Understanding the Relationship Between Humour and Context in Visual Information Design

Abstract

As an effective element of design, humour can help users better perceive and understand visual information such as signage in a specific context. However, the application of humour in visual information design is purely dependent on the designer’s intuition. In addition, there has been little research on how humour can be used in visual information design and how the perception of humour is influenced by context. Therefore, the study explored how humour is dependent on the context in visual information design. From the literature study, three types of humour and four types of contexts were derived. A designer workshop and focus group interview were conducted in the study. In the workshop, signages representing three types of humour respectively were designed. The signages were evaluated in the focus group interview to figure out how they were perceived. The results indicate that humour is dependent on the characteristics of context in visual information design. If this finding is well considered in design practice, it could help the user better understand visual information and have positive experience.