Graphic Design Principles Research Articles

Diagrammatic information

Diagrams are increasingly used to present complex and abstract information. Their ultimate success as tools for communication depends largely upon how effectively they can be processed in the mind of the viewer. The application of established principles of graphic design is a vital part of developing effective diagrams, but tends to focus upon external aspects of representation that apply at a general level across a wide range of subject domains. However, the internal (mental) representation of a specific set of subject matter is also important in influencing what sense viewers make of a diagram. The task of characterising relationships between the way a diagram is represented mentally and the effectiveness with which that diagram is processed poses novel challenges to researchers. This paper decribes some of these challenges and discusses methodologies that have been developed to explore the mental representation and processing of explanatory diagrams.

Design Options for a Desktop Publishing Course

Recommendations to the developer of an undergraduate desktop publishing course are given concerning scholastic level and prerequisites, purpose and objectives, instructional resources and methodology, assignments and evaluation, and a general course outline. By using desktop publishing, students gain experience in preparing documents that are professional in form and content. After students master the hardware and software, instructional emphasis shifts to page layout and graphic design principles that students apply to the development of documents commonly prepared in the workplace.

Is cartographic design important? the example of the figure-ground relationship

With the meteoric rise of interest in automating cartography about two decades ago, a great deal of research has been focused on the technological advances in the field. The result has been a diminution of interest and/or concern about the necessity to employ sound graphic design principles to achieve high levels of efficient cartographic communication. In this paper, one such design element, the figure-ground relationship, is singled out and several examples used to illustrate how figure-ground in map design is either being disregarded, misapplied, misunderstood, or all three. Unless interest in map design research is rekindled, it is this author’s opinion that the incidence of poorly designed maps will become more widespread.

Designing the Face of an Interface

Application of the principles of graphic design can bring friendly and effective communication to the Human/computer interface.

The graphic design of friendly faces for information management (abstract only)

Principles of graphic design have been utilized in redesigning the interface for Seedis, a large information management system. The structure and processes of Seedis are briefly described. The graphic design approach is explained and graphic design principles are outlined. Examples of enhanced menus, prompts, help messages and data directories are shown to indicate the nature of improvements.

Contiguity-Biased Class-Interval Selection: A Method for Simplifying Patterns on Statistical Maps

IMPLICITY is a fundamental goal of cartography. An overly complicated map can impose severe perceptual difficulties on a user interested primarily in general spatial trends. With many types of maps, complexity can be minimized if the cartographer employs relevant principles of graphic design. However, in the case of choropleth maps the selection of class intervals is an additional determinant of a map's effectiveness. The traditional objectives of compact, homogeneous classes, and the de-emphasis of relatively large. variations in the tails of a numerical distribution, often do little to promote visual simplicity. These criteria for class-interval selection can often be satisfied by a spatially fragmented pattern of shaded area symbols. Although polynomial trend surfaces might provide a partial solution to this problem of spatial generalization, the frequent inability of low-order trend surfaces to account for a high percentage of the spatial variation of a quantitative variable may render this approach unacceptable. Furthermore, in some cases where isopleths are substituted for area shadings severe conceptual difficulties can arise when the value for an area is assigned to a mere point within that area. An ideal solution would retain the boundaries of individual enumeration areas and at the same time allow proximity a role in the selection of class intervals. The purpose of this study is to develop a procedure for basing class intervals for choropleth maps not only on the numerical distribution of the mapping units but also on their spatial contiguity.