When I look at an article or document, one of the first things I notice is the design/layout or lack thereof. There have even been times that I have skipped over a particular article/document because at first glance it looked too chaotic and poorly designed. If something is well designed and pleasing to the eye, nine times out of ten I will take the time to see what it has to say.
I think a good example of a poorly laid out document is our very own Thomson Handbook. Sure, it looks nice, has nice color and graphics, but man, last thing I want to do is read it. For example, when reading chapter 24 and 25 I tried to focus on what I was reading. Instead, I was constantly pulled from the main text to all of the side notes, comments, etc. I can’t read more than a page without getting distracted and jumping from note to note. Is that the purpose of this book? If so it works well. I think there is some good content is the book but I feel it’s a little hard to follow due to the layout.
One important part from the text is the use of pictures and color. Any kind of print is always more pleasant when they have nice color that is evenly distributed. It draws the eye in and makes the reader interested. I think a good example of this is the newish Cadillac commercials, in print and on TV. They use a bright red CTS to catch your eye as well as the bright city lights. This is all while having a nice balance of color. They also use bold text to point out the main focus, as shown in the bear example of the instructor blog. The commercial/ad really keeps the viewer/readers attention.
Good and Bad Design
I never really thought of the Thomson Handbook as a good example of design. The layout does seem very busy and hard to follow. It has a section on what good design is and the readers cannot tell if the chapters even have a good design. You said, “If something is well designed and pleasing to the eye, nine times out of ten I will take the time to see what it has to say.” I think that with this conclusion about design then you definitely not like reading the Thomson handbook. It seems to follow all the aspects of a good design such as: bold headings, colorful, and vibrant. But reading the chapters was like reading a unorganized collage.
Thomson Design
I have to say I agree with you completely on the Thomson Handbook design. Yes, it has color, and yes it's vibrant, but you can have too much of a good thing. It's definitely an "unorganized collage" of information, which is great when I just want a quick reference, but when I'm supposed to read an entire chapter, it's a bit overwhelming, and it's hard not to skip around with whatever color is brightest on the page! In terms of it's color, I think it would be more effective if it had a set color scheme instead of using the entire rainbow, or if information were color coded more specifically, then it might be more useful.
Kristin
Cadillac Commercial
I thought that your Cadillac ad provided a perfect example of a well designed visual. The contrast in color does a very good job of initially grabbing and then keeping the audience’s attention. Also, I'm not sure what it is but the car look prestigious, just as Cadillac wants you to think. This is done with very little text. Another good aspect of this advertisement is the choice of fonts. It seems as though for each portion of text they used a different text. This does a good job of moving attention to and from each bit of text. All in all, I think the Cadillac ad served as a perfect example of an effective visual.
Right on
I agree too that Cadillac is doing a great job with their design. Even though I've seen many of the commercials over and over they still catch my eye. I think a lot of it is because they place the bright red cars in a dark city scene. The nice graphics of the car smoothly going through town makes it seem like it would be a great ride. The way that they blur the city lights reminds me how even at night the city can be busy. Then they show driver of the car and everything seems calm and relaxed in the car. It makes me think that after a busy day at work that would be a great drive home.
-Chris