Week5: Reading Homework (Chapter 4)

1. Summary of information, topic covered
Chapter 4 talks about some of the basic tools that are used by designers, and mentions effective tools such as color, type styling, weight and scale, structure, grouping, graphic elements, imagery, and sound and motion. The color helps viewers to scope out and separate from others more easily. The type styling is also a good way to differentiate importance of information. You could also change the typeface, use highlight, and so on. Weight and scale could be mixed with color and type styling to define tricky hierarchies. The grid would be a great structure to organize information. You could group information combinations with changing color, weight, and size. It helps the reader to locate the information easily and to create visual hierarchies. Graphic elements such as lines, rules, and bullets give a better understanding of directions to the viewer. Imagery is one of the most effective ways to get the viewer’s attention. It gives information visually, without reading. Sound and motion is interactive media. The mixture of aural and visual creates more powerful result.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered.
http://quakequizsf.org/
I got this site from “Communication Arts” magazine website. It is interactive annual and I could find Interactive Annual 15 winners. I think you can find a lot of good example of what we have been studying in this class and find good example of what chapter 4 is talking about. The site above is really fun to take a look at.
The website I found the address above: http://www.commarts.com/interactive/

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/06/02/color-basics-dos-and-donts
This site talks about basics of colors. There are some latest palette and patterns you can check out too. Understanding the color wheel is very important. You need to analyze the color undertones and know colors change up to their surrounding colors. Colors express psychology such as red is aggressive, hot, and so on. When you are designing is important to know readability of color combination.