-flop buttons suggest that a user can click on , such as music players with “Play” or “Stop” options. Users may be confused, however, when there are multiple interpretations of buttons like this.

Cooper et al. discuss other methods of controls, many of which are similar to hierarchical methods of organizing content on web pages, such as list data (p.452-455) and tree controls. Other methods, such as entry controls, provide spaces for users to enter in information as opposed to selecting criteria.

Visually, display controls are used to manage information, as we may suspect via multiple objects including guidelines, boxes, text, and other contents.

Menu design, as discussed in Chapter 22, is one of the most basic methods of providing access to contents. I appreciate the historical discussion of menu design from its origins to modern developments. In particular, the Lotus 1-2-3 interface is an interesting advancement in interface design because of its use of hierarchical menu structure. Users could move around in different ways to find information. Although rudimentary by modern standards, there’s something highly important to see from such examples.

Cooper et al. also discuss common desktop applications today and their menu designs. I note this for one particular reason. Earlier this fall, I argued that Cooper et al. were biased in assuming that all interactive design has to be user-centric and carefully crafted in a way that is simply unattainable. However, I was glad to see that they discussed the development of standards in menus today (such as the File menu) and how such tools continue to exist. We get used to standards in design even if they’re not ideal, and that can result in further iterations of an interface.

It’s difficult to read Chapter 22 without thinking that the information is already outdated. As we know, technologies and design rapidly change. A journal article on technology may be dated when it reaches print. That said, the chapter is important because it provides a historical context that lends insight into developments in interface design in the future.

References

Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About face 3: The essentials of interaction design. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing Inc.