The Details of Minimalism

     Minimalism is a design trend that focuses on stripping away any unnecessary elements, leaving only what is core and fundamental to the design. In many ways, there is beauty in this simplicity and many artists, engineers, and designers have taken note. First emerging in the world of visual arts in 1960, it was met with some skepticism and outrage when first displayed in exhibitions. Barnett Newmans, Voice of Fire was commissioned for Expo 67 for a value of $1.8 million, sparking some outrage amongst the public who viewed the seemingly "lazy" artwork as being overpriced, even more so when it was discovered that it was originally displayed upside down. From these early expo's the trend of minimalism reached architecture. Here minimalism entailed that a house is best described as a roof and 4 walls, naturally a one room house isn't very practical so minimalism played a greater role in deciding aesthetic decisions. Sharp square edges, white rooms, natural lighting, and other such themes became the mainstay of minimalist architecture.
     Minimalism is quite commonplace nowadays. The Apple logo for instance is easily recognizable even without any context. Minimalism and UI design go hand in hand as designers are grateful that they can combine easy of use with aesthetics. Reducing the number of elements on a screen allows users with limited technological knowledge to make sense of the core functions of an application. Making this simplicity work requires a great deal of creativity from the designer but the many hours it saves the users is well worth the effort. As computer systems become more complex, and the density of information we take in increases, the role of minimalism will be integral in making sure people get the most out of their applications.

Bibliography

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Voice_of_Fire_photo.jpg
• https://www.dezeen.com/tag/minimalist-architecture

The Heads Up On HUDs

     As an avid gamer I am very familiar with the concept of head-up displays, but it is still strange to think that HUD's have been around for more than 70 years! The term head-up display comes from the first usage of this design technique in the 1940's. RAF (Royal Air Force) night pilots, in order to view a targets location on radar, would have to tilt their head downwards to view the radar screen then bring their heads up to view out their windshield. In order to avoid this unnecessary head movement the TRE (Telecommunications Research Establishment), which was responsible for radar technologies in the UK at that time, created the Head-up embedding the radar display into the planes windshields.
     In the 1950's there were many HUD manufacturers, and this competition led to many advancements in design. The addition of altitude information, holographic cross-hairs, ammunition and fuel information were some of the major contributions in this time period. Nowadays these technologies show up in multiple places including car windshields, video games, and even helmet screens for jet fighter pilots. The most commonly known place is in FPS (first person shooter) video games. Coming full circle back to military use, the use of HUD's in  FPS's is chiefly to display information like Radars, ammunition, objectives (in the form of waypoints), and bodily health.
    The next step for HUD's might make them more common than smartphones. Googles "Google Glass" is already one such advancement. The increasing commonality of augmented reality in both video games and casual use might push HUD's to become an everyday norm. The power of vision and analysis is a major factor when it comes to how humans view the world around them, wearing a pair of glasses that lets you increase the information you are taking in can open up many opportunities. A motorcyclist won't need to spend that dangerous quarter second glancing down at the speedometer, or a person with hampered vision might be able to zoom in on his/her medical prescription. As computers become smaller and more powerful merging them with our established senses becomes easier, opening up more doors for human ability.

Bibliography

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-up_display
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar
• http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/head-up-display1.htm
• http://bodyhacks.com/heads-up-displays-are-about-to-be-as-common-as-smartphones

The Subtleties of Fonts

    When the goal of most text is simply to communicate it's contents then it is no surprise that fonts tend to be more passive and non-threatening so as to not distract away from the message. But the predicative downside of this is that fonts are no longer distinctive. Some fonts such as Times (or Times New Roman) and Comic Sans are distinctive only because they are so commonplace. This sentence is different from the last because it is written in Georgia instead of the default font, but if i were asked to name the difference between the two fonts I could only say the very minute difference in size. Fonts like Courier look as though they were written on a typewriter and you would think you would notice if it came up in a document, however if an entire document was written in this font then it would go unnoticed by the reader. 

