Figure ground is a funny thing. In essence, it simply mean "forground and background" which should be pretty obvious to have. However, what its all about is how the forground and background of anything plays together, so that you as a designer can use the mechanics of this to your advange.
A lot of people think of figure ground as something that is only for visuals, but in reality, it is for everything that you design. So, sit down, and listen, learn and become smarter as we go through all of the things you should be aware of when designing and how to take advange of figure ground.
You will learn
This is the last episode of the season, but we are going to return in the fall with some brand new episodes.
Recently, I wanted a cup of coffee from a coffee machine. I put my cup roughly where I believed that the coffee would come out, I then pressed the coffee I wanted, and then waited.. and waited.. and waited.. then looked at the panel, and found out that it asked me "Are you sure you want coffee?" .. I clicked yes.. and 40 seconds later I had my coffee.
This is an example of poorly placed friction.
In this episode we are discussing the 3 categories of Friction
You wil learn what they are, and how to use them
Prototyping is the art of creating early models to test ideas, emotions, and processes. To make it easier we have split it into three main types:
On of the main benefits of Prototypes testing, is that you get earyl understanding and you can iterate and refine concepts before committing resources. Overall making the whole thing a bit cheaper to develop.
We also talk about seeking truth in feedback, where one easy method is asking what to change and why.
Data collected through prototyping becomes valuable only when analyzed and understood.
Prototypes save time, validate ideas, and turn creative concepts into polished, functional designs.
In this episode you will learn
Resources
The lean startup - Eric Ries (yep, I looked it up :) )
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
The worlds WORST Chewbacca sound effect is in this episode.
If you never heard about Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound effect, you are not alone, but after listening to this episode, you will know what it is. And you will know how bad Thorbjørn is at saying.. Dialec.. Diaga.. Diegetic!
We are going through movies, games and a lot of other things in this episode, and applying the knowledge that Martin is giving us.
You will learn
What a a sound effect is, different types
Why use sfx? What is the benefits?
SFX in the context of design - how we get there
Emotion
References
A composer is a person that decides how you should feel, and then, makes you feel that. Sounds familiar? In this episode we are doing something that we dont do often, interview a person, and this person is Michael Coltham a composer whos box, is bigger than Martins!
Michael tells us all about how he works as a composer, what the process of creating a new composition is, which is not unlike Design Thinking, and how the itterative process of creating a new piece.
In this episode we get all around the topic from music to support your brand, music for film, Dynamic music for games and the list goes on. I promise that there is a lot of learning for you in this episode of Hidden By Design.
In this episode, you will learn
Resources
If you want to get a hold of Michael, here is how you do this
Black Lab Music - website: https://www.blacklabmusic.co.uk/
Here's his Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5T664fmEeBDgjy6BbfXYJd?si=c_0LzxN9T0eDOoXCjdXAcg
You can find and follow Michael Coltham on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcoltham/
"This is Dave's printers. I'm not here at the minute. Please phone me back, see you later."
If you want to hear Martin fail at making an example of a bad voiceover, this is the episode. Even trying to do a bad job, he does great!
In this episode, we are learning what voiceover is, and how it is VERY much design, the preperation, the understanding and the performance. In this episode, which is the first of a 3 part miniseries about Audio, we dive into voice over, what it is, and how it ties to Design.
A voice actor is designing the appropriate piece of voiceover for the context it will be used in, the audience that its for and the effect we want it to have.
Also, if you listen closely, you will hear, that I am not following Martins advice of drinking enough water, so my voice becomes more and more dry in the episode.
You will learn
Resources
What is a problem statement really, and is it really nessecary? (Yes it is ;) )
"Job to be done" is a tool to help you really understand the problem and stay focused on the problem rather than on the solution.
Thinking of the good old phrase "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution", job to be done is here to help you keep your love for the problem strong.
This episode is the first episode where we take a specific tool for doing and understanding design and investigate and try to explain it. The jobs to be done tool, have 3 elements
Anyways, listen to the episode, where we explain what this actually means.
Resources
Postels law, also known as the "Robustness principle" originally comes from the development and ideas of how the internet should be designed. The TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) was designed with the following sentence as a central point "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others".
How is this related to design you might ask? Well, really simple, because this can be directly applied to how you should think about design. Think about an input field and how it should be conservative in what it shows.
There should be a field, there should be a small explanation on what is expected in the field (email), and an example in the field helping the user (example@email.com) This should make sure that the user have a clear understanding of what is expected, and the context of the situation. However, once the user starts using it, the input field should accept that the user might make some mistakes. This could be the situation where the user is copy/pasting the email from another loaction, and there is a space at the end of the email. There is no emails that end with a space, (or starts with a space) but instead of just throwing an error in the direction of the user, we should silently understand that the space is not a valid charater and remove it, and handle the situation without bothering the user.
And this does not only apply to UI design, which is often used as an example on where to use this, but also when you are working with UX.
Here we are back to the basics that we talked about in the episode "What is Design" where we talked about the importance of understanding that the actor (our user) makes decisions in an environment (the context) and that we have to design our solution (object) in a way that caters for that. In the end, we know what we want the user to do, but we accept that there is a high chance that they will do something different (and something that could be considered an error) and we have to help them recover from these actions.
Give this episode a listen, its good !
You will learn
References
Do you rember that party you attended, where there was this one person who was really funny, and was the center of attention, and said so many funny things. And then, do you remember other conversations that was happening that night? It likely that you wont. And the reason, can be found in the Von Restorff Effect. The things that stand out, is what you remember.
In this episode of Midden By Design, Martin and Thorbjørn is talking about the Von Restorff effect, what it is, and just as important what it is not.
