Abstract

Visual messages are pervasive throughout modern societies, being continually disseminated and consumed through various channels, such as portable communication technologies, computers, television and print. Visual communication designers are tasked to create and produce highly perceivable and meaningful visual messages that populate these visual channels, but lack the science-based tools to ensure their designs are effective before they are disseminated. A set of visual communication design criteria and tools, aimed to increase design research effectiveness, will be derived through research focusing on three communicationrelated disciplines, including perception psychology, data visualization, and semiotics. These criteria and tools will then be applied to case studies of web- and print-based visual presentations to study their viability as research tools. This paper asserts that various disciplines outside visual communication design can contribute to the development of useful design tools, that, through further research, could potentially offer visual communication designers and researchers a comprehensive design research, and design practice, toolkit.

Keywords

Visual communication design; perception; meaning; semiotics

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Jun 16th, 12:00 AM

Enhancing Visual Meaning: Measuring Visual Communication Design Effectiveness

Visual messages are pervasive throughout modern societies, being continually disseminated and consumed through various channels, such as portable communication technologies, computers, television and print. Visual communication designers are tasked to create and produce highly perceivable and meaningful visual messages that populate these visual channels, but lack the science-based tools to ensure their designs are effective before they are disseminated. A set of visual communication design criteria and tools, aimed to increase design research effectiveness, will be derived through research focusing on three communicationrelated disciplines, including perception psychology, data visualization, and semiotics. These criteria and tools will then be applied to case studies of web- and print-based visual presentations to study their viability as research tools. This paper asserts that various disciplines outside visual communication design can contribute to the development of useful design tools, that, through further research, could potentially offer visual communication designers and researchers a comprehensive design research, and design practice, toolkit.

 

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