Week 4
Gestalt Theory and HCI
The relationship between positive and negative space is at the core of all visual design. The Gestalt ideas of similarity, proximity, and continuity, are, in my opinion, the foundation for the HCI design principles. HCI is concerned about a users ability to perform tasks easily, and get results they expect. So the designer applies their knowledge of these basic Gestalt design principles to organize the elements in a visual hierarchy to hopefully guide the user to the different tasks available and what can be expected in the following steps. HCI with Gestalt not only has the power to make tasks easy, but can actually create a path or guide that directs the user to certain elements, while pushing others into the background. That is why there is so much thought put into e-commerce web sites and the relationships around the buy button.
Cluetrain Manifesto
As I was reading this I tried to remember my internet experience in 1999. While I do agree with many of his views on corporations, and the attitudes they have, and I agree that many still have a problem.
However the idea of Joe Sixpack joining the conversation and corporations not I think is very short sighted. Also that everyone in the group of unwashed masses out there is starved for a creative outlet and the laziness we see is a result of corporations is seems very idealistic.
CEOs, CIOs, VPs, Marketing directors and all the other people running corporations are people as well. They will join the conversation and today many have. One thing about corporations is that they have lots of money and power to figure things out, even if it takes a little longer.
His point about leveraging an intranet to tap into the knowledge of the worker bees is good. My director where I work now has been trying this, it works ok.
Overall, fun to read and very good points that are still relevant in today's digital environment. In 1999 while the adoption curve had come down considerably it is even further down now.
The relationship between positive and negative space is at the core of all visual design. The Gestalt ideas of similarity, proximity, and continuity, are, in my opinion, the foundation for the HCI design principles. HCI is concerned about a users ability to perform tasks easily, and get results they expect. So the designer applies their knowledge of these basic Gestalt design principles to organize the elements in a visual hierarchy to hopefully guide the user to the different tasks available and what can be expected in the following steps. HCI with Gestalt not only has the power to make tasks easy, but can actually create a path or guide that directs the user to certain elements, while pushing others into the background. That is why there is so much thought put into e-commerce web sites and the relationships around the buy button.
Cluetrain Manifesto
As I was reading this I tried to remember my internet experience in 1999. While I do agree with many of his views on corporations, and the attitudes they have, and I agree that many still have a problem.
However the idea of Joe Sixpack joining the conversation and corporations not I think is very short sighted. Also that everyone in the group of unwashed masses out there is starved for a creative outlet and the laziness we see is a result of corporations is seems very idealistic.
CEOs, CIOs, VPs, Marketing directors and all the other people running corporations are people as well. They will join the conversation and today many have. One thing about corporations is that they have lots of money and power to figure things out, even if it takes a little longer.
His point about leveraging an intranet to tap into the knowledge of the worker bees is good. My director where I work now has been trying this, it works ok.
Overall, fun to read and very good points that are still relevant in today's digital environment. In 1999 while the adoption curve had come down considerably it is even further down now.
posted by Craig at
2:05 PM
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