May 2017 | Allemansrätten – or the freedom to roam
We’ve evolved as a species to pick the most important thing out of a mess of visual clutter, be it predator, prey, potential mate, or call-to-action button. That rapid detection – what you notice the most - is called visual saliency. So how do you use visual saliency to improve click-through rates, to get the user to tap through to the next screen? Luminance contrast. Here are some nice heat maps showing examples of good and bad luminance contrast, no predators involved.
1
VISUAL SALIENCY AND LUMINANCE CONTRAST
2
THE IN BETWEEN
It’s challenging to write instructions because we invariably leave out key details. This post walks you through the seemingly simple process of instructing someone to make a PB&J sandwich. Not complicated, right? Lies. It’s totally complicated. (Read the post for the scoop because it would take me forever to write out the proper instructions here.) After you read through a bunch of stuff about making PB&J sandwiches (with the possible side effect of then wanting to eat a PB&J), there’s some relevant content for designers: The best thing you can do for your users is make it super-duper easy to use your app. Obvs. But how? Fill in the gaps where the user would normally need to take action with what we here at AT&T would call a frictionless or effortless process. Again, how? Fill in the gaps for the user so that the user doesn’t have to leave the flow (and you don’t have to cross your fingers that the user will return). With magic. And APIs.
3
THE POLITICS OF TYPOGRAPHY
Branding, culture, politics, Western rule. You can find all of these in typography. (Particularly interesting is the way transforming written Arabic into a typeface was an act of oppression.)
4
More on the evolutionary psychology front: When you peer around an open floor plan and see the range of emotions displayed on your coworkers’ faces, you may find yourself tired, anxious, distracted, confused, happy, or any other emotion your coworkers are feeling when you see their faces. Mirror neurons allow us to make important connections with other humans, but they can also wreak havoc on your emotional interior when you’re presented with too many at once.
STANDING DESK, CONTAGEOUS EMOTION
5
AIRBNB’ING AN ENTIRE COUNTRY
Last month I wrote about Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Literally Perfect campaign. This month, Sweden posted all its open space on Airbnb to support Allemansrätten, the Swedish concept of freedom to roam the countryside. Take a look at those pictures. Anyone up for a trip?