Category Archives: Uncategorized

Analogies are cognitive processes that use alternate subjects to describe or represent a source topic. Typically, analogies are used to support a description of the source that may otherwise be too abstract to understand easily. Analogies can exist linguistically, visually, … Continue reading →

Innatists believe that people are born with an ability to understand and comprehend language (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p.15-17). The child begins with a template that describes how a language is supposed to flow. People later learn the details of … Continue reading →

Icons are intended to be unambiguous. Following a set of guidelines can help ensure that icons are designed in an interpretable manner. Icons should be understandable, explicit, informative, distinct, memorable, coherent, familiar, legible, few, compact, attractive, and extensible (Horton, 1996, … Continue reading →

Lately, I’ve been posting substantial information on design and color, such as Color Psychology, Understanding and Interpreting Form, Principles of Graphic Design, and Elements of Graphic Design. To complement these postings, I decided to write a bit about how the … Continue reading →

Color has a profound impact on art and perception. Many researchers have executed numerous experiments on color psychology in an attempt to develop an understanding of the phenomena of human perception. Results show that all people generally react similarly to … Continue reading →

An understanding of gestalt (German for “shape”) is necessary if creating a meaningful and interpretable set of icons. Gestalt explores fundamental concepts of graphic development based on psychological research. The brain takes abstract designs and finds similarities among them. Gestalt … Continue reading →

While the elements of graphic design typically refer to the primitive structures of form, principles hold more philosophical and subjective concepts. Elements are easier to measure and have a more objective meaning and interpretation. The principles of graphic design are … Continue reading →

This is my book of choice for introductory web design and development courses. I have made this a required text for the students in my recent classes. I used to use Elizabeth Castro’s Visual Quickstart Guide, but have changed to … Continue reading →