St. Amant: Cognition, Recognition and Visual Design Key Webinar Notes

Interaction/ Feedback Approach: personal process for understanding human feedback

Visual feedback*

Effective Communication

* How the mind processes visual design

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            -   Facial recognition

-          -  Body language

Configuration: how the above mentioned process is applied to inanimate objects

Trial and error: “Visual models that guide behavior looking for visual feedback in terms of cues that indicate what I what done was done correctly or not until there is an effective visual mental model” (11:34 to 11:57)

Feedback/input communicates the communication was successful

Attention (What gains attention?)

Comprehension (what ensures comprehension?)

The need for paratextual information in the use of symbolic communication (the attention/ comprehension gap)

Moving beyond the descriptive to the process of coordinating information in technical writing (I knew Pigg could have said it easier). The decision to use symbols over words as text (relativity)

Identification: The normalization of symbols as universal text. 

*Analogous- making new things look like old things so individuals can easily transfer stored mental models.

How visuals influence daily life:

* Perception: the interpretation of visual cues (especially in the face of lack of contextual information).

•          Practical design
•      Works with incomplete information to let mental models fill in the blanks (Gestalt theory)
•      Orients the mind for how to comprehend information: how to show the viewer what to look at by drawing their attention to specific visual cues (warshack)

 Evaluation: is the visual depiction effective?

Affirmation: the credibility of the design.