Blog Entry #3: Rules of Design

Mini Art School #1

The piece of multimedia that I have chosen to critique is BuzzFeed's homepage.  I selected BuzzFeed because I enjoy reading BuzzFeed articles but usually link to them from another source and do not typically search from the homepage.  

BuzzFeed Homepage

Audience

The intended audience of this website is directed at young adults.  I think that the general size of text used is appropriate for this audience and is also organized beginning in the upper right hand corner, as is expected in Western cultures.  

Balance

Symmetrical balance: The layout of the homepage is primarily balanced visually from left to right.  However, I think that this may have been taken to an extreme in this case as there is a ton of visual information on the page.

Asymmetrical balance: There are many like objects given equal weight on the page, however there are also some that have been prioritized.  My eye is immediately drawn to the large visual of the twitter logo and then the Nicholas Sparks article as these are the two largest visuals on the page so they are given the most space and are also in the center of the screen, a focal point.  

Emphasis

Red is a dominant color and is used to emphasize the name of the company, a “best” listing, “trending” articles, types of articles, a secondary heading, and within many photographs/visual images.  This is distracting and leads the viewer to be confused about which of these is being emphasized as the most important information to focus on since multiple spaces are highlighted as such.  The size of text and images is varied to give additional importance to particular articles which are being featured which is a positive.

Proximity

It is somewhat difficult to initially determine items that are related.  Some visuals incorporate a background image with type superimposed over the image including the title of the article and why it is being promoted.  These photos group the image, title and association however as a whole, the layout is not clearly grouped into sections and therefore appears cluttered.

Alignment

I believe that BuzzFeed placed certain articles intentionally as they do use headings and some items are given in lists.  However, the homepage does feature some text that is left aligned and some that is centered.  This does not necessarily bother me as the centered photographs are given a place of importance and it blocks out that section from the following which is later broken into columns, which are all left-aligned.

Typography

There are different typefaces used and different styles used within the page.  The title of the page, BuzzFeed features small caps and bolding while “News Buzz Life” is in all caps, and there are at least seven different sizes of font in this clip alone.  Additionally, in the yellow circles there are different sized fonts used to fill the entire circle.  I understand why this happened, as some words are longer than others, however I think it would appear more organized if the smaller size type was used consistently.

Repetition

Once the columns are delineated, the pattern is repeated for an indeterminate amount of space.  I continued scrolling down to try to reach the bottom but the columns continued to extend the further I scrolled.  This creates predictability so that the consumer can know what to expect in each space.

I find the gif from the Nicholas Sparks article irritating and this form of repetition detracts from the user’s experience.  It is the only gif used on this page which does draw attention but it is also set to loop and continues repeating the same 1 second clip ad nauseum.  

Contrast

There are clear dark and light spaces in the space of the screen on the top of the page however the colors used compete with each other which impedes the organization.  There are different typeface choices throughout including variation in size, color, bolding, and font.

Color

There are many very bright and vibrant colors used over and over on the top of the homepage.  This makes it difficult for the reader to identify which pieces of text are most important and is visually jarring instead of appearing more fluid.  Red is used repeatedly to draw attention to many different pieces of the page however it is also a very intense color so it disturbs the balance of the page.

White Space

White space is the area around and between text and graphics used to break up the space.  Although I love BuzzFeed, this is the main rule of design that is being broken on their homepage.  (Individual articles do not typically have this problem).  To begin with, the space is far too overcrowded and there is limited negative space around visuals and text.  The content is very cluttered and it is difficult to delineate how articles are related visually.

Revisiting Previous Designs

While revisiting some of my previous designs, I have updated a few photographs that I had taken in Perú to reflect some of the new elements that I have learned.  

  

I adjusted the saturation and level of contrast in a few images.

I also made sure that the images were visually balanced in terms of areas of open space.

 

I also utilized cropping in one of my images to focus on the most important part of the photograph and eliminate distracting elements of blur in the foreground.

  

Overall I tried to be cognizant of how the image was balanced, the color palette used and how that affected the viewer’s focus and the proximity of different elements.

 Harmony Workshop Exercise
In this design exercise from Design Basics Index, written by Jim Krause, I created three separate flyers for a summer music festival using Google Drawing.  I chose to create a flyer for a festival for children inspired by Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play initiative which is designed to ensure that music education is available and accessible to all, especially those in underserved populations.  I selected this type of festival considering that arts involvement is vital to children’s emotional and social development and can improve their creativity and flexible thinking.  I considered different approaches including a variety of target audiences for each flyer.

This first flyer is more whimsical and colorful and geared toward the children themselves.  I included the basic information in large text and added a Fun Fact at the bottom of the flyer.  The images I selected are colorful and represent several different instruments that young children may be familiar with seeing and might want to learn to play.  The color scheme I chose was relatively muted and included rich golden and brown tones.

The second flyer features a good deal of contrast.  I still included the title of the even and basic information but I swapped out the Fun Fact in favor of including types of music available.  This flyer is geared more toward children who are seeking extracurriculars and parents who want their children to be involved with the study of music from a more serious perspective.  I decided to use only black and white graphics (featuring shadows of the instruments) as it contributed to the classic tone of the overall flyer.

The third flyer is somewhat a blend of the previous two: it includes some whimsy/creativity and features a couple of classic instruments.  It blends the golden/brown color scheme with the classic black and white for a blend of contrast with a pop of color.  I also included a fair amount of white space around my graphics and used the lines created by the top of the piano which aligns nicely with the angle of the text.  The top graphic also features a line which points directly toward the top of the basic information.  

I enjoyed learning about different elements of design while using a new digital tool (Google Drawings) to create different layouts of the same basic information in new designs.  It was fairly easy to use, especially when I wanted to freely move the different elements around on the screen as it superimposes a visual guide to line up objects both vertically and horizontally. I look forward to using these elements of design to create materials for my future classroom!