Chapter 9 - The Dance of Meaning

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the broader implications of how the theory of perception applies to design. It however means what the brain performs in a dance with the external environment. New meaning is constructed when patterns already stored within the brain are combined with patterns constructed from external information. Increasingly, new meaning is also constructed by inanimate computers that do at least partial analysis, and synthesis of patterns and tokens of meaning then present the results using a visual display. The dance partners are considered to be individual people interacting with visual displays. Visual thinking is but a small part of the dance. Visual thinking is based on a hierarchy of skills. A cognitive tool can be a map or a movie poster, but increasingly cognitive tools are interactive and computer based. Good design optimizes the visual thinking process. The choice of patterns and symbols is important so that visual queries can be efficiently processed by the intended viewer. Extraordinarily powerful thinking tools can be made when a visual interface is added to a computer program. There is also the visual thinking process that occurs when someone reasons with a graphic design as an external aid. A map reader is carrying out a very goal-directed query loop that involves both the rough logic of the language processing system and the pattern-finding capability of the visual system.