I've always been so intrigued by the creation of color. It raises so many questions for me the more I to think about it. When I think of color, I immediately think of Pantone colors. The layout of each color is so consistent and gives each color just enough space to have its own personality. How do they do it? What does the lab look like at Pantone Color Institute? What is the science behind it and what is the intention of each new color?

I recently discovered a video produced as an advertisement for the wonderful work done by United Way Centraide Canada . This campaign a introduces a color by Pantone that was created as a tool to engage in conversation about social change. The color is absolutely beautiful red/orange color and has an entire campaign built around it; #UNIGNORABLE presented by the United Way of Canada. This color is meant to force people out of their comfort  zones to talk about poverty and how it's effecting people around Canada and around the world. It reminds me a lot of the (RED) the iconic organization fighting HIV/AIDS. 

It's great to see how color can be used for social awareness and the prospect that social change is energized through the power of color is inspirational.

 I wanted to share a bit of the research I did this week on female type designers. Two women that really inspired me this week are Veronika Burian, and Barbara “Bobbie” Stauffacher Solomon.

Veronika Burian is a type designer and cofounder of TypeTogether, an independent, cosmopolitan type foundry that creates text typography for intensive digital and print editorial use. Veronia is also involved with Alphabettes.org,  a showcase for work, commentary, and research on lettering, typography, and type design by female type designers. I started following their instagram account which has such a global impact - very cool. 

Revisiting art and design history, I came across a video featuring the accomplishments of Bobbie Stauffacher Solomon. I love her honesty and modesty and her attitude toward design at what it meant to her. I think her story further  how influential Helvetica was on generations of designers. 

What I love about being in school is the feeling of The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. That humbling, unhinging and sometimes unsettling feeling reminds me that there is alway room to grow. This past week I've been reading about, critiquing and practicing several principals of design. As a self taught graphic designer, many of these principals have not been part of my practice, which is slightly uncomfortable to admit. That said, the basic, foundational principals have made an impact on how I am approaching the simplest of design tasks in my day to day work. Furthermore, I work with students who often help me create graphic and simple printed collateral. I feel more confident in how I'm critiquing their work and helping them understand how to create effective layouts. 

I ran across this article while researching user personas. "Why User Personas Often Fail in User Experience Design"
https://uxdesign.cc/why-user-personas-often-fail-in-user-experience-design-fdc8d3f4cc21

Because of my keen passion for visual design, I have been attracted to the presentation of the User Personas – there are some really nice looking personas! For me, it's easy to get caught up in the visual aspects of user persona design.  What I like about Hsu’s article is that he does a good job of explaining why personas exist while introducing a technical method to analyze user data to create user segments. I have yet to approach this in my UXD practice, but I think it's important to keep in mind that user personas are more than just something to awe clients with. The presentation is appealing, but more importantly, they are created to help the product work well, the visuals are more like icing on the cake. 

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Considering the imperfections of our short term memory, I have become much more aware of how products are designed with and without short and long term memory in mind. Meeting reminder alarms are a good example of how a product is designed to alert you 15 minutes before you've schedule a meeting. Most technology is capable of this. Or how a website will change the color of visited links so you don't click on the same thing over and over again. A very accessible design feature to make us feel smart. Our lives are so complicate with school, work, family, obligation after obligation. We have a lot to do and top keep track of.

Good design makes for good usability and makes our lives easier! The internet of things is a perfect example of how are lives become easier with good design. The internet of things - everything is connected! This is becoming a desired component of our lives. Everything in our day to day can be controlled by your smart watch. Designing for our short term memory. Good design is so appealing, but when does it become affordable?

We don't own many "smart" products in our home, but I can dream of my apple watch communicating with my smart washer to remind me to change the load or communicating with my smart garage opener to remind me to close the garage door when it gets dark. The goal of good design is to make us feel smart, confident and accomplished. I love learning about new technologies products and applications that are making life easier for people, but I think I am most inspired by design that is for the greater good of humanity not just those who can afford the newest technology. 

The Ihangane project is a good example of good design can make life easier for a group of people who are working toward one common goal for the greater good of a community. This project, by Greater Good Studios began a grassroots effort to help health challenges in Rawanda. The goal is to support nurses as they gather and record critical health data. A goal of this tool is to increase the accuracy and completeness of data collected from mothers and children. This is the kind of design that inspires my passion for user experience design. 

While diving deeper into the understanding of User Experience Design, I’ve been really captivated with the cognitive process of acquiring knowledge through our senses, specifically, sight. Obviously, our vision plays an integral role in how we absorbed information, but what resonates with me is our peripheral vision and its inability to keep us informed of our task at hand.
 
My paternal grandfather has macular degeneration which has robbed his visual field of the central and most imperative part of the retina, the macula which is the small central area controlling visual acuity. I often wonder how the world is seen through his eyes, unable to focus on a particular thing. Our peripheral vision gives us cues, insights and warnings while collecting data that is imperative to our vision as a whole. At the same time, it leaves us blind to detailed information. The Macula is home to the fovea, the retina’s most prized mechanism for helping us focus on a specific task. 

Processing Resources. The fovea is only about 1% of the retina, but the brains visual cortex devotes about 50% of its area to input from the fovea. The other half of the visual cortex processes date from the remaining 99% of the retina. Johnson, J. (2014). Designing with the Mind in Mind: Second Edition
 
Understanding peripheral vision has really helped me appreciate the frustrations I’ve had with poor design. I have blamed myself so many times for not being able to fill out an online form without at least one missing field. Often times I try submitting the form several times before I even knowing that there was an error. It is the responsibility of the designer to make users feel secure and accomplished in our task. Just because an actual person is not there holding your hand through each step doesn’t mean that we should remove customer service from the equation. User experience is the customer service and we need to accommodate the users visual field within our design process. 

Week 1 of the KSU UXD program has my energized and excited to learn more. 

Check out my User Experience Design  pattern collection on Pinterest to check in on my MA journey in the UXD program at KSU.

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