the nature of

what and how things mean

representation
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY REPRESENTATION? //////////////////////////

THE CONTEXT OF CULTURE / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

CHOOSING AN APPROPRIATE SIGN ////////////////////////////////////
34
36
38
2
categorization / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 38
representational style ////////////////////////////////////////////// 42
ORDERING THE ELEMENTS WITHIN THE REPRESENTATION / / / / / / / / / / / 45
narrative //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 45
the relationship between text and image / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 48
MATCHING THE REPRESENTATION TO ITS CONTEXT OF USE ////////// 49
SUMMARY ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 53
You are in a restaurant with a friend and are
planning to go to a movie together after dinner. You will be driving in
separate cars but your friend does not know how to get to the theater.
So you draw the route between the restaurant and the theater on a
napkin. This map is a representation: it describes, depicts, or stands
in some way for the experience of driving from the restaurant to the
specified location.

Your map, however, differs significantly from the one provided by the auto club.
Both maps include roads and landmarks, but your map excludes any features
or aspects that are not essential to the task of getting to the movie theater. It
focuses only on the sequence of decision-making points along a specific route,
and these are likely to have been depicted slightly inaccurately by the scale of
your drawing. In contrast, the auto-club map has the far larger task of providing
accurate navigation routes to and from anywhere in the city.
Your map includes specific roads and landmarks that you know your friend
will recognize. Knowledge of your friend and of the route allow you to shape the
map references in very particular ways: the intersection where there used to be
a gas station, the school where you both went to kindergarten, the store where
your friend’s mother works. In other words, the representation is motivated
by the histories of you, your friend, and the location, as well as by the specific
task of getting to the theater.
If a stranger were to find your map on the ground in the parking lot of the
theater, information about its origin would be encoded in its form. Even without
knowing who made the map, someone could tell that it had been created under
particular circumstances (over a meal or a drink, for example) and had probably
been accompanied by a verbal explanation, which presumes some degree of
familiarity between the maker and the user. The forms used in the map tell
the stranger something about how comfortable the maker was in his or her
mapmaking role and to what degree personal observation informed the task.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY
REPRESENTATION?
As this example shows, representation (see p. 26) is a process through
which people make something that expresses an interest in some particular
aspect of something else and that is motivated by both context and intent.1
Representations are substitutions for something else, surrogates in some
alternative form that provide information about things, as well as about the
makers and, possibly, the audiences for those things. The map to the movie
theater is a substitute for both the physical route (a configuration of landscape
features and roads) and the mental concept of driving the route (a conceptual

34 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 plan that gives a sequence of physical actions to enable someone to reach a
goal and that shows the order of particular stimuli along a path on the way to
the goal). It also expresses a relationship between the maker and the audience.
Representations may be expressions of intangible ideas, concepts, or feelings
in some physical form (for example, a gesture, a drawing, or a poem). They may
also communicate information about tangible objects, people, or places in the
real world in a different physical form (for example, diagrams, photographs, or
maps). And in other instances, one representational form may be substituted
for another, such as a film for an oral history or a picture of five apples for the
Arabic numeral 5.
The most basic unit of representation is the SIGN, which is something that SIGN

stands for something else to someone in some respect. For example, C-O-W The most basic unit
of representation.
is a linguistic sign. There is consensus among speakers of English that this According to
combination of letters and the sounds associated with them stand for a large Ferdinand de
Saussure’s linguistic
farm animal that gives milk. A soldier who salutes with his or her right hand is model, a sign consists
also a sign: there is a common understanding in many cultures that this gesture of a signifier and a
signified. According
signifies respect for those of higher rank among members of the military. And a to Charles Sanders
red cross composed of two intersecting lines of equal length and width is a sign. Peirce, a sign is
something that means
In non-Arab countries, this symbol stands for a politically neutral organization something to someone
dedicated to emergency relief in times of war or disaster. in some respect.
In these examples, the relationship between the physical attributes of
the sign and what it stands for is ARBITR ARY. ARBITRARINESS

Nothing about C-O-W looks or sounds like a Ferdinand de

Saussure suggested
real cow. The same letters may be used in other that the relationship
words and have no meaning associated with between a sign and
what it stands for is
animals, farms, or milk (for example, MosCOW, arbitrary. In visual
COWard, or CO-Worker; see also p. 106). and verbal language,
the correspondence
The arbitrary nature of the Red Cross between the sign
symbol is evident in its history (SEE FIGURE 2.1). and its meaning is
a matter of cultural
Standing for an organization founded in 1863 agreement, not an
by five men from Geneva, Switzerland, to aid inherent property
of the sign itself.
wounded soldiers, the symbol is the inverse of
2.1 RED CROSS, RED CRESCENT,
AND RED CRYSTAL, 2007 the Swiss flag (a red cross on a white background, rather than the Swiss white
International Federation of Red Cross and cross on a red background). As such, it borrows the country’s signification of
Red Crescent Societies
neutrality in times of war. In other words, the meaning of one sign was assigned
All three symbols stand for a neutral arbitrarily to the meaning of another.
organization that provides relief in times
of war or disaster. The relationship
Because any cross also has cultural associations with Christianity, the
between this meaning and each of the organization operates as the “Red Crescent” in Arab countries—what one group
three forms is arbitrary. There is no
of people associates with neutrality is charged with less-than-neutral religious
meaning inherent in the cross, crescent,
or diamond;significance is established significance for another. In 2005, an international committee addressed the
solely through their use in cultural dilemma of a two-symbol system for the same relief effort. A new symbol
practice. Three different identities are
necessary because various countries adopted by the two organizations, the “Red Crystal,” is described as “free
associate the symbols with ideas unrelated from any religious, political, or other connotation.”2 But many Arab countries
to the organization’s work.
saw the adoption of a third symbol as an unnecessary accommodation to
Israel, which refused to use either the cross or the crescent. A frustrated Swiss
diplomat said, “We’re actually trying to get a solution for the Red Cross,
but some seem to want us to try to solve the entire Middle East conflict.”3

what do we mean by representation? 35

 This ability to read abstract symbols in many ways, and to assign new
meaning to a form that previously had no meaning, demonstrates the
arbitrariness of signs.

THE CONTEXT OF CULTURE

The intention in all three previous examples (the cow, the soldier, and the
red cross) is to exchange meaning with other members of our culture. Such a
meeting of minds is usually achieved through language, which is, according to
the cognitive psychologist Donald Norman, a representational system in which
the represented world (those things about which we communicate) is expressed
in terms of a representing world (the signs, sounds, and symbols we use in
that communication).4 Were there not some cultural consensus about the
meaning of signs and symbols among members of a linguistic community,
communication would not be possible.
The sociologist Stuart Hall dissects this notion of the signifying practices of
culture in his book Representation (1997). He cites three different theoretical
REFLECTIVE approaches to explaining the concept. The REFLECTIVE APPROACH suggests that
APPROACH
meaning resides in the object, person, or event in the real world and that the
Stuart Hall used this
term to refer to a view language system simply reflects or mimics what is already there.5 But he says
of representation in that if this were the case we would not be able to communicate about things
which the meaning of
something is inherent never seen or through metaphor or analogy: the atomic structure of a chemical
in the person, object, element would be incomprehensible as a diagram and a rose would simply be a
place, or event itself
and the representation
flower with thorns, never a poetic expression of affection or beauty.
simply mirrors what The INTENTIONAL APPROACH takes the opposite stance, whereby meaning
is already there.
is imposed on the object, person, or event by the author or maker of the repre-
INTENTIONAL sentation.6 But if this were true, says Hall, we would be able to communicate
APPROACH
through entirely private languages. We could simply decide that a sign stands
Stuart Hall used this
term to refer to a view for something (a circle for childhood, for example) and that everyone, without
of representation in explanation or education, would instantly understand the association of the
which the meaning of
something is imposed sign with this idea.
on the representation The CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH acknowledges the public, social character
by its author or maker.
of language. This third theory posits that we construct meaning through the
CONSTRUCTIONIST use of representational systems that link concepts to signs.7 The conceptual
APPROACH
system is made up of our mental representations of things in the world and
Stuart Hall used this
term to refer to a view we correlate it with a language system made up of sounds, images, gestures, or
of representation in words in order to exchange their meanings with others.8 The material world of
which the meaning
of something is people, things, and places is therefore linked to the symbolic social practices
shaped partially by the through which meaning is made. A church is not a church simply because it
social practices that
surround it. See also
has certain physical components (steeple, altar, pews, and so on), but because
constructionism (p. 20). it is a place of cultural rites and rituals, spiritual associations, and community,
and because we have come to associate its form with these activities through
our social and cultural experiences.
The graphic example of the swastika illustrates the constructedness of rep-
resentational meaning through cultural practices. Used for thousands of years,
the abstract form held meaning for cultures as diverse as the ancient Trojans
and Egyptians, Europeans in the Middle Ages, and Native Americans. The
word swastika comes originally from the Sanskrit svastika, meaning “good,”

36 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 and throughout history the symbol has been used to connote life, sun, power,
strength, and good fortune.9 The Germans appropriated it in the nineteenth
century as a symbol for German nationalism and used it as their battle sign.
When Hitler resurrected the form in 1920 all former positive associations gave
way under the brutal practices of the Third Reich (SEE FIGURE 2.2). As much as the
Nazis viewed it as a symbol of the Aryan struggle, others saw hate and genocide
in its form. In this instance, the aesthetic qualities of the abstract graphic form
itself, its long history of positive associations, and the significance assigned
to it by those in charge of its application were insufficient in overcoming the
negativity of social practices surrounding its use in Germany in World War II.
So strong are these social meanings that, even decades later, it is inconceivable
2.2 SWASTIKA that the symbol can be recast in modern times.
Stuart Hall describes these associations as SEMANTIC NETWORKS, as fields of SEMANTIC
The swastika is used by various religions NETWORK
and dates back to prehistory. For most related meanings, with each network having its own characteristic language
of its history, the swastika had positive Stuart Hall’s term
or discourse. In Doing Cultural Studies (1997) Hall analyzes the Sony for the field of
associations; its use by Nazi Germany,
however, recast its meaning irreversibly Walkman as an object that could be “read culturally,” through its semantic related meanings or
for modern times. connotations that are
network (as a cultural representation as well as a functional object for play- affiliated with a person,
ing recorded music). Not long after its invention in 1979, the Walkman came thing, place, or event.
It is through such
to stand for Japanese high technology, youth-oriented active lifestyles, and affiliations that objects
the world of recorded music and sound.10 The object itself was not especially can be “read culturally.”

novel in appearance and used the same materials and power source as its
predecessor, the transistor radio. But a consensus was very quickly achieved
regarding the Walkman’s position in culture and its wider range of meanings,
much in the same way as today’s iPod has cultural connotations and social
practices—personal music mixes, the digital connectedness of today’s youth
culture, challenges to the traditional practices of the recording industry, media CONNOTATION

convergence, and so on—that extend its meaning beyond the mere function of An idea or feeling
that a representation
listening to music. In fact, the cultural role of the iPod is so well understood that invokes in addition
manufacturers of other products now respond to it in their own designs—the to its literal meaning.
Because such
Toyota Yaris, for example, was first advertised as being “iPod-compatible”— meanings are not
and new practices incorporate the iPod into their lexicon (“podcasting”). explicit, objective
descriptions of fact,
An industry has been built around designing “apps” for the iPod Touch and its they generally arise
sister products, the iPhone and iPad. from cultural and
social experiences
This expanded field of associations and affiliations is referred to as the in which people,
CONNOTATIVE function of a sign. For example, the saluting soldier, mentioned things, places, and
events become
earlier, could connote respect, authority, allegiance, blind obedience, or cama-
associated with
raderie. Depending on his or her uniform and the past experiences of the particular abstract
ideas, emotions, or
viewer, he or she may be interpreted as an enemy, hero, oppressor, peacekeeper,
behaviors. Sometimes
or liberator. Within different contexts he or she may constitute a threat, provide referred to as second-
a sense of security, or encourage someone to join the service. All are possible level meaning.

connotations of the gesture by a person in uniform, and the variability of such DENOTATION
meanings allows the graphic designer to craft richer messages for specific The literal or surface
meaning of a sign.
audiences than if such meanings were not available.
Denotative meaning
By contrast, the DENOTATIVE or literal meaning of a sign is less open to is explicit and direct
and usually avoids
variable interpretation. Our soldier is simply a gesturing person in a uniform
metaphor. Sometimes
and the Walkman is merely a small, portable stereo in the denotative sense. referred to as first-
We often deploy denotative representations when seeking objectivity or level meaning.

the context of culture 37

 rationality. The auto-club map, for example, tells us nothing about the
subjective experience of a particular journey, the perceived duration for which
we might travel on various roads, or our frustration with the characteristic
traffic on one route versus another. In contrast to the more connotative
map on the napkin, it simply denotes that the roads exist and the geographic
relationships among them.