    We make use of uniformity so that fonts don't distract from the content but some fonts can be used to set an almost subconscious tone to the writing. Courier can be used when you wish for your text to feel vintage and official, when one imagines 'classified' documents it is often in a font similar to Courier. For newspapers hard-stamped and clear lettering like Times (or Times New Roman) express professionalism and one would very quickly notice if it was replaced by something like Comic Sans. These subtleties add up, and we often don't pay them as much credit as we should. Even when they seem to be dull and non-threatening, fonts still add a richness to the text that often goes unnoticed until it's replaced by something atrocious (like Comic Sans).

Dangerous Design Decisions

    Having dedicated designers is important, even more so when dealing with potentially dangerous products. The following, for example, are two aerosol spray cans that carry insecticide and cooking oil. Having these products look similar is bound to cause at least one mix-up resulting in injury. A simple design board could have avoided this problem, even something as subtle as inverting the two colors (black and yellow) on one of the cans could have been a solution. Design flaws such as these are everywhere, preventing them is the bare minimum a designer should do.

                                                             (img source: http://i.imgur.com/zSpVbou.png)

    Product recalls are one way of dealing with the aftermath of bad design. Hasbro's easy-bake oven was a children's toy that let children cook some foodstuffs using electric heating. After selling almost a million units it had to be recalled because children got their hands trapped inside the doors, resulting in burns and blunt trauma. I personally am old enough to remember the extensive ad campaign but it is only recently that I heard about this recall (the recall occurring in 2007). At the time I wasn't old enough to realize the absurdity of giving a child a plastic enclosed heating element, but that same ignorance was also followed by many adults who deemed it just fine and bought the toys for their children. One just naturally assumes that if something is being advertised that heavily then it must be safe, and that it probably already passed all the necessary tests or else it wouldn't even be on the market. So where does the blame lie? the producer or the consumer? My answer would be "it depends". In the first case that we examined (the cooking oil/insecticide case) it is clear that the designers did not plan sufficiently well, but in the easy-bake oven scenario the blame can go either way. Why make a toy that can potentially burn a user? and why buy a toy that can potentially burn your child? perhaps it is the grandness of the institutions that lead to these oversights. Hasbro is a large company and with any large company some mistakes can be overlooked by the thought process "someone else will fix it", as for the adults that buy the toys, the thought process saying "all the other adults are buying it for their children so it's probably safe enough" leads to such outcomes. Sometimes bad designs can lead to injury, it is for this reason that safety boards need to be very strict. Which is good for everybody, companies don't need to worry about expensive recalls, and consumers are less likely to be injured by conventional use of the products they buy.

Source for easy-bake recall information: https://www.cpsc.gov/recalls/2007/easy-bake-ovens-recalled-for-repair-due-to-entrapment-and-burn-hazards/

Depth of a Logo

    What makes a logo memorable? Is it the amount of information it conveys about the company, i.e name, product, or industry? Or is it something as basic as having a good color scheme and eye catching shapes? I would argue that the most memorable logos are the minimalist ones. Conveying more information with less noise makes a brand instantly recognizable. The apple Logo for instance need not contain anything other than a grey able for it to be recognized, the same with the golden arches of McDonalds. Some logos are able to condense more information in fewer imagery by hiding tidbits of information within the icons themselves.

    From my personal experience however, the most memorable Logo I have encountered, and the logo which makes me pay attention to it each time I see it, is the standard FedEx logo. After having been told about the hidden iconography I could never ignore the logo again. Although it is a fairly simple shape, the arrow found between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’ in FedEx is something which catches my eye time and time again. This has led me on a search for more hidden icons, a few of which can be seen in the following image.

Image credits: Rikard, Zevendesign.com, Apr 7^th,2015 (http://www.zevendesign.com/how-to-design-a-logo/)

    These images make the consumer think twice about logo, and if the goal of marketing is capturing and holding the interest of the consumer then hiding these little Easter eggs are a great way to do it.