This chapter is all about how people see. It explains that vision is not simply what our eyes bring in, but also how our brain interprets these things. It helps if you think of an optical illusion.
This particular illusion suggests that our brain can take what our eyes see and misinterpret it. It appears that the second shape has a longer line than the first, when in reality the lines are the same length. This is an example of what this chapter focuses on.
There are a few main take-aways from the chapter: peripheral vision accounts for most of what we see, humans by nature attempt to find patterns, people can scan screens and look at them in a way that relates to what they have seen before, people pick up visual cues from shapes, and things that are placed closely together are typically interpreted by the viewer to mean they belong together. All of these lessons can help a designer to build something for a customer. If you have a good understanding of how things are read and seen you are better prepared to create something that is not only readable, but understandable to the viewer.
DEFINITIONS
Geon- geometric shape icons used to help identify objects.
FFA- fusiform face area that allows the brain to recognize faces by using interpretive channels.
Canonical Perspective- a perspective similar to a three quarter view, that usually shows an object slightly from above and skewed to the left or right.
Affordance- cues from an object that help communicate how you can and should interact with them. For example, a can opener has a twist knob that fits your hand and is attached to a circular device that might indicate that you turn it.
CHAPTER ANALYSIS
I found this chapter to be very interesting. Personally, I know I am plagued by patterns. I constantly scan life around me to see patterns; kitchen counter tops, tile floors, carpeting, and ceiling panels never escape my wandering eyes. I am so obsessed with finding patterns that I try to live a patternless life. I see them everywhere, so I attempt to get away from them.
In design, it is especially important to understand what your viewer expects. I have web design in mind when I discuss this. If you create something that looks like a button yet is not click able you will find that a user of the website will quickly become frustrated. A viewer is used to different tabs or links on a page to typically stay in the same order and place from page to page. Imagine how frustrating it would be if on each page the links changed order or were placed in a different area.
There were many good take-aways from this chapter (mostly what I've listed above) that I found to be interesting. However, I do feel like I had a lot of the knowledge from this chapter already. I feel like a lot of these "rules" or ways of changing design for usability are very often focused on in this school. An artist can make something pretty, but a designer can make it work.
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