CHOOSING AN
APPROPRIATE SIGN
Choosing an appropriate sign is therefore a complicated task, especially
when communicating to mass audiences that belong to diverse interpretive
cultures. The designer must search for signs that are generally understood
to represent the appropriate concepts and also present them in a way that
competes successfully among other demands for people’s attention. Signs
must be familiar but used in an inventive way to be successful in today’s climate
of information overload.

categorization
The work of Eleanor Rosch, a psychologist at the University of California,
Berkeley, provides insight into the possible choices among signs for a particu-
lar concept. Rosch’s experimental work focuses on a mental process called
CATEGORIZATION CATEGORIZATION. This term refers to how we identify stimuli in our environment
The act of identifying and group them in memory as members of a category, similar to others in that
stimuli in the
environment and category and different from members of other categories.11 A category could
grouping them in be “things that are soft,” “people not to be trusted,” or “redness.” Our cultural
memory as members
of a category, similar
experiences determine many of the categories into which we sort stimuli and
to others in that the members within each group. For example, the list of members in the
category but different
from members of
category of “success” or “authority” may differ among people from various
other categories. social groups or of different ages or gender. This categorization of concepts
Categorization
allows us to think
is thought to be fundamental to perception, thought, language, and action.12
and communicate Categorization allows us to think and communicate metaphorically. We
metaphorically.
need not see the actual thing being represented, in a literal sense, as long
Eleanor Rosch
and George Lakoff as, to the people who are viewing the sign, it shares some important quality
use the concept of
with the thing it stands for. Metaphor is a powerful tool in design (see p. 189).
categorization in
their work. It allows us to make the strange familiar by comparing something new or
unknown to something known. The desktop metaphor, for example, enables
us to communicate intuitively with the operating system of our computers. We
understand how to perform certain functions, or the role of particular objects
in the real world, and we bring those behaviors and objects into the virtual
world as substitutions for lines of computer code. For example, our knowledge
of the behavior associated with a file allows us to execute certain computer
operations without reflection. We intuit from past experience the difference
between a file and a folder, recognizing that the former is information and
the latter is a container. Such metaphors create a user-friendly environment
through which a system that would be indecipherable to many is made acces-
sible to people without technological expertise.

38 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 Metaphors also allow us to make the familiar strange by revealing over-
looked aspects or perspectives of a known thing through its comparison with
something else. The designer John Rheinfrank (1944–2004), for example,
challenged the design professions to drop the language of war and adopt the
language of biology as a metaphor for the role of design in business (instead
of speaking of “strategies,” “campaigns,” and “target” audiences, to frame our
thinking in terms of “growth,” “sustainability,” and “evolution”). By using the
metaphorical basis of representations to shift the categories to which we think
a concept belongs, we reconfigure the string of associations and expectations.
We see something in a new way.
In his book Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things (1987), the linguistics profes-
sor George Lakoff cautions us that categorization is not just the collection of
properties shared by the things in a category. He cites research suggesting
that our categorical reasoning is embodied (in other words, has a basis in our
physical experience of the world), and is in some cases as much a matter of
culture as of biology.13 If categories are only about the properties inherent in
the thing itself, how could thinking about them be independent of the object
itself and how could we have categories about abstract concepts (for example,
“power” or “innocence”)?14 And if categories are defined only by the qualities
of objects, then no examples in the category should be more representative
than others in that category.15
To explain this last point, Eleanor Rosch describes categories as having a
graded structure of better-to-worse examples, with many categories having
unclear boundaries.16 There are prototypical “best examples,” members that
are clearly central to the category and that we may be able to identify as aris-
ing from some common experiences. These PROTOTYPES tend to be processed PROTOTYPE

in the mind as concrete, information-rich images from which we generalize Eleanor Rosch’s
term for the “best
(transfer expectations) to other examples.17 Rosch tells us, for example, that example” of a category.
we may agree that a particular red object is “red” but debate in our minds the A prototype is a
member so central
“redness” of a second object. The reference for the redness of the second object to the category that it
is likely to be the red of the first object that we assessed as a best example of contains most or all
of the characteristics
the category “red.” We may describe the second red as being “too pink” when that define the
what we really mean is that it is “pinker than the best example of red.”18 category, unlike other
members that might
If we think of the graphic design task as triggering the appropriate concept be more peripheral
category in the minds of viewers, it makes sense when possible to construct repre- and likely to invoke
other categories.
sentations that use best examples or prototypes shaped by the audience’s physical,
social, or cultural experiences. An analysis of the images in FIGURE 2.3 employs
Rosch’s perspective of categorization in thinking about visual representation.

FIGURE 2.3A is likely to be described by many people as “erotic”: the

woman’s manner of dress (fishnet hose), posture (reclining with legs

crossed), the setting (satin-sheeted bed), and point of view (concealing
the face, focusing on the lower half of the body) recall multiple aspects
of images that many in Western cultures would associate with erotica.
Some people may even refer to this image as a cliché, a prototype
that suffers from overuse by the culture in representing the category.

choosing an appropriate sign 39

 FIGURE 2.3Bis a photograph of a nude woman. While some people
may also describe this image as “erotic,” others may label it as “fine
art.” As a member of the latter category, the human figure is viewed
by the photographer as an object with qualities not unlike those of
items in a still life. We are less able to deliver a narrative about the
woman or her circumstances in this image than in FIGURE 2.3A because
she is photographed less as a person associated with certain social
behaviors than as an object with particular formal characteristics.
This approach has a stronger affiliation with fine art than with erotica,
although the boundaries between the two categories are blurred.

FIGURE 2.3C is a Georgia O’Keeffe painting from 1926 of an iris. For

many this is simply a flower. For others who know O’Keeffe’s work
and have a larger frame of reference in the history of art, the image is
“erotic” through its resemblance to the female anatomy, even though a
human figure does not appear in the work. From this perspective, the
image has status as an example of “erotica,” while for others it is a best
example of “flowers” (a denotative rather than connotative meaning).

is a painting by Edouard Manet from 1863 entitled Le

FIGURE 2.3D

Déjeuner sur l’Herbe. In Manet’s time, the erotic nature of a nude

woman in the presence of clothed gentlemen would have been
scandalous. Today, however, this meaning is likely to be secondary
to the overall impression of “a famous painting from the past.” Its
best-example status for the concept of “erotic” is therefore time- and
2.3 (A–E)
culture-specific.
Each of the images in this collection
FIGURE 2.3Eshows a teapot in a tea cozy. If this image was viewed on can be interpreted as “erotic,” yet some
its own, few people would consider it to be “erotic.” But if it was are “better examples” of the concept
than others. Some depend on the
surrounded by images that clearly belong to the category of “erotic,” cultural experience of the viewer, while
its image content might be re-evaluated, even though a human form others rely on their position within the
collection.
does not appear in the representation and the general category of
the object is more likely to be associated with a prim and proper 2.3A WOMAN WEARING FISHNET
STOCKINGS
grandmother than with sexual behavior. By referencing the category
“erotic” through surrounding images, we call forth the relevant 2.3B NUDE, CHICAGO, 2009
Ralph Gibson (b. 1939)
physical features of the object that might otherwise have stronger
associations with other categories. What initially appears to be out 2.3C BLACK IRIS, 1926
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986)
of place among the other objects in the group gains new meaning as Oil on canvas
we search for the feature or attribute of the teapot that is consistent Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Alfred Stieglitz Collection
with the category.19
2.3D LE DÉJEUNER SUR L’HERBE
This collection of images demonstrates that the literal, denotative meaning (THE LUNCHEON ON THE GRASS), 1863
of subject matter in a representation is insufficient, in itself, to trigger the Edouard Manet (1832–1883)
Oil on canvas
concept category. In the case of the Gibson photograph and the Manet painting, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
nudity alone lacks the power to call up the highly emotional concept of “erotic.”
2.3E TEAPOT AND TEA COZY
O’Keeffe’s iris and the teapot demonstrate that inanimate objects can take
on abstract meanings (in this case, human sexuality), despite their denota-
tive content. They are, however, more ambiguous and culturally peripheral
as “erotic” than FIGURE 2.3A—they risk being misinterpreted because they have

40 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 2.3B

2.3A

2.3D

2.3C

2.3E

choosing an appropriate sign 41

 stronger membership in other categories (fine art, flowers,
tea, housewares, and so on) for some viewers.
It is critical to graphic design to understand how such
images reinforce concepts through metaphor or deflect
interpretations of meaning to other categories. If the
image fails to exhibit the appropriate features or qualities
of the metaphor that establish the sign’s association with
the desired concept, the representation may confuse the
audience. Or if the image is outside the audience’s experi-
ence as a member of the desired category targeted by the
design, it also may fail as a representation.

representational style
In addition to the denotative and connotative content of
the subject matter, meaning can be communicated by the
representational style through which it is rendered. FIGURES 2.4A

2.4A–C show a variety of ways of representing a simple object. 2.4 (A–C)

These three images represent different

FIGURE 2.4Ais what semiotician Roland Barthes (1915–1980) calls interpretations of the same object, a can
opener. The first image is analogous to
ANALOGOUS ANALOGOUS or natural—the photograph replicates or is congruent
reality in its photographic reproduction.
Roland Barthes’s term with our experience of the object in the real world (see pp. 128–31). Interpretation of the other two images,
for a representation however, is based on our understanding
that is natural or that The camera, as a machine, makes no choices about what to record and
that the designer included some of the
physically resembles what to leave out. Everything within the frame is captured on film or available information about the object in
what it stands for. the rendering, but left out other details.
A photographic
as digital information. Barthes tells us, however, that the photograph
Drawing, therefore, is generally seen
representation is also paradoxical. While the photographic image may be denotative as a subjective representation of reality,
is analogous to while photography is often considered
the subject being
in its accurate recording of the objects, people, or places that are its
to be objective.
photographed, literal subject matter, there is a second, connotative meaning that
whereas a gesture
drawing may be
results from special effects, pose, lighting, the inclusion of other
less so. objects, and its position within a series or sequence of other images.20
We learn the meanings of such representational codes largely through
our exposure to images in our culture: soft focus = romance or a
dream state; framed portraits of a wife and children = family values;
lighting from below = sinister qualities; and so forth. Despite this
understanding that photographic meaning can be manipulated, we
generally trust photography to be more “objective” or denotative than
other types of image.

On the other hand, we easily accept the drawing in FIGURE 2.4B as

someone’s subjective interpretation of reality. Through the rendering
style, we recognize that the maker of the drawing revealed some
aspects of the object and omitted others. We make judgments about
its meaning on that basis; the decision to include and omit certain
details connotes what the maker of the sign thought was important,
relevant, or interesting. Further, we can usually place the choice
of a drawing style within an historical or cultural context. A loose
gestural drawing of the object is quite different from a technical
or classical rendering of the form. A cartoon of Bugs Bunny and

42 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

2.4B 2.4C

a realistically rendered rabbit by the sixteenth-century artist Albrecht

Dürer are both representations of the same animal species, but they
2.5 COVER FOR BEGINNING
POSTMODERNISM, TIM WOODS, 1999 mean very different things based on their respective representational
River Design Company styles. The same basic elements may be present in all types of draw-
ing, but the representational style connotes a different
expressive intent or status of the image within a culture.

