In the pixel zone: Perception of digital design

Abstract

Abstract Since the beginning of the millennium, the internet has undeniably influenced everyday life as well as the creative fields, in countless ways that have already been exhaustively discussed. In this paper, we discuss the term postdigital, which is relevant to anchoring the perception of digital design. Numerous theoretical works are dealing with the terminology of postdigital, with conceptualisations differing from one another. Post-digitality offers a set of speculative strategies with the intention of building a complex architecture for thinking and creating under contemporary conditions: how to critically consider, contextualize, and shift the perception of new technologies as part of the existing culture. Digital design has become an integral part of everyday reality: websites, mobile devices, tablets, but also products and services that use digital interfaces as interactive communication channels between a human and a machine. These interfaces require a specific approach to design. The term digital design covers the design of the entire range of digital products and services and is understood as a complex set of many disciplines: user interface, interaction design, information architecture, user experience design, visual design, web design, app design, or game design. The boundaries between the different areas of design are blurred and permeable, and although their mutual interaction can be beneficial, it is necessary to clearly differentiate between graphic and digital design. Digital design grows out of the principles of graphic (visual) design and introduces additional knowledge and very specific principles based on the nature of the digital medium and the transdisciplinary field of cognitive ergonomics.