Decorative and Indicative Contrast: When a Good Thing Goes Bad

IPCC 2013draft

Background

• Design manuals teach designers to create unified designs that have a cohesive feeling for their documents

• clean, organized design is not only the most pleasing option for users, but also the most useful

• users do prefer designs that have low contrast levels; however, participants were able to recall more information if there were contrasts

Peircean Theory

• firstness: – icons: likeness– potential, pure abstraction, chaos – pure potential

• secondness: – indexes: point to things– Existence, fact, reaction, conflict - opposition

• thirdness: – symbols: meanings by use– Laws, habitual regulations, patterns – govern other 2

categories

Peirce and Design

1. The overall feeling of a design– Decorative elements create a feeling

2. What actions a user should complete– Indicative elements draw attention to

information

3. What information should be presented– Informative elements convey information to the

user

Current Study

• 22 participants– 8 International-born participants– 14 US-born participants

• 7 designs• 5 follow up questions • Emotional response questions

US vs. International Participant

Results

Design % CorrectOne 35%

Two 47%

Three 60%

Four 67%

Five 27%

Six 60%

Seven 47%

Emotional Response

agitated

stimulated

diverte

d

unrestr

ained

amusedre

sted

calm

ed

organize

d

focuse

d

determined

conce

rned

challe

nged02468

1012141618

agitated

stimulated

diverte

d

unrestr

ained

amusedre

sted

calm

ed

organize

d

focuse

d

determined

conce

rned

challe

nged02468

1012141618

agitated

stimulated

diverte

d

unrestr

ained

amusedre

sted

calm

ed

organize

d

focuse

d

determined

conce

rned

challe

nged02468

1012141618

agitated

stimulated

diverte

d

unrestr

ained

amusedre

sted

calm

ed

organize

d

focuse

d

determined

conce

rned

challe

nged02468

1012141618

Design Five Design One

Design Six Design Four

Graphics

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