The representation in FIGURE 2.4C barely resembles

the object in its natural form, focusing instead on
its action. Here, the meaning is very specific but
communicated through an abstraction that we have
learned through other similar representations to
mean “action” or “rotation.” We are free to ignore all
other attributes and possible meanings of the object
because the representation directs our attention
exclusively to the gadget’s behavior.

In this way, form is content. The gadget is the literal

subject matter in each image, but the meaning of each
sign is different precisely because of its representational
style. In the case of the photograph, we make assumptions
about truth and accuracy, even knowing there is a human
being behind the machine that made it. In the other two
examples, we clearly recognize subjective viewpoints.
Representations sometimes communicate not only
their subject matter but also meanings implied by the tech-
nology through which they are made. Such meanings are
subject-matter-independent and arise from the semantic
network of connotations associated with the technology
itself. In the cover design for a book on post-modernism

choosing an appropriate sign 43

 2.6 POSTER FOR AMERICAN
CENTER FOR DESIGN SIXTH LIVING
SURFACES CONFERENCE, 1998
Geoff Kaplan (b. 1963)

Kaplan represents the history of

communication technologies in his
approach to imagery. The subject matter
of the images is less important than
references to the technologies through
which they are produced or distributed.

44 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 by River Design Company (SEE FIGURE 2.5), for example, the printed typography
behaves in the same way as motion typography behaves on a digital screen. The
book title need not include the word “media” for this message to come across.
The cover design is not merely an illustration of type on a computer screen, but
type that appears to behave as though it is actually changing its state of being,
which is in fact possible only through dynamic media.
Geoff Kaplan’s poster for the Living Surfaces conference on new media
(SEE FIGURE 2.6) recalls various technologies from the history of design. The range

of typographic choices (spanning centuries in their historical references) and

images, which juxtapose a classical print-based layout with
bitmapped form, call forth the historical lineage of narra-
tives and venues for their dissemination, the topic of the
conference. The poster communicates its meaning largely
through these representations of technology, not through
the literal subject matter of the text or images.
FIGURE 2.7 is Scott Clum’s design for a rock-and-roll

issue of Stick, a magazine for snowboarders. The gritty

typography (poorly copied, badly spaced, with ink blots)
reminds us of band posters stapled to telephone poles in
college towns and on urban street corners. The form of the
typography is intentionally “low tech,” recalling associa-
tions with alternative music, free from the control of slick
record producers, and the counter-culture of snowboard-
ing. Again, the meaning is less about what is shown or said
than about how it was made.
In all these examples, the primary message carriers are
2.7 COVER FOR “THE NEW
ROCK AND ROLL,” ISSUE OF STICK representations of the technologies that shape the quality,
MAGAZINE, 1996 not the literal content, of form. Such qualities are not inconsequential by-
Scott Clum (b. 1964)
Photograph by Trevor Graves products of the means of image or type production—although those aspects
have representational value as well—but technological references used specifi-
cally for their associative meanings.
PARTICIPANT
Gunther Kress and

ORDERING THE ELEMENTS Theo van Leeuwen’s

term for any person,

WITHIN THE REPRESENTATION object, or element

within a visual
The visual arrangement or ordering of elements within the representation, composition or
a photograph.
called syntax, also influences how we interpret meaning. We assign significance A participant is an
to the placement, orientation, and perceived hierarchy among elements within “actor” in the narrative.

the visual field. VECTOR

The dynamic forces
narrative or tensions among
participants in a
In Reading Images (2005), Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen offer a strategy visual composition or
photograph. A vector
for analyzing the influence of visual structure on the construction of meaning.
may be visible (as in
They call the elements of the composition PARTICIPANTS —any object, person, a line) or implied (as
or shape within a photograph, for example, is a participant—and the dynamic in the direction of
a person’s gaze or the
forces or tensions among them VECTORS.21 The vector may be an actual line perceived trajectory
or a line implied by other directional cues within the composition, such of a shape in space).

ordering the elements within the representation 45

 2.8 TIME CATCHER
Saul Selwyn Flores (b. 1989)

This image can be read narratively, using

Kress and van Leeuwen’s idea of a vector
connecting the man to the object beneath
the water. The story is grounded in the
perceived relationship between the two
established by the visual composition.
as the direction of a person’s gaze toward an object, the pointing quality of
a geometric shape, or the gesture of a diagrammatic element.
Kress and van Leeuwen suggest that when partici-
pants are connected by a vector, they are represented
as doing something to or for each other; and that the
role of vectors in visual compositions is akin to action
verbs in language.22 In this way, visual compositions are
narratives—they present unfolding actions and events,
processes of change, or transitory spatial arrangements
in a sequence of possible arrangements or states of being.23
Applying Kress and van Leeuwen’s analytical frame-
work to FIGURE 2.8, for example, the vector is established
by the fisherman’s arm and fishing line and reinforced
by his gaze. The man is an actor and the object of his
attention, which is under the water, is a goal. The vector
connects the two, even though the goal is hidden. If the
vector did not direct our attention to a particular kind
of transactional relationship between the fisherman
and his goal, it would be more difficult to construct a
story about the image. The narrative meaning of the
representation arises, not merely from the attributes of
the man (from his age, assumptions about his nationality
or social class based on his dress, and so on) or of the
imagined fish beneath the water, but also from the rela-
tionship between the two that is apparent only through
the visual arrangement of the composition. Without
2.9 URBAN OUTFITTERS
this visual relationship we might think he is simply out for a boat ride. CATALOG, 2005
In some images, the person in the photograph is connected by the vector Jim Datz, art director;
Annie Wolf, photographer
to something outside the picture frame. Kress and van Leeuwen tell us that
we interpret this kind of gaze differently for each gender—we see women as

46 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

2.10 PAGE FROM OF TWO
SQUARES: A SUPREMATIST TALE IN
SIX CONSTRUCTIONS, 1922
El Lissitzky (1890–1941)

withdrawing mentally, as lost in contemplation, while we typically describe

men as focusing on a distant horizon.24 In either case the vector extends the
interpretive space and therefore the possible story of the image. In this way,
the cropping of images changes their meanings.
The historian Stuart Ewen discusses fashion photography in his book All-
Consuming Images (1988). He describes the tendency to crop such photography
as an attempt to depict the “dream of wholeness” through fragmentation.
Because no single model can be perfect in all ways, the “ideal” woman is cre-
ated through multiple photographs of many women, each with one perfect attri-
bute—an “inventory of disembodied parts, in order to construct the semblance
of wholeness.”25 In this case, the cropping robs us of rich narratives because the
elements in the photographs lack individuality, moving them from what Ewen
calls “self as subject” to “self as object.”26 In Kress and van Leeuwen’s terms,
they become non-transactional—static, detached taxonomies of human form.
In FIGURE 2.9 the vector moves from the man to the woman to the photogra-
pher. The goal of the man in the photograph is the woman, but we also detect
her awareness that she is being watched from outside the frame of the picture
as well; that she holds the power to attract attention from two participants. The
man in the photograph continues to watch her, even though there is another
participant outside the frame who could conceivably distract him were she less
compelling. The fact that he does not look away is meaningful. By establishing
herself as the goal of two participants, as the point where two vectors converge,
she represents the sexual attraction through which she commands attention. As
consumers, we are led to believe that such attraction arises from her clothing,
the advertised product.

ordering the elements within the representation 47

 In FIGURE 2.10 the black square teeters on the corner of an unstable red square,
suggesting a possible collapse. The narrative, in this case, is the implied future
trajectory of the two dependent squares. This toppling of shapes is as much an
unfolding of events as are the previous examples in which we have literal subject
matter. In this example, we lack the specific semantic meanings of the more
naturalistic content of photographs. We are,
however, no less capable of describing the
directional qualities of the dominant shape,
as well as its past or future trajectory within
the picture space. The narrative in this case is
a stripped-down representation of action, but
it is as much an unfolding of events in time as
are the previous examples.

the relationship between 2.11A

text and image
Multiple images or images and text in
juxtaposition hold the same potential for
establishing meaning on the basis of their
visual syntax. In such configurations the
relationships among signs are as important
as the signs themselves. In the layout in FIGURE
2.11A, the arrangement of typography responds
2.11B
to the perimeter of the photograph. Nothing
about the composition of elements within the
photographic frame exerts any influence on
the placement or shape of the block of text.
In Kress and van Leeuwen’s terms, there is
no vector established from image to type
that represents any connotative or narrative
meaning, no transaction among participants;
2.11C
the two forms simply coexist in the same
space and their relationship is only one of
2.11 (A–C)
physical alignment and proportion. In contrast, the composition in FIGURE 2.11B
aligns the text with the horizon line in the image—the type emphasizes the The content and cropping of the
primary photograph is identical in these
relationship of the house to the land by extending the topography as typography. three layouts, yet the meaning of each
The addition of the second image (the close-up of a door latch) in FIGURE 2.11C composition is different. In 2.11A the text
simply conforms to the perimeter of the
takes the viewer conceptually from the street to the front door of the house, a image, reinforcing an abstract formal
goal. This shifts the narrative, raising questions about why we are there, and relationship. The typography in 2.11B
extends the horizon line in the photograph,
what lies inside the door. The original image of the house has not changed from focusing our attention on the relationship
one layout to the next, but the possible narratives it represents are expanded of the house to the land. In 2.11C, the
addition of the second image takes the
through typography and the presence of the additional image. viewer to the front door, establishing a
In his analysis of photographic representation, Barthes discusses a historic narrative relationship between the viewer
and the house.
reversal in the relationship between text and image. The image—once simply
an illustration of the text that was designed to elucidate the ideas expressed
in words—now reigns as the primary carrier of meaning in most visual com-
munication. He describes contemporary text as “parasitic to the image,” as

48 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 an accessory rationalizing the image, a “secondary vibration, almost without
consequence.”27 “Formerly there was a reduction from text to image; today,
there is amplification from one to another.”28 The image introduces the cultural
connotations previously reserved for the text. By this Barthes means that in the
past the image served as an objective, denotative version of the text, as apparent
in textbook illustrations or in jour-
nalistic photography (SEE FIGURE 2.12).
Today’s images, through their deploy-
ment of culturally charged signs and
compositions designed to foreground
certain aspects of the representation,
introduce connotations that were
previously the responsibility of the
text. Barthes is not saying that the
design of typography is irrelevant,
only that text is no longer the only
information that functions connota-
tively and culturally.
Consider, for example, the
photograph of President George W.
Bush in FIGURE 2.13. Staged for a press
2.12 PAGES FROM release by the White House staff, the image cleverly places the President’s
GATEWAYS TO ART
head in line with those of former presidents George Washington, Thomas
Designed by Geoff Penna
First published 2012 by Thames Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in the monument at
& Hudson Inc. Mount Rushmore. The speech delivered that day, to be covered by newspaper
In an art history textbook, we expect reporters, had no particular content relationship to the
images to serve as more detailed visual monument—it could have been delivered anywhere.
examples of the theme or movement
discussed in the adjacent text. These The connotation of the representation (that President
images rarely introduce new content George W. Bush has something in common with the
that undermines the narrative.
country’s most revered leaders and will be remembered
as one of the great presidents) overshadows the
2.13 PRESIDENT BUSH accompanying text. In this way, the image is cultur-
DELIVERING A SPEECH AT MT.
ally charged in a manner that the text of the speech
RUSHMORE, August 15, 2005
Photograph by an employee of the or news report of the event was not.
Executive Office of the President of
the United States

This image, cleverly staged by the MATCHING THE

White House staff and made available
to newspaper journalists, places the REPRESENTATION TO
President’s head among the grouping
of former presidents on Mt. Rushmore.
The implied meaning is that Bush’s
ITS CONTEXT OF USE
leadership ranks in significance with
More than two thousand years ago, the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius
that of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Pollio (fl. 1st century bce) described the essences of design as firmness,
and Lincoln, something not discussed
commodity, and delight. 29 Today’s designers translate these qualities of
in the article. What upset many readers
was the subjectivity of the myth- design as usability, usefulness, and desirability. While the goal is to
building introduced solely by the image achieve all three, the contexts that define design problems frequently place
in a medium that professes to uphold
standards of objectivity (i.e. journalism). a greater burden on representations for achieving one outcome more
than the others.

