Measuring Design Effectiveness

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

Design Effectiveness started by researching methods to test design effectiveness. Once students had an understanding of this concept, students created surveys and collected data. Students began the second half of the course by researching infographics and data visualization. Students used these new competencies to create infographics with data visualization to communicate the results from their surveys.

Surveys + Questionnaires were examined while researching method for testing the design effectiveness. Students found that surveys collective quantitative information buy asking participates a set of questions (O’grady, 2009). Student’s not only studied types of surveys, but effective ways to write questions to avoid bias and measure specific values. A design’s effectiveness is not about how visually appealing the design is, but also testing if the design is appealing to the target market. A design can be visually appealing to a designer but without understanding the market conditions and the target market being drawn to it the design is ineffective. Student’s also studied Design Hierarchy of Needs. Designs should attempt to be functional, then reliable, then useable, then proficient, and last creative (O’Grady, 2013). Student’s created collections between information and determined that having the most creative innovative idea does not matter if the concept is not effective for the target audience, if the brand identity is not clear and consistent. The design community often puts innovative ideas at the forefront, but quality effective designs may be a more achievable goal for every project.

During the second half of the course students created infographics to visual express the complex data from their surveys. Student’s learned about data visualization, using charts and graphs to express data is a visual manner. Using the visual data students incorporated them into infographics. Students read that there are many types of infographics (Ritchie, n.d.) and had to determine the best type to express the results from their surveys. The infographics were then designed to match their brand personality. Colors, text, and images can portray brand personality in a way that easy for consumers to digest but also create an engaging and fun viewing experience (Sheikh, n.d.). After fully understanding infographics and data visualization, students began sketching infographics and then created them in a digital manner to match their brand identity.  Below is Ryland’s final design.

Problem Solving

During Design Effectiveness, one problem a student may have encountered would have been deploying the BoxPark Sushi evaluations survey. First identifying how to reach the target market and then collecting results from those within the target market. At first Ryland struggled to collect results, first posting for facebook friends, Ryland’s results were rather skewed and did not include much of the younger age demographic. Ryland had to widen his search field. The target market is specifically young adults in East Side Milwaukee. Finding enough results in this exact market during the timeframe would be near impossible, so Ryland had to decide if a wider geographic area or a wider age range was going to maintain the most accurate results. Ryland decided focus on the age range and picked a series of facebook groups that generally have younger demographics including the local LGBT group, SCAD Graphic Design Students, and a local exchange facebook group. Ryland still gained some results outside of the target age range, but did receive a large variety of experiences from senior designers working in corporate settings to people with no concept of design theory. 

Innovative Thinking

Student’s learned from the User Hierarchy of Needs (O’Grady, 2013) that having innovative unique ideas really isn’t the most important thing. The infographic created this week isn’t extremely innovative, it doesn’t include animations, it doesn’t have any WOW factor, but more importantly, it hits the other primary foundational principles. The infographic is functional, reliable, useable, and proficient. The design follows the brand guidelines and clearly communicates the data. It does exactly what it was indented to do and that is the most important thing. Adding additional “innovative” ideas may have altered this brand identity or taken away from the clear communication. 

Acquiring Competencies

	Academic	Occupational
Technical	Data Visualization Data visualizations are the visual representations of numerical values. Data visualizations include charts and graphs. Infographics Infographics are a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations text and images to tell a story	Surveys and Questionnaires These are used to collect information about the opinions and preferences of a defined group
Conceptual	Hard Values Hard values refer to things that are tangible and concrete. An example of hard value is the production on outdoor signage. Soft Values Soft values are intangible, subjective and more difficult to measure. An example of soft values can be the positive impressions the photography, typography and color of a design can bring. The feeling and emotion that the user experiences is the soft value.	Measuring Design Effectiveness Measurements help designers gain a better understanding of the field, make inform decisions and provide an understanding what they want and need to achieve Hierarchy of User Needs Maslow’s hierarchy of needs inspired William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler, authors of Universal Principals of Design, to explain user needs and design function. In their version of the pyramid, the hierarchy from low to high would be functionality, reliability, usability, proficiency and creativity. Much like Maslow’s concept, designs must first address basic user needs before it can go on to fulfill higher level functions.

References

Jennifer Visocky O’grady, & Kenneth Visocky O’grady. (2009). A Designer’s Research Manual. Gloucester, Mass. Rockport.

Jennifer Visocky O’grady, & Kenneth Visocky O’grady. (2013). Design Currency: Understand, Define and Promote the Value of your Design Work. New Riders.