In this episode you will learn
References
Effectiviology.com - Von Restorff Isolation Effect
Lawsofux.com - Von Restorff Effect
The behaviours agency - The Von Restorff Effect
UX tweak - Von Restorff Effect
coglode.com - Von Restorff Effect
springer.com - Von Restorff Effect
http://web.archive.org/web/20210110132534/https:/www.utsa.edu/mind/von_restorff_translation.htm
Im not a businessman, I dont sell out, I am a designer!
I believe that this is a pretty common mindset, and also a really healthy one. But.. and yes, there is a but. If you do not make money, you are not free to create and share the good in this world. Further more, since everyone else in the world is also using the same concept of money, then when you are designing, this have a huge impact on the things that you do.
But, how can I use this as a designer you might ask? Well, I have some good news for you!
In this episode of Hidden By Desing we talk about the ways that business influence design, and how it is impacting the decisions you make as a designer. Amongst other things, we talk about the difference between "I make money so that I can create value to the user" and "I create value to the user, so that I can make money" and how the difference in this mindset can influence the way that you think and design.
You will learn
Damn, I really need the toilet, but I am far away from home!
We have all been there, out for a walk, and in need of a toilet! And it appears that the close we get to home, the more we need to go! At a point when we are there, its almost unbearable!
What I tell my kids when in this situation, and what helps me, is to imagine that the toilet is not at home, but somwhere else.. setting the goal further away, because somehow this helps!
This is a bad example, but it shows the idea perfectly. The closer you are to a goal, the more motivated you are to comlete it. And this appears to be true, also when you need a toilet.
In this episode of Hidden By Design, we are discovering the goal gradient effect, and how you can motivate people by setting a goal and being clear about their progress. A bit of its daily uses, and where you can find it in your daily life.
You will learn
What the Goal Gradient effect is.
How to use the Goal Gradient effect.
Some example of the Goal Gradient effect.
What is bad design, and how do you identify it?
Sometimes you will look at something, and think.. bah, that is a really bad design, the experience is totally off. And often you know this instinctively, but what if it is just a matter of your not being the one this was designed for, or you simply being in a bad mood.
Fear not, Hidden by Design is here to help you. We have questions you can ask about the design, and then you can use this as a parmeter for finding out if the design is good or not.
It is not nessecary for all designs to live up to all of these, but if a design fail most of these
Bonus: In this Episode, both Martin and me falls prey to a very famous Bias, which bias is this?
The questions:
UI is not design!
And with that out of the way, lets get to the meat of this episode.
This is an episode about understanding what User Interfaces (UI) is and isnt.
Now that you read this far, then I feel I need to make sure that I mention that design cannot exist without an interface, and so, in that way, they are connected at a very fundamental level. Its like paint in a painting, a painting cannot exist without paint.. but paint is not the painting, it shows the paiting.
This episodes starts with us talking about what users interfaces are, and this in the end, we do a lightning round of the laws of Gestalt.
In this episode you will learn
What UI is and isnt
The difference between GUI and HUD
Cognitive load
Chunking
Gestalt
This episode is about the relationship between emotions and decisions. We discuss how emotions are the brains way of making decisions, where as an example "hot state" decisions are made at high emotional influence.
Think about your emotions like a cup with a tiny hole in the bottom, everytime something fules that emotion, you put a bit of "emotional water" in the cup, if the water fills into the cup faster than it empties, then at some point, the cup overflows. These hot state feelings anger, love, or happiness, which leads to unreflective actions. So, if its happiness, you will start laughing uncontrolably, and what you will see is all the funny things happening, that will keep filling the happy/funny cup.
Understanding emotions is crucial for designers that wants to create designs that resonate at a deeper level with users.
You will learn:
References:
How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett
Why do we need to be great storytellers? And where does Storytelling fit into Design and user experience.
This is what we are talking about in this episode. By listning to this you will learn:
Resources:
Aristotles 7 Elements of Good Storytelling
Design Ops is there to help Designers "Doing the job that matters"
NNGroup defines the Design Ops as "The orchestration and optimization of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design’s value and impact at scale."
As soon as more people works together, and groups start to form in companies, then the overhead and bureaucracy becomes a factor in the way that everyone works together. This slows things down and becomes a burden to everyone.
This is where the Ops role comes into play.
In this episiode of Hidden By Design, we are talking about what Design Ops is, and what it can do for your organization.
You will learn:
Thank you for listening to our podcast
Resources:
Nothing is also something! And that is exactly what we are talking about in this episode of Hidden By Design. Most people are afraid of Whitespace, and in many cases that is a problem if you are a designer. This conversation will let you know the basics about whitespace, and some practical advice on how to use whitespace.
You will learn:
Resources:
Hidden By Design - The Laws of Gestalt
5 Best Tips on How Using White Space in Design to Improve Better UX
Understanding the difference between simple and simplistic, is fundamental to being able to do great design. The second thing you should learn is that users dont care about your design! Once you have these two things in place, then it becomes easier to focus on the right things when designing.
Anyways, I think you should just listen to this episode, which I believe is one of the best we made so far.
In this episode you will learn
Resources:
Start with why - Simon Sinek
Living with Complexity - Don Norman
A while back, we asked around for everyones favourite designs and what good design meant to them. In this episode we go through some of the answers and have a discussion about that.
Thank you to all who contributed, it was really a pleasure reading and discussing all of this with you.
Time and the use of time is massively underestimated as a tool for anyone who is creating experiences.
As a designer, and creator of creative content, there is two types of times. Physical time and Experienced time.
In this episode, you will learn how to relate to time as a designer, and how you use this knowledge to change the users experience of time in your creations and designs.
We are going to cover FOMO, Peak end Rule, Parkinsons Law and to Goal gradient effect amongst other things.
And then a little easer egg at the end... dad humor is the best.