matching the representation to its context of use 49

 In some cases, the primary goal of the representation is efficient use. The
audiences for income-tax forms and signage in airports, for example, do not
expect to contemplate the patriotism of paying taxes, or how the signage
system complements the architecture of the terminal. This is not to say that
form is irrelevant, aesthetics do not matter, or that there are not emotional
consequences in making one visual choice over another. Usability is not the
opposite of appealing form; it is not a rationale for a detached, default solution
that ignores the full spectrum of audience needs and wants. The priorities
in such contexts as taxpaying and airport navigation, however, are clarity,
accuracy, completeness, efficiency, and objectivity; such representations must
be usable over and above all other possible considerations.
Donald Norman discusses the appropriate use of representational form in
his book Things That Make Us Smart (1993). In one example, he shows the typi-
cal inconsistency in the representation of dosage instructions for prescription
medicines (SEE FIGURE 2.14).30 The patient who takes multiple medications each
day often confronts conflicting narrative descriptions that must be reconciled
to ensure he or she receives the correct dosage. The form of the information
requires more reflection than patients want to expend in reading such instruc-
tions. In a reconfigured representation, Norman shows
that ordering medications in a matrix by the time of day
places all instructions in a consistent format and allows
ZANTAC Take twice a day at meals
the patient to ignore medications that are not required
at the current time; the visual pattern is more usable in LISINOPRIL One tablet daily
this task than is the narrative form. SINGULAIR Once a day in the morning
In other contexts, the goal of the representation is
LIPITOR One at bedtime
to engage the audience more deeply in reflection about
concepts and to inform judgments about significance and AMOXICILLIN Twice a day with meals

possible courses of action. Under these circumstances, we

value attributes of representations that invite the analysis
of importance or consequence, provide insight through BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER BEDTIME
enlightening stories, and connect meaning to future X X
ZANTAC
action. The priorities in such projects are about manag-
LISINOPRIL X
ing complexity, revealing patterns and relationships, and
establishing hierarchies. Good solutions are not merely SINGULAIR X

efficient, they are also effective. They extend our ability LIPITOR X
to think about things, demonstrating that they are useful
AMOXICILLIN X X
and worthy of time spent in contemplation.
The chart in FIGURE 2.15, comparing company revenue
2.14 TRANSLATION OF MEDICAL
across several years, is similar to one that appeared in an annual report for INSTRUCTIONS
consumers who make stock purchases and was recognized in a prestigious Based on a chart by Donald Norman,
published in Things that Make us Smart
design publication. The colored bars (which create the illusion of a receding (Cambridge, MA, 1993)
plane) carry no meaning other than to hold the typeset numbers represented
Norman makes the point that
by the sizes of the vertical gray bars. Attention is drawn to this feature by prescription information arranged
the most vibrant colors in the chart, yet the reader must debate whether the by time, rather than in the narratives
that appear on the labels of medicine
diminishing sizes of the colored bars represent varying amounts of something bottles, is less confusing to patients
or are simply the illusion of perspective among elements of the same size. In about what medications to take at
actuality, the sizes of the colored bars are meaningless and have nothing to any particular time.

50 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 do with the data. The black drop-shadows—which merely
$1
.7
contain the typeset years for which financial data is
$1
.9 provided—reinforce the perspective illusion and distract
$2
.0 readers from the more important data comparisons among
$2
.2
5 the vertical gray bars. Because the comparative data is at an
$4
.18 angle, it is difficult to determine how much actual differ-
19

$5 ence there is between any two gray bars. So if consumers

60

.8
19

depend on this chart to make crucial judgments about the

7
0
19
8

health of the company and stock purchases, they might

0
19

reasonably question why the form of the chart confuses the

09

very information necessary for reaching such conclusions

20
00

and why there is no payoff for the additional time spent

20
10

in reflection. The chart is ultimately usable (with work,

we can identify what the form represents), but many of its
2.15 FINANCIAL CHART elements are not very useful.
Based on an award-winning diagram
Many people are familiar with the original Food Guide Pyramid designed
This chart shows successive years of revenue by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to explain what con-
for a company. The relevant financial stitutes a healthy diet. The USDA represented various food groups as pictorial
comparison resides in the vertical gray bars.
The colorful bars confuse the viewer by an illustrations located within wedges of a five-sided pyramid (SEE FIGURE 2.16). The
ambiguous spatial representation and the number of objects illustrated in each wedge of this diagram (fruits, vegetables,
changing sizes of black bars represent no
statistical information. dairy products, and so on) has nothing to do with the recommended consump-
tion of any food group. Instead, readers are asked to equate
food intake with differently proportioned sections of a poly-
hedron representing the various food groups, a difficult per-
ceptual comparison. While the more obvious differences in
the sizes among the polyhedron sections and their vertical
locations in the pyramid are moderately useful in determin-
ing that we should eat less meat than fruits and vegetables,
people rarely plan meals or make food choices on the basis
of surface area or volume. The truly useful information
appears in the text in the margins of the diagram, indi-
cating the number of recommended daily servings from
each food group (although there are still questions about
what constitutes a “serving”). In this case, numbers are
better matched to the way in which we plan meals than
are spatial representations. The usefulness of the chart is
compromised by a perceptual mismatch between the form
of the information and the means through which people
2.16 USDA FOOD PYRAMID, 1992
United States Department of Agriculture are to adopt the recommended behavior.
In some cases, the purpose of the representation is to aid us in forming a per-
This version of the food pyramid
encouraged consumers to make nutritional spective about something. In this type of communication, representations may
choices based on comparisons among be evaluated as insightful, revealing, credible, compelling, or convincing. They
differently sized wedges of a polyhedron,
a tough perceptual task that is unrelated to are valuable to us in making judgments and in forming or confirming opinions.
how we plan meals (by servings). The most Other representations appeal to our emotions in an attempt to persuade us to
useful information appears in the text
surrounding the image. some opinion or action, frequently addressing a want rather than a need. In
these types of representation we usually expect subjectivity, a point of view, and
consider the motivation of the message source in our interpretation of meaning.

matching the representation to its context of use 51

 The photograph of President Bush at Mount Rushmore, discussed earlier (see
p. 49), demonstrates a point of view, both literally and figuratively. The camera
angle from which Bush was photographed inserts the President physically into
the sequence of other presidential heads in the monument. This placement is
intentional. The position of the photographer is not a natural one were Mount
Rushmore simply a backdrop for the President as an important speaker, but
it is necessary to reinforce the political point of view that Bush’s record is
consistent with those of his great predecessors. For readers who
agree, the photograph is confirmation of that belief. But for those
who take a different political stance, the photograph represents
media manipulation.
What is disturbing for the latter group is the relationship
between the loaded connotations of the photograph and the objec-
tivity we expect from journalistic photography. Our interpretation
of meaning depends not only on the attributes of the representa-
tion itself, but also on the extended meanings of the category of
imagery to which the representation belongs. We trust newspaper
reporting—as opposed to editorial commentary—to be accurate
and free from bias. For those who consider the Bush photograph
2.17A
biased, outrage results both from its content and from what is
perceived as a violation of journalistic integrity, maneuvered by
White House media moguls.
We generally consider maps and diagrams as “objective” repre-
sentations, yet many are used to promote particular points of view,
values, or social outcomes. The view of the world that many of us
hold in our minds, for example, is represented in the Mercator
projection, a sixteenth-century attempt to depict landmasses on
the surface of a sphere in flat form. The result is an east–west
distortion of geographical shapes that diminishes the relative 2.17B
sizes of South America and Africa and enlarges Europe and North
America (SEE FIGURE 2.17A). The Peters projection from 1973, on the 2.17 (A–B)

other hand, represents land of equal area equally, but distorts the shape of The Mercator Projection (top)
the Earth (SEE FIGURE 2.17B). The publication of the Peters projection spawned distorts the sizes of landmasses
in order to depict them on a flat
controversy over whether one map was more “fair” than another, especially in
plane, while the Peters Projection
policy decisions that affect developing nations. While the Mercator projection (bottom) shows landmasses of
is still the dominant representation, the debate makes apparent that the choice equal dimensions equally. Both
are accurate representations when
to use one representational form over another, however mathematical its origin, considered under the limitations of
can be seen as a value-driven decision.31 their mathematical models, but they
create very different perceptions of
In contrast, we fully expect some representations to be subjective. geography. Such perceptions guide
PROPAGANDA PROPAGANDA , an attempt to sway opinion, is understood to have a point of view policy making, as well as assumptions
about distance and time.
A form of and has employed a variety of techniques across history. Testimonials by people
communication
aimed at influencing we respect lead many of us to adopt political positions without independent
opinion or inciting judgment: “If my hero believes this, it must be right for me because I aspire to
action, based on a
particular, usually
be like this person.” Given today’s equivalency between “hero” and “celebrity,”
political or cause- this technique need not employ testimony from anyone knowledgeable on
related, point of view.
the issue or of exceptional character. Bandwagoning encourages acceptance
because “everyone believes or does” something, playing on our desire to be

52 THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATION

 part of a dominant social group. To disagree with the commonly
held opinion is to declare our own inability or unwillingness to see
what is obvious to everyone else. Scapegoating blames a detractor,
uniting those with otherwise dissimilar beliefs in their opposition
to a common enemy and relieving them from responsibility for the
negative consequences of making a decision on the issue alone. The
scapegoat is usually depicted in an unflattering or exaggerated way
(SEE FIGURE 2.18). Other approaches use reward or punishment, warn-

ing of the negative consequences of holding a particular opinion

or associating the “rightness” of a position with some personal
benefit. In all cases, these appeals are visceral or emotional and
do not depend on deep reflection or judgment about the subject
matter. Their power lies outside the content of the issue itself and
resides, instead, in the relationship between the context of use
and the psychology of the viewer.

SUMMARY
While graphic designers are professionals whose job it is to build
meaningful representations, all people use signs and symbols to
2.18 THE ETERNAL JEW, 1937 exchange meaning with others in their culture. The construction
Hans Stalüter
of meaning involves a complex interplay of factors relating to the creator of
The propaganda technique of the representation, who encodes the message in some culturally negotiated
scapegoating, blaming a common form, and the interpreter, who brings past experiences and context to a
enemy for negative circumstances,
often depicts the “villain” in the determination of its significance.
most unflattering light. Physical We sort stimuli into categories in our minds in ways that allow us
and behavioral characteristics are
exaggerated to distance audiences to recall them when confronted with new stimuli. These categories include
from feelings of empathy. members that share something in common, with some being more central
or prototypical to the category than others and with fuzzy boundaries
between the categories.
The style of the representation and its composition carry meaning over
and above the literal content. Today, cultural meanings reside in images
that were once thought simply to illustrate more culturally charged text. We
read significance in the choice of style and means of production, attributing
subject-matter-independent meaning to both. We also view the arrangement
of signs within the representation as meaningful, with the visual relation-
ships among elements serving a narrative function. The relationship between
text and image has shifted over time.
We expect communication artifacts to be usable, useful, and desirable,
but recognize that different contexts often demand more of one quality than
another. Representations succeed in achieving these outcomes when there is
a good fit among the choice of signs, the ordering among signs in the same
physical space, and the context of use.

summary 53
the dimensions
of context
THE FIT BETWEEN FORM AND CONTEXT / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
THE SCALE OF CONTEXT / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 59
THE COGNITIVE CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: HOW WE ARE ALIKE AND DIFFERENT / / / / / 61
57
3
how we are alike: the contribution of gestalt psychology / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 62
our common approaches to picture processing and memory / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 66
sensing and feeling: the affective response to design / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 69
responding to differences in cognitive style / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 74
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: THE SEARCH FOR PATTERN / / / / / / 77
formative and illustrative roles for design / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 79
social schemas / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 80
THE TECHNOLOGICAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: MATERIAL MATTERS / / / / / / / / / / / / / 86
media and tools / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 87
surfaces and structures / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 88
technological affordances / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 91
THE PHYSICAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: EVERYTHING IS RELATIONAL / / / / / / / / / / / / 93
physical embodiment / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 95
THE ECONOMIC CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF “COST” / / 97
strategy / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 97
consumption / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 98
sustainability / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 98
SUMMARY / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 99
Think about the problem of designing a cup. It may
seem to be a fairly simple task because the vocabulary of the form is
well known (a handle, a bowl, a rim, and a base). But as the examples
on these pages show, cups can vary greatly in shape and materials.

