Direct the Eyes
"If the viewers's eyes are permitted to wander at will through a work, then the artist has lost control."Introduction
-Designers must purposefully guide the viewer's eyes through the structure of the graphic. Directing the Eyes is one of the most essential techniques in visual communication.
-Visual cues do not carry out the primary message, but instead their function is to orient, point out, or highlight crucial information.
Importance of Attention
-Through selective attention we send visual information into our H.I.P.S.
- When directing the viewers eyes with piece of graphic design, we align the movement of attention and eye movement. These two type of movement can be disjointed in other situations.
Enhancing Cognitive Processes
Promotes Speedy Perception
- Create graphics that clearly point out a path or location for the users to see the most essential information in a graphic.
Improves Processing
- Directing the eyes helps ensure that irrelevant information is not dwelled upon.
- When a viewer is quickly guided to essential information it makes that job of the working memory that much easier.
Increases Comprehension
- Well organized information helps viewers construct coherent representations in their working memory. This makes referring back to mental schemas much easier.
Applying the Principle
- Through positioning and emphasis designers can create a suggested direction for the audience to follow.
- Position- an element's location
- Emphasis- direction of line, shape and texture
Position
- The frame of a graphic has a powerful effect on the meaning of the individual elements of a graphic and the overall graphic
- Standard Visual Hierarchy: Primary, Secondary & Equivalent
- Varying the position of an object in a frame changes its impact on the observer
Emphasis
- All designs need degrees of emphasis in order to stimulate and guide the viewer's attention.
- Emphasis can be achieved through contrast. Dramatic differences between information like color, texture, size, orientation, etc.
- Use contrast, but at varying levels. Even the contrast of visual elements needs to follow the rules of hierarchy.
- Any change in emphasis should enhance the message and clearly communicate the importance of each element.
Movement
- Three Visual Forces: the attraction exerted from the visual weight of surrounding elements, the shape of objects along their axes and the visual direction & action of the subject.
- Action photographs can stimulate areas of the brain associated with observing real motion.
- "Graphic designers can exploit the expressive qualities of lines and shapes to create movement based on the rhythm of elements."
- Designers can use the illusion of 3D space in order to communicate movement.
Eye Gaze
- We are communicative beings. We are attuned to detecting emotion in people's eyes and body language.
- We shift our eyes in the direction that someone else is looking. Even if it is a picture.
- Shifting one's eye gaze to see what somebody else is seeing could be an innate or learned primitive skill.
- Designers can use photos of people and to take advantage of eye gaze. If make the subject of the photo look at the most important information in our design than we can get our audience to look there as well.
Visual Cues
- First Steps of Viewer: Scan for information areas, prioritize information and select what information is most important.
- It is important that we optimize the viewing process through hierarchy and visual cues that help move the audience through the graphic.
Arrows and the Like
- The arrow is such a effective visual guiding device because the end of it is composes of a triangle. It therefore brings in a sense of dynamism.
- The arrow works and an information filtering device.
- Arrows should be dominant, but not overpower the overall hierarchy of the graphic.
Color Cues
- Color is a primitive feature detected in preventive. In a way, it is one of the first filtering cues interpreted by the viewer.
- When color cues become a characteristic of an element it helps to make the information memorable.
- Color can be used as an activator, filter and indicator in terms of information organization.
Principle Statement
There are various ways to direct the viewers eyes, but knowing what visual tools to employ for a given situation is critical. Designers must be able apply the principle of directing eyes in a way that supports comprehension of their intended message.