The cup in FIGURE 3.1A is well suited to drinking coffee while

driving. It has a wide base and a narrow rim, making it fairly
stable. The small opening and thick stoneware allow it to
retain heat on a car journey and the rubber bottom prevents
it from sliding on slick surfaces.

The cup in FIGURE 3.1B is my grandmother’s china teacup. It

has a very small base and a wide mouth, making it tipsy and
sacrificing heat retention for a graceful shape. The handle
accommodates only the forefinger and thumb in a gesture
that causes the pinkie to rise. Its “fussiness” (painted roses
and gold trim) speaks to old-world notions of formality and
elegance. Although very fragile, it has the qualities of some-
thing that a family passes from generation to generation.

The cup in FIGURE 3.1C is a Heller mug designed by Massimo

Vignelli. It is made of plastic with a beveled bottom, which 3.1A

allows several cups to be stacked easily in the cupboard. The

handle accommodates all five fingers and is convex where
the human hand is concave and concave where the hand is
convex. It is available in black, white, and primary colors
and is suitable for casual dining and a modern aesthetic.

The cup in FIGURE 3.1D is a Solo cup. It is made of thin plastic

and is unstable when empty. The ridges on the side improve
traction when cold liquids cause it to sweat. It nests with
others of its kind, consuming little space on supermarket
shelves or in picnic coolers. And it is cheap and disposable.

These four cups respond to different problem contexts: driving,

expressions of high culture and heritage, casual dining, and tem-
porary utility. In meeting and reflecting the particular demands 3.1C

of these contexts, the cup designers had to ignore others. It is a

difficult task to design a cup that is both stackable and retains 3.1 (A–D)

heat or that is both disposable and elegant. Despite the differences in shape and
Now think about the design problem of containing liquid for drinking. materials, these four cups serve the same
general purpose: to contain liquid for
Instantly the scope of the problem context expands beyond the more narrow
drinking. Their distinct characteristics,
range of conditions that influence the design of a cup. What kinds of liquid, for however, privilege some aspects of the
whom, and under what conditions? Drink boxes, canteens, squeeze bottles, and problem context over others (for example,
heat retention, stability, social use,
freezer pops are just a few contemporary responses to a context only slightly stackability, and disposability).
broader than that of a cup. Had the designers of these objects viewed their

56 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 respective problems as yet another cup, rather than as another way of drinking,
these objects would not be part of our product world.

THE FIT BETWEEN FORM

AND CONTEXT
In his Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964), the architect Christopher Alexander
described the real objective of design, not as form alone, but as “the goodness
of fit between form and context.”1 Form is that which we can
shape, and context is the complement of factors that determines
the nature of appropriate form. Alexander is referring here
to the fact that design problems are situated, that solutions must
respond to specific human motives and activities, conditions, and
settings that may be viewed at a variety of scales or perspectives
and across time. While the nature of the context is beyond the
designer’s immediate control, a primary design responsibility is
to determine which factors, and how many factors, within that
context the design will address. When it is not possible for a
design to reconcile the inevitable array of competing priorities,
we must decide to value some things as more important than
others. Alexander suggests that although the ultimate objective of
design is form, “when a designer does not understand a problem
clearly enough to find the order it really calls for, he falls back
3.1B on some arbitrarily chosen formal order. The problem, because
of its complexity, remains unsolved.”2
Herbert Simon (1916–2001), Nobel Prize-winner in economics,
described design as “action aimed at changing existing situations
into preferred ones.”3 Simon’s view focuses on the goal of design not
just as the appropriateness of the object itself, but as the influence
the designed object has on its surrounding context. For example,
the design of the automobile made living in the suburbs easier,
extended opportunities for the communication of personal status,
and encouraged the development of commerce and leisure activi-
ties by providing on-demand transportation.
These ideas of good fit and preferred situations place the
criteria for the evaluation of design as much in the designer’s
definition of the problem as in the quality of the solution. We
3.1D can judge design, then, not only on the basis of the object and
the qualities of its form, but also on how the designer framed
the problem-context to which the form responds. The designer
may be criticized for having ignored certain possible outcomes that others
deem critical to the preferred conditions, as suggested by Simon, or for his
or her ranking of competing priorities in the ensemble of relevant factors, as
acknowledged by Alexander. For example, our dependency on automobiles also
increased pollution and our reliance on foreign oil; suppressed the development
of energy-saving mass transit; and crisscrossed traditional neighborhoods with
interstates and off-ramps. Had we understood initially, or indeed over time,

the fit between form and context 57

that these would be the negative consequences of private transportation and
adopting the technology of the internal combustion engine, we may well have
taken a different design path.
Although these examples come from the product world, the formal attri-
butes of graphic design objects are equally accountable to audiences and the
contexts in which they must perform. Contrary to many perceptions, the task
of the graphic designer involves more than the fit between form and content.
While subject matter plays a significant role in determining how graphic design
objects look, defining problems solely in terms of content is unlikely to produce
effective communication. Consider the following descriptions of four com-
munication assignments:

Persuading teenagers to practice HIV prevention.

Persuading teenage girls, between fifteen and seventeen
years of age, to practice HIV prevention.
Persuading teenage girls, between fifteen and seventeen
years of age and who have dropped out of school, to
practice HIV prevention.
Persuading teenage girls, between fifteen and seventeen
years of age who have dropped out of school and live on
the streets, to practice HIV prevention.

The aim of all four assignments is to convince the targeted audience to

abstain from sex or to practice safe sex and not to share needles in intravenous
drug use. The basic intent and content for preventing HIV is consistent across
the four descriptions of audience, but the contexts are not. The first problem-
statement, for example, defines the audience as teenagers in general, directing
the designer’s attention to the conditions surrounding young men and women
between thirteen and nineteen years of age. The resulting contexts in which the
proposed communication must function under such a broad audience defini-
tion (composed of people with extreme differences in maturity and access to
privileges, as well as gender) involves an enormous range of physical settings,
social experiences, media influences, and intellectual and emotional capacities.
Consider, for example, the very different worlds inhabited by a sixth-grade boy
and a woman in her first or second year of college.
By narrowing the audience definition in the second problem-statement to
include only fifteen- to seventeen-year-old girls, the designer is better able to
imagine—or, more importantly, to conduct research about—a tighter range
of attitudes and behaviors associated with the specific social situations and
places in which teenage girls hang out. This more limiting problem description
narrows the conditions under which girls, in particular, would be receptive to
information on abstinence or safe sex and intravenous drug use. It also surfaces
the conflicting messages that foster unsafe activities, such as storylines in
movies and magazines that encourage premature adult behavior. The designer
can identify role models and relevant influences for this audience and explore
visual styles and approaches to language that are consistent with other suc-
cessful communication for teens.

58 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 The third problem-statement introduces the further complication that the
girls have dropped out of school and, once again, the context shifts. With the
elimination of school as a setting, there are fewer predictable environments
through which visual communication about HIV prevention can be distributed.
Teachers, and possibly parents, are less likely to exert significant influence on
the choices made by these young women—peers therefore rise exponentially in
importance as shapers of values and sources of information about sex and drug
use. The reasons for students leaving school may also be relevant: messages
that feel like a science lecture, or that preach from a more conservative value
system, or fail to acknowledge the high-risk behavior frequently exhibited by
dropouts, are unlikely to succeed.
In terms of the final problem context, it is reasonable to ask whether visual
communication is likely to persuade these girls to practice preventive behavior.
With the almost total loss of predictability in the physical settings inhabited by the
audience and the escalation of high-risk factors, personal intervention and counsel-
ing (i.e. social solutions) may be more effective than any graphic design strategy.
In each of these cases, the underlying facts of the message are the same.
Technically, how someone becomes HIV positive does not change with the audi-
ence. But how the designer crafts that message (the choices about persuasive
strategy, visual and verbal language, and the means by which the message is
distributed) depends largely on how we define the context. In other words, a
successful design must respond to a situated problem, and the more specific
the description of that situation, the clearer the path to an appropriate design.

THE SCALE
OF CONTEXT
COMMUNITIES (interrelated systems) In Design Methods (1970), the design methodologist J. SYSTEM

Christopher Jones challenged the design professions J. Christopher

Jones’s term for a
to think about context at differing scales.4 He devised set of interacting
SYSTEMS (interrelated products)
a hierarchy of design problems that moves from com- or interdependent
products that make
ponents, to products, to SYSTEMS, to COMMUNITIES up an integrated
PRODUCTS (interrelated components) (SEE FIGURE 3.2). Examples of graphic design problems whole. Donella
Meadows defines
at the lower two levels (components and products) a system as a set of
COMPONENTS would be typefaces and brochures. Designing at things interconnected
in such a way that
these scales requires limited research and simple they produce their
methods; trial and error solves most component own pattern of
behavior over time,
problems, and such strategies as focus groups often
3.2 HIERARCHY OF DESIGN as interconnected
PROBLEMS. Adapted from J. Christopher address the needs of users with respect to individual communication products. elements with
Jones, Design Methods: Seeds of a purpose.
Jones observed, however, that most contemporary problems do not exist at
Human Futures (New York, 1970)
the levels of components and products.5 Single actions at the product level today COMMUNITY
Design problems may be viewed at could have a ripple effect on systems and communities (interrelated systems) J. Christopher
different levels of complexity. Jones Jones’s term for a
argues that the problems of post-industrial well into the future. Jones’s use of the word “system,” in this case, does not
set of interacting
society reside mostly at the levels of refer to the typical graphic identity system consisting of logos, typefaces, color or interdependent
systems and communities, while our systems that define
methods are stalled at the levels of
palettes, and related graphic applications. In Jones’s sense, an identity system is
the scale of design
components and products. a “product.” His term implies the more comprehensive scale of a communica- problems in post-
tion system, consisting of all the ways in which messages are constructed and industrial society.

the scale of context 59

circulated inside and outside an organization. It includes all the conflicting or
competing information in the culture against which a message may be judged.
His notion of “communities”—interrelated systems—tells us that the concern
of the graphic designer is not only for the consequences of design action on the
communication system, but also for its effects on other systems.
For example, how the online bookseller Amazon.com markets books
through the design of its website affects practices in independent and chain
bookstores as well as book reviews and bestseller lists. It also alters the book-
buying behavior of college students and literature searches by researchers. In
addition to understanding the formal and technical aspects of web design,
designers of the digital system need to know about the social and cultural
experiences of users—from their browsing patterns in libraries and real book-
stores to their use of catalogs and search engines. Although the designer’s
specific task may be confined to the visual aspects of screen displays or the
information architecture of the site, decisions about form are driven equally by
what the designer understands about user knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes,
before and after any individual interaction with the site itself. The site also
has a relationship with how Amazon.com functions as a business, including
its research, marketing, financial, and distribution operations. In other words,
the designer must be concerned with the full lifespan of user interactions with
Amazon.com as a company, related components of the reading and book-buying
context, and the business model of which the website is only one part.
In another example, the immediate task of a magazine designer may be to sell
the latest fashion to young women in the much-valued fifteen- to twenty-five-year-
old age bracket. When viewed as a product, a successful magazine design appeals
to the aspirations of young women with expendable income for beauty and social
status; it converts desire into purchases for the advertisers in the magazine. When
viewed from a community perspective, however, we must consider the social and
cultural consequences of equating beauty with unattainable images of perfection;
self-worth with possessions; and accomplishment with physical attractiveness.
In All-Consuming Images (1988), the historian Stuart Ewen (see p. 159)
laments the social consequences of the images that are promoted by advertising:

Economic wealth is derived, more than ever, in the circulation of detached and
imponderable representations of value . . . . Advertising, public relations, and other
industries of image and hype are consolidating into global megacorporations;their
prime role is to envelop a jerry-built material world with provocative, tenuous
meanings, suggesting fathomable value, but occupying no clear time and space.6

Ewen’s critique attributes this dissociation from the material world of real
goods to “the ever-increasing prominence of abstract conceptions of value,
conceptions that celebrate representation divorced from matter.”7 Advertising
and design are of course complicit in promoting this world in which having a
big credit line is more important than having real money, in which celebrity
is more important than achievement, and in which the status associated with
owning something is more important than how that object actually performs.
Whether we agree with Ewen’s less-than-rosy view of advertising or not, there
is little doubt that consumption is fueled by design. And while many clients’

60 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

descriptions of professional design assignments are at the product level, our
ultimate social responsibility is to systems and communities. The lessons from
these examples are that the designers of such communication have obligations
to more than the short-term profits of business and clients, and that meanings
accumulate, have a very long half-life, and define the society in which we live.
So, if our first and primary task as designers is to determine what aspects of
context should drive our decision-making about communication strategy and
form, where do we look for things that are important in defining the problem
space in which we work? What aspects of design shape consequences in larger
contexts? And on the basis of what knowledge and which theories can we make
choices among competing concerns? If we are standing in for the audience and
society in the design process, as well as representing the client and business,
how do we make sure that our choices are in everyone’s best interests?
The relevant aspects of context vary with the audience and communi-
cation goal. There is, however, a fairly short checklist of domains about
which we should ask questions. As advocates for the individual interpreter
or user, we must be concerned with all the cognitive and physical behaviors
that are enhanced or diminished by the performance of the designed artifact.
As citizens, we must care not only about the ways in which the designed
object both shapes and reflects the culture of which it is a part, but also about
how it supports positive social practices among members of that culture. As
makers, we must pay attention to the means by which artifacts are created,
reproduced, and circulated, as well as to the meanings of objects within broader
technological contexts. And we must recognize that most designed objects have
economic consequences for the clients of design, and therefore for society at large.
To illustrate these dimensions of context better, the discussions that follow
provide a brief inventory of relevant theories. Many of these theories originate
in disciplines other than design. Designing at the system and community levels
responds to the complexity of today’s information environment and argues
for the role of interdisciplinary teams. The expertise of a designer alone is
frequently insufficient in addressing the full range of concerns and the com-
plicated nature of today’s problems. To collaborate with other disciplinary
experts, however, designers must be well informed on issues beyond form
and technology. If design is to be considered in the initial stages of developing
a communication strategy, not at the cosmetic end of a process aimed at short-
term profit, designers must address the contributing roles of human cognition,
social behavior, culture, technology, economics, and the physical aspects of
audiences and settings in the definition of design problems.

THE COGNITIVE CONTEXT FOR

DESIGN: HOW WE ARE ALIKE
AND DIFFERENT
It is important for graphic designers to know how people perceive and process
information. Human perception, motivation, and reasoning comprise one
dimension of the overall context for design and define how audiences are
both alike and different.

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 61
 Much of our cognitive perception and processing of visual stimuli has its
origins in the biological world and survival responses. Other interpretive
behaviors are learned and shared among people with the same general cultural
experience. Such common responses to visual phenomena ground design deci-
sions in a set of basic perceptual assumptions.
On the other hand, contemporary graphic design and communication strate-
gies frequently favor tailored approaches. Rather than create general messages
for a broad set of audience characteristics, strategists often target communica-
tion to particular audience groups with very specific interests and backgrounds
(see pp. 28–30). We can observe this trend in the number of highly focused
magazines, the popularity of cable television, weblogs, personal playlists, and
cell-phone plans that sort user groups through specific features and functions.
Communicators look for ways to craft messages that attract specific audiences
in an environment in which too much information competes for our limited
amount of attention. The first goal of tailoring is to communicate quickly the
“goodness of fit” between the message and an audience that is forced to edit
a complex information landscape (see pp. 28–29). The task for the designer,
therefore, is to determine meaningful ways in which audiences are different,
as well as alike, at scales that can be addressed by design.
While marketing provides one model for identifying audience differences—
usually based on socio-economic factors and issues of gender, race, and age—
psychology provides another, based on perception and reasoning. In some cases,
designers use psychological research to construct persuasive strategies that
motivate or change the opinions of consumers. They also depend on human-
factors studies of users’ interactions with products and technology. In these
instances, the application of psychology is often quite specific to the project
or setting and may not be transferable to other design challenges. In other
cases, the relationship between psychology and design addresses fundamental
GESTALT THEORY theories of perception and processing that are not project-specific. The aim in
PRINCIPLES
these studies is to understand how thinking and feeling relate to any design
Principles developed
by German problem and to integrate such research as part of an overall approach to design.
psychologists in
the early 1900s
in an attempt to how we are alike:
establish a scientific the contribution of gestalt psychology
understanding of the
relationship between
Among the visual studies most frequently referred to by designers are those
human perception conducted by a group of German psychologists in the early twentieth century,
and the physical world.
These principles
which sought general principles in the perceptual organization of stimuli.
focus on the ability Their goal, consistent with the modernist ideas of the times, was to establish
of the human mind
to recognize whole
an objective science for making sense of the relationships between human
figures within a perception and the physical world. GESTALT in German means “configura-
collection of individual
tion” and favors the perception of pattern over individual elements.8 Such
elements, based on
the self-organizing patterns are not part of the stimulus itself (are not physically present) but are
nature of the human
created by the perceiver in his or her own mind. Gestalt scientists were inter-
brain. From the
German word ested in how people perceive grouped stimuli (i.e. discrete elements in a visual
for “configuration” composition) as larger wholes and as segregated from other organized wholes.
or “essence or
shape of an entity’s These visual phenomena underpin many foundation studies in basic two-
complete form.” dimensional design classes, but they also govern our perception of sound

62 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

and motion. The following examples illustrate some of the best-known
Gestalt principles.

Principle of proximity:According to this principle, we tend to perceive

individual elements as a whole or complete form when they share
common spacing among them that is different from the spacing of
other elements on the page. In FIGURE 3.3A we see a small square inside
a field of dots because the proximity among some dots is closer than
elsewhere in the composition.

Principle of similarity: This principle states that we tend to perceive

a whole form or pattern when similar characteristics are shared by
individual elements. In the case of FIGURE 3.3B, we see distinct horizontal
rows because of the change in shape among the elements, despite the
even distribution of same-sized elements in the overall pattern. In
the typographic example in FIGURE 3.3C, the same principle is at work.
Type color and weight connect the three words “the right opinion” by
their common attributes, overriding the normal syntax of the larger
sentence through the principle of similarity. The full message implies
one thing, while the second message, formed only by the gray type,
means another. The second message raises questions about the first
by implying that some opinions may be more “right” than others.
Were the principle of similarity not in play, we would not see the
second message.

Principle of good continuation: This principle explains how elements

can be organized as continuous wholes, despite some interruptions
and changes in form. FIGURE 3.3D shows a series of individual dots
that read as straight and wavy lines. Even though these dots are
identical elements surrounded by white space, we perceive them as
two distinct, continuous lines. In the typographic example in FIGURE
3.3F, we have no problem reading the larger display type as a single

thought, even though it is interrupted by the paragraph of smaller text

type. The illusion of the larger line of type as piercing the paragraph
occurs because of our perception of continuation. If the two parts of
the headline were not perceived as a single line, the content of the
individual segments would make no sense.

Principle of closure: This principle states that we tend to perceive some

groupings of elements as simple, closed shapes, even when outlines are
broken and independent of other properties of similarity, proximity,
and continuation. A circle drawn with small gaps in the line, for
example, is still perceived as a circle even though the containing
line is broken. In the typographic composition in FIGURE 3.3E, the four
letters in color are perceived as a square, not as four independent
letterforms. Our perception of the shape as a square reinforces the
verbal message, even though the letters in the word “cube” do not
appear in a straight line. In FIGURE 3.3G, the two paragraphs of text

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 63
3.3 (A–G)
GESTALT PRINCIPLES

3.3A 3.3B

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression

3.3C

3.3D 3.3E

64 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

3.3F

3.3G

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 65
 appear as complete but overlapping rectangles, because of closure
and continuation. Even though all words in the red paragraph are
visible and make an L-shaped form, we read it as a complete rectangle
sitting underneath the black text.

Many logo designs depend on the principle of closure (SEE FIGURE

. Because logos appear on a variety of surfaces, the open contours
3.4)

and reversal of positive and negative space within their designs help
to integrate them with their diverse backgrounds. Yet the principle of
closure guarantees that they are also viewed as distinct, whole forms,
recognizable and memorable within complex visual landscapes.
Recent studies show that sound and visual sequences in film are
also subject to some of the same Gestalt principles. The durations
of silence between sounds determine whether sequential sounds
are perceived as part of the same whole or as isolated stimuli (for
example, as a song rather than random notes). In another experi-
ment, Gestalt psychologists studied the perception of motion in
the absence of actual movement by the stimulus. In what is known
3.4 WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
as the phi phenomenon, two adjacent lights flashing on and off in succession LOGO, 1986
are perceived as the same light changing its location..9 We find applications of Sir Peter Scott (1909–1989)
this phenomenon in lighting displays at holiday times (during Christmas, for
example) and it is the means by which computer-generated motion typography
works: a single letter appears to be moving across the screen when, in fact,
multiple versions of the letter are simply generated in different locations at
different times. Too much delay between the letter iterations breaks the percep-
tion of a single form in motion.
These Gestalt principles describe perceptions that human beings are likely
to have in common. They acknowledge the importance of the total visual field,
not just the design of discrete elements, and inform visual compositions and
our assumptions about how people read form.

our common approaches to

picture processing and memory
FIXATION Psychologists also study the relationship between picture processing and
The period of time in memory: how we scan images, what we look at in order to construct meaning,
which the eye is at rest
or focused on a single and what conditions influence how much and how long we remember things.
object or element Many of these studies are based on eye movement and on how much atten-
in a visual field.
tion we pay to the specific features of an image. The assumption is that the
SACCADE longer we spend looking at something, the greater our investment in processing
Rapid eye movement meaning and therefore the more likely we are to remember it.10 Scientists iden-
between periods
of rest. Saccades tify two distinct types of eye movement: FIXATIONS and SACCADES. Fixations are
relocate the gaze in a the brief rests during which the eye is stationary and focused on an individual
different direction and
are usually motivated
element or part of the image. Saccades are the rapid eye movements between
by a search for what fixations, so quick and automatic that they are undetectable by the perceiver.
the person feels is
the most informative
Psychologists find that most of our fixations occur on the areas of an
area or element of image that we think are most informative. When scanning images of people
the visual field.
or animals, for example, we are most likely to fixate on the face because we

66 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 expect this feature to contain more information about emotions and intent
than other parts of the body.11 Informative areas are also those with the least
probability of being in the image, based on the viewer’s past experience.12
For example, in a composition of farm animals and buildings, a tiger would
be an unexpected item and likely to
command the most fixations among
all picture elements. We appear, as a
species, to be attracted to novelty and
to things that are not predictable—
probably as a survival strategy.
Picture scanning is also influenced
by the viewer’s reason for looking at
the image. When asked to determine
the ages of people in a photograph,
for example, viewers scanned their
faces. But when asked to remember
the positions of the people in the same
image, the viewers’ eye movements
zigzagged among the figures in order
to gauge distance.13
This finding is important to the
graphic designer when determining
the relationship between text and
image. Magazine readers, for exam-
ple, generally scan spreads before
reading any specific article in detail.
They make decisions to return to an
article on the basis of this scanning
and memory of content that appears
relevant to them. A headline can tell
the viewer how to process the image.
The two layouts in FIGURE 3.5 guide the
reader to two interpretations of the same
image, solely on the basis of their
respective headlines. They create very
different top-of-the-mind perceptions
of what the article is about. Both are
3.5
accurate and will stand up to further scrutiny by readers, but they may differ
Although the two layouts are nearly in attracting particular readers. If we think of headlines as telling the audience
identical, the different titles influence
how we process the image. In the top how to process the image, we make a compelling argument for designers and
layout, the reference to race in the title copywriters to work together in shaping messages.
guides our viewing pattern; we fixate on
the children’s faces to determine racial Studies also show that the longer we look at an image, the more likely we
differences. In the bottom layout, the title are to remember its content—the greater the amount of processing activity,
makes no reference to race or any other
distinguishing characteristics of individual
the greater the retention and reporting of detail.14 This is a significant finding
children. The image is simply a class for creating messages for certain contexts. For example, a study of museum
picture in which children are arranged
in rows by height.
exhibitions in Washington, D.C. found that the average time spent by viewers
with a single exhibition component (a discrete explanation of an object or

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 67
concept) was about three seconds. This typical viewing pattern was almost
identical to that of window shopping in a mall.15 In addition, many museum-
goers report entertainment, not learning, as their primary reason for visiting
museums.16 Such short exposure to content, not motivated by an explicit inten-
tion to learn, raises questions about many
curatorial and exhibition-design strategies.
Long textual discussions on labels and
sequential presentations of content that
require a specific viewing order may be at
odds with the visual processing behavior
and somewhat random movement of 2+2=4

viewers through exhibition spaces. Just as

in window-shopping, something visually
compelling must interrupt the general
scanning behavior for the viewer to invest
time in processing content.
Another study concludes that there are
at least three types of picture memory:
one in which we retain an inventory of the
objects in the picture; another in which we 3.6A

remember the appearance of those items;

and a third that captures the location of
the items within the picture frame and
with respect to each other.17 Two images,
2+2
similar to those in FIGURE 3.6, were shown =4

separately to viewers for very short periods

of time. The viewers’ memories of the
size and the orientation of the items in
the two compositions were roughly the
same. What differed was their retention of
spatial information. They were more likely
to remember items and where they were
located in response to the ordered composi-
tion, and they read the image vertically; if
3.6B
they were unable to remember something,
it was usually an item at the bottom of the
3.6
page. In response to the tumbled composition, PICTURE PROCESSING
viewers were less likely to remember the object placement and read the images Based on studies by Potter and Levy
(1969) and Potter (1976) described
horizontally, defaulting to the left-to-right reading pattern for text in the absence in Kathryn T. Spoehr and Stephen T.
of a recognizable schema (i.e. a classroom) that explains the presence of these Lehmkuhle, Visual Information Processing
(San Francisco, 1982)
items in the same composition.18
This research demonstrates that there are no hard-and-fast rules about how Two similar configurations of images,
when shown to viewers for short periods
viewers process images that designers can apply in every design setting. Viewers of time, produced very different results
deploy the cognitive behavior that is appropriate to a particular interpretive in viewers’ speed of recognition and
memory of elements.
task or context. Such research also emphasizes the importance of defining a
communication task not only by the inventory of subject matter, but also by
the perspective for viewing it.

68 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 sensing and feeling:
the affective response to design
If design decisions were only about initiating physical responses to stimuli,
there would be less debate about how things should look. Yet design also seeks
to bring about some kind of AFFECT, EMOTION, behavior, or reflection. In his AFFECT

book Emotional Design (2004) the cognitive psychologist Donald Norman (see Donald Norman used
this term to refer to the
pp. 36, 50) defines these terms: experience of feeling
or emotion, as distinct
The affective system makes judgments and quickly helps you to determine which from other kinds
things in the environment are dangerous or safe, good or bad . . . . The cognitive system of thought.
interprets and makes sense of the world . . . . Emotion is the conscious experience of
affect, complete with attribution of cause and identification of its object.19 EMOTION
Donald Norman used
this term to refer to the
Norman describes three levels of emotion that can be represented through the conscious experience
physical characteristics of products, and by extension, in communication artifacts. of affect, in which it
is possible to identify
The VISCERAL level of emotion relies on appearance. Norman suggests that the cause or object
this type of emotion is “pre-wired” in our brains and is not the result of reasoning— of the emotion.

exposure to the object or image actually changes the chemistry of the brain and
VISCERAL EMOTION
our processing mechanisms.20 Through pattern matching we respond to some
Donald Norman
things positively (smiling faces, sensuous shapes, rhythmic beats) and other used this term to
refer to an instinctive
things negatively (crowds of people, looming objects, discordant sounds).21 The
or unreasoned
claustrophobic, jostled view photographed from within a crowd is visceral; we emotional response
usually react to the visual and kinesthetic experience of crowding with anxiety. to something.

This is not the case with a diagram of population density or an attendance

number for an event, which require far more reflection about abstractions.
The material qualities of design objects often elicit visceral responses: the
woody texture of paper; the hefty weight of a book; the mesmerizing fluid-
ity with which one shape morphs into another on a computer screen. Apart
from the content they represent, these appealing physical qualities of things
frequently account for our attraction to one object over another. Our interest
in such qualities has little to do with culture—we all respond to touch, sound,
and sight as physical beings. In this way, then, aesthetics really matter. Norman
reminds us that we actually believe that attractive things work better.22
Television advertising makes frequent use of the visceral response: the
frosty glass of beer with foam spilling over its rim in slow motion; the extreme
close-up of pouty, hot-pink lips glistening with a new coat of lipstick; the tires
of a shiny SUV leaving the ground, then landing with a dramatic splash in a
mountain stream. So basic is our response to these types of representation
that advertisers need not worry that they are too complicated for a thirty-
second experience or are likely to become dated. Because we do not reflect on
them, we can watch them repeatedly during prime time, without diminished
BEHAVIORAL
reaction—that beer looks just as frosty and enticing the third and fourth time EMOTION
around. The goal is to make us want something; it is about an immediate Donald Norman’s
term for the
emotional response, not about the rationality of that desire.
satisfaction or
The BEHAVIORAL level of emotion arises from the effectiveness and pleasure pleasure that comes
from the use of
derived from use; it is not conscious and, when successful, is the facility of experts.23
something or from
Norman gives the example of being able to drive while thinking about something doing something well.
other than the car and the road. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi goes a

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 69
 step further and refers to flow—a state of mind in which the act of doing something
is so pleasurable that we lose all track of time.24 Computer gamers, for example,
often reach behavioral flow. They are so engaged in the characters, environment,
action, and storyline of the game that the physical interactions necessary to sustain
them become automatic and all but disappear from consciousness.
The goal of many design solutions is to eliminate the need for reflection
on the actions necessary to make use of a tool—to make intuitive and natural
(often by mimicking behaviors from another context we already understand)
those things that are not the ultimate goal of the design. The computer desktop
metaphor serves this function. Unlike the intense reflection required to read
and write code—or even the more moderate demands of pull-down menus—
“dragging something to the trash” is an action we do not have to think about.
It resembles a behavior in the real world about which we are already experts.
Appropriately, our reflection is about what we are throwing away, not about
how to do it. So unconscious is this gesture that the system often asks us if we
really want to discard the item.
Many design objects are primarily about function and performance, about
usability and usefulness. For example, the last thing the harried driver in
an unfamiliar city wants is to contemplate the cultural significance of high-
way signs or to struggle with their legibility. The performance we expect of
a signage system is to direct us to the appropriate destination and confirm
when we have arrived, as efficiently as possible. Because the Federal Highway
Administration has adopted general standards (white sans-serif type on green
backgrounds and a numbering system that tells us whether we are on ring
roads or direct routes through cities, running north–south or east–west),
we develop some behavioral expertise for making sense of new situations. We
spend our time thinking about the content of the signs, not about their design
or who is directing us by placing them along the roadways. The graphic system
frees us from such reflection.
A challenge for designers of behavior-oriented objects, where the mastery
of doing something well is at stake, is to discern what and whose needs are
most important or typical in a given context. Should filling out a tax form
require a degree in accounting? Is a software interface designed for the novice
or the expert? Can it adapt to changes in skills over time? Should hitting the
right sequence of buttons on equipment in a medical emergency require a lot
of practice? Must we reinvent our patterns of use with a travel website under
every new change in style?
A major focus of contemporary design practice (see chapter 7), and the
aim of a growing number of design research firms and work in universities,
is to develop a better understanding of the needs and wants of audiences or
users. These enterprises do more than ask people what they do or what they
need or want. Instead, they develop user-centered research methods—such
as ethnographic studies—in which they observe and collect data from people
about their everyday lives. A user’s diary, for example, may offer a far richer and
more accurate account of actual behavior than the user is able to recall in an
interview. Similarly, observations of how children interact with various types
of media throughout the day may not be something a busy mother can provide.

70 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 Such studies are important in bridging the potential gap between the design-
er’s and the audience’s notions of need and use. In The Design of Everyday Things
(1990) Norman discusses the possible distinctions between the designer’s and
the user’s conceptual models of the object and how it is used.25 Problems arise
when the object fails to mediate between these two conceptual models. In this
textbook, for example, definitions of terms appear in the margins of the book
next to the paragraphs in which they are first used. As an author, my value-
driven conceptual model is that definitions need to be handy when readers first
encounter a new word, and that clusters of definitions tell readers something
about a field of related ideas in ways that alphabetical listings do not. The
book in your hands articulates that model. If the reader cannot decipher my
conceptual framework and how to use it through the design of the object,
the page-by-page definitions may appear to be random. Were the glossary not
repeated as an alphabetical listing at the back of the book, the resulting behav-
ior would be lots of flipping back and forth among pages, causing reflection
about the tool, rather than about the content it is supposed to communicate.
The REFLECTIVE level of emotion, says Norman, involves contemplation, REFLECTIVE
EMOTION
memory, and learning; we develop an understanding of new concepts and
Donald Norman’s
generalizations about the world through reflective thought.26 This level is most term for the
susceptible to the influences of culture and individual experience and lasts type of emotion
that involves
longer than the visceral.27 How we feel about successfully using an especially contemplation,
demanding software program or what we think about the design of certain memory, and learning.

books that makes us display them on the coffee table are not momentary
thoughts. We can trace how we felt about such things in the past and project
what they might mean to us in the future. They inhabit our memories and
inform future actions and beliefs.
In Complicity and Conviction (1980) the architect William Hubbard discusses
typography as a model for architecture. He argues that even if we were able to
determine the perfect typeface, point size, leading, and page proportions for
the maximum legibility of text, it is still unlikely that we would repeat such
typographic specifications for every layout we produce, despite its behavioral
efficiency.28 Instead, we are willing to sacrifice some ease of use to gain the emo-
tional benefits of contemplation that result from variations in typographic form.
For example, Jonathan Barnbrook’s spread (SEE FIGURE 3.7) in an issue of the
anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters that was devoted to design anarchy does
more than imitate the style of rebellion against traditional displays of text. It
is a literal collision of ideas, expressed in typefaces that have strong historical
associations, and in a form that demands re-evaluation of each sentence in
juxtaposition with another. Barnbrook reveals his intentions in the smallest
paragraph of text in the layout:

Making texts visually ambiguous and difficult to fathom is a way of respecting our
readers. Let’s lay obstacles, diversions, and false leads. Let’s halt and disrupt the
discourse in devious ways.29

In this case, the aim of the designer is to place the reader in a highly reflec-
tive mode, to slow him or her down in the difficult task of deliberating about
ideas expressed in the work. This is an appropriate mission for visual text in a

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 71
 3.7 SPREAD FROM ADBUSTERS 37,
ISSUE ON DESIGN ANARCHY, 2001
Jonathan Barnbrook (b. 1966)

3.8
VOTER TURNOUT PERCENTAGES IN
THE UNITED STATES, BY STATE, 2004
Data from StateMaster.com

The two maps represent the same data,

but it is easier to determine whether
70–74.9% Missouri or Kansas has a higher
percentage of voter turnout in the map
65–69.9%
on the bottom than in the map on the
60–64.9% top. The graduated changes in color have
55–59.9% a more natural relationship to increasing
percentages than do the random colors of
50–54.9%
the map on the top.
45–49.9%

70–74.9%

65–69.9%

60–64.9%

55–59.9%

50–54.9%

45–49.9%

72 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 critical magazine. The time spent with a magazine is self-paced—the reader can
devote the time necessary to process the ideas and opinions in the work, to
place it in context with the rest of the issue, and to consider the perspective
and history of the maker.
In other situations, medium or timing may not be well suited to reflection.
Norman cautions us that tools can be designed in ways that cause us to reflect
when we should be behaving less consciously. For example, the dialog box that
intrudes with an annoying question during our otherwise fluent use of software,
or diagrams that make comparisons of magnitude using a perceptual strategy
that is at odds with the nature of the data (SEE FIGURE 3.8)—we often spend more
time thinking about these items than they deserve.30
Norman expresses even greater concern over design that causes us to experi-
ence viscerally or behaviorally when we should be reflecting.31 Television often
presents such circumstances: too much violence not processed on a reflective level;
advertising appeals to the visceral that should be judged with more conscious
discrimination; and acceptance of cultural stereotypes without self-reflection
about our own biases. We have become experts at viewing and are often awash
in the pattern of broadcast media without conscious thought about its content.
On the other hand, Norman makes the point that these three levels inter-
act with one another, that communication does not always fall entirely into
one category or another. Our cognitive activity can be bottom-up (initiated
from the visceral level) or top-down (coming from
the reflective level).32
Public service announcements (PSAs), for
example, often use the visceral as a bottom-
up alternative to more reflective sermons or
lectures on social causes. A thirty-second
smoking prevention television spot by the
truth® youth-smoking-prevention campaign in
2000 showed a crew of young people piling up
1,200 empty body bags at the foot of a tobacco
company’s high-rise building. The ad sought to
illustrate in a visceral fashion how 1,200 people
die each day in the United States from tobacco-
related diseases (SEE FIGURE 3.9). After the initial
shock, viewers were encouraged to reflect on
the consequences of smoking. An industry
3.9 TRUTH ANTI-SMOKING that itself relied on selling its product through visceral messages feared a
TELEVISION AD, JULY 2000
counter-message that used highly emotional content as well. In another PSA,
Arnold Communications for the
American Legacy Foundation the Committee for a Drug-Free America showed a teenager drowning in her
water-filled bedroom as a way of describing the feeling of an overdose. In both
This scene from a television public-
service announcement depicts body cases, the goal was to encourage the viewer to reflect on the self-destructive
bags piling up at the foot of a building behavior, but the entry to that reflection was through an emotionally charged,
occupied by a tobacco company. It leads
viewers to reflect on the consequences visceral image. Equally important, the intentionally negative quality of these
of smoking through an image that images is in stark contrast to the upbeat, frenetic nature of most television
produces a visceral emotional response.
advertising. They grab our attention by breaking the expected pattern, and we
sense a change in the emotional content of the broadcast.

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 73
 Even abstraction can be visceral. In a response in 1985 to the proliferation
of nuclear-weapons testing, Joan Kroc, the wife of the McDonald’s founder Ray
Kroc, purchased full-page ads in major newspapers around the country. The
only content on these pages was an edge-to-edge pattern of small bomb icons
and, by implication, a representation of the commitment to nuclear weapons.
The newspapers report the same statistics in their front-page news, but Kroc
achieved greater reflection about the extent of the country’s commitment to war
through a visceral representation of numbers. It mattered very little what the
actual number was—we knew instantly that it was a lot. In this case, a visceral
response was elicited, not by images of destruction to which
we had become numb through the nightly news, but through
an abstract representation of magnitude or frequency.
REPRESENTING THE CONCRETE
The emotional content of design is increasingly impor-
Visual communication, by definition, often represents or
tant to the success of products and communication. Now,
simulates concrete experience. The material properties of a
more than ever before in history, the purely functional or
printed publication (paper choices, color, or size, for example)
qualitative differences among many competing products
or the gestures used to interact with some computers (such
and messages are negligible. Advertisers must make us
as finger movements on an iPad or iPhone), enhance the
want something because the real differences among the
concreteness of experiences with certain representations.
products we need are increasingly irrelevant, or because
But the majority of sensory cues in graphic design are
they are selling us something we do not need at all.
visual facsimiles of a physical, concrete world: a blurred
photograph represents motion; letterspaced typography
responding to differences in simulates rhythmic or spoken sound; and overlapping red
cognitive style and yellow shapes appear to make orange.
There are important ways in which we are different from one
On the other hand, there is a tendency for graphic
another in our cognitive behavior. A segment of research in
designers to rely on abstraction in communicating certain
psychology focuses on learning, on how we acquire under-
kinds of content. Imagine describing the height of
standing and skills, and on our preferences for certain ways
a skyscraper. Were we to approach the explanation of its
of structuring experiences with unfamiliar information.
height as an abstract concept, we might place an image of
Although not all communication interactions focus on tradi-
the building next to other known tall buildings, illustrating
tional classroom learning, a case can be made that preferences
a juxtaposition that we are unlikely to see in the real
for ways to learn relate closely to preferences for ways to access
world. Such comparisons encourage understanding
and process new information in a variety of contexts.
of a mathematical concept of height. The building is
As mentioned previously, the contemporary commu-
“twice the size” of another building, or “ten stories higher”
nication environment presents enormous competition for
than the Empire State Building, or equal to multiples of
our attention. No one can perceive or process the totality
some unrelated object the size of which we already know.
of information available at any given moment. We there-
For example, to understand the height of the Empire State
fore make choices about what we attend to. Such choices
ABSTRACT Building, we could compare it to a two-story house. In
are guided, in part, by the relationship between the per-
Theoretical, contrast, an image of the street taken from the top of the
conceptual, apart ceived structure of the information and the demands that
from the physical building, looking down, with our toes at the edge of its
structure places on our interpretative behavior. We edit
world. Denoting an cornice, is more likely to help us “sense and feel” building
idea, quality, or state. according to both need and preference.
height than an abstract, mathematical comparison. It would
The learning theorist Bernice McCarthy, building on
CONCRETE recall the concrete, bodily experience and resulting anxiety
original studies by the psychologist David Kolb, describes
Physical, tangible, of being in high places. While such concrete representation
real. Existing in people’s preferences for ways to learn. Through evaluations
is not useful in making some kinds of comparisons or
a material form that of learning style, she measures and classifies learners as
can be understood
through sensory ABSTRACT or CONCRETE perceivers and as active or reflective
experience. processors. Abstract perceivers reason experience; the

74 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 intellect makes the first appraisal in an attempt to be objective and free from
bias, to stand apart.33 Theories, concepts, models, and strategies are comfort-
able points of entry to new content for these individuals. Concrete perceivers,
on the other hand, sense and feel. These individuals prefer to access new ideas
through immersion in actual experience or through the recall of actual experi-
ence. They enter content through the physical information of the senses; they
are intuitive and connect information to deeper meaning and personal points
of view.34 (See box: “Representing the Concrete.”)

calculations, it can be helpful when trying to communicate

on a more emotional level.
Some information lends itself naturally to concrete
representation. Several decades ago, the United States
attempted to align itself with the rest of the world by
broadening its use of the metric system of measurement.
Unfortunately, the method promoted for US adoption
was conversion, which asked citizens to think in abstract
numerical equivalencies (between yards and meters, for
example). The problem with this strategy was that distances,
weights, and volumes are things we first understand through
concrete experience in the execution of physical tasks. We
hold, see, or estimate an amount of some real thing that
represents the abstraction of a “cup” or a “foot.” We sense
how long it takes us to walk or drive a mile. In fact, our and non-metals). Elements are also ordered by ascending
system of measurement was once based entirely on physical atomic number (shown in the corner of each element’s
experience. A yard was said to equal the stride of King Henry rectangle. In this alphanumeric chart, one element looks
I of England. The cubit was the distance from the elbow to essentially like another. In contrast, the interactive version
the fingertips in ancient Egypt, and an inch in fourteenth- of the periodic table by Stacie Rohrbach, shown in this
century England was the span of three grains of barley placed illustration, explains reactivity through a small white ball that
end to end. In the case of Americans and the metric system, bounces within each element’s rectangle at a specific speed.
the abstract, reflective task of conversion was not well Movement is reinforced by a pinging sound as the ball hits
matched to learning the concepts of measurement. Practice the edges of the rectangle. When all elements are activated,
in measuring real things with metric instruments or thinking sections of the table pulse at different rates, depending on
of metric units in our travel of distances would probably build how reactive the elements in that section are. We sense
a better understanding of the system. the differences in reactivity through sound and motion and,
Interactive media present an opportunity to address both in doing so, understand patterns across the 118 elements.
abstract and concrete perceivers in the same Again, we cannot perform calculations through this form, but
presentation. For example, the typical periodic the sensory variables allow us to recognize and reflect upon
table of the elements as it appears in science pattern and difference in ways that are not possible through
books is a static chart that groups like elements the more abstract alphanumeric display.
in specific zones of the table (the noble gases are
clustered in an area that is distinct from metals

the cognitive context for design: how we are alike and different 75
 LEARNING The second dimension of LEARNING PREFERENCE measured by McCarthy
PREFERENCE
is processing. Some people prefer to process information by thinking (reflec-
A preferred way
of interacting tively), others by doing (actively). This difference in processing behavior may
with, taking in, and be described by two approaches to assembling a toy or piece of furniture: one
processing stimuli
or information. person reads the instructions to build a mental concept of the components
and rules for their assembly before acting, while another person dumps
the contents onto the floor and discovers the rules by physically testing
combinations in response to the physical features of the parts. (See box:
“Understanding by Doing.”)
Although individuals may show preferences at various locations along
McCarthy’s perceiving and processing continuums (abstract to concrete percep-
tion and active to reflective processing), the system classifies learners into four
basic types and provides a “favorite question” as a shorthand description of each:35

Concrete perceiving/reflective processing—the “why” people

Abstract perceiving/reflective processing—the “what” people
Abstract perceiving/active processing—the “how does this
work” people
Concrete perceiving/active processing—the “[what] if” people

These favorite questions offer interesting opportunities for structuring

content in visual communication. Design strategies frequently focus on the
“what” issues in content explanations; choices about text and image “identify”
content related to the concept. For example, a poster advertising a jazz festival
may use a saxophone and piano keys to tell viewers that the poster relates to
music. The rendering of the instruments and choices of typeface may go a
step further to signify jazz through some stylistic tradition, but the intention
is still to recall objects we associate with jazz. On the other hand, if we view
the design task as describing how jazz works, or why we might want to spend
an evening listening to a live jazz performance, we open up communication
about jazz to a wider range of interpretive perspectives.
In thinking about how the verbal and visual forms of information address
these various cognitive preferences, individually or simultaneously, we expand
the conventional repertoire of design strategies. Further, we layer meaning,
providing a richer representation of content—text does not merely “label” an
image, and images do not simply “illustrate” text. Instead, text and image can
present two complementary but different aspects of the same concept, provid-
ing the audience with choices about how to engage with the subject matter.
Graphic design has a limited history of concern for the cognitive behavior
of audiences in terms of research and theoretical perspectives. Most designers
assume that audiences see what the designer sees and operate intuitively about
how visual information is perceived and processed in the mind. Because we
are usually not present when audiences confront print-based design objects,
and because it is impossible to observe someone’s thought processes, we have
little information about the cognitive consequences of design decisions. In
recent years, however, the move from print- to screen-based interactive com-
munication has presented unprecedented opportunities to study and record

76 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

UNDERSTANDING BY DOING
The active processing of information is, in many cases, neither
efficient nor economically feasible. It makes little sense to judge
the healthful attributes of a breakfast cereal by sorting ingredients
into cups when a pie chart serves the same function. And if we
assemble a bicycle incorrectly, based on intuition about how
the parts go together, the results could be costly. Yet there are
communication challenges in which the physical engagement
of the audience can be a powerful means for understanding
something. Digital technology expands the possibilities of
“virtual” activity, making such strategies more practical. The
Sodaconstructor website (http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/),
for example, allows users to build virtual robots and other
Visual Thesaurus, 1998. Mark Tinkler, Plumb Design and Thinkmap, Inc.
models with muscles and springs that respond within an
environment of user-determined variables (gravity or rates of constructs the field of definitions, unlike a traditional thesaurus in
movement). Interaction with the site teaches about physics which the arrangement of information is fixed and the individual’s
through something other than traditional presentations of static path through definitions is never recorded in physical form.
illustrations, text, and numbers. In both examples, the physical interaction of the user with the
In another example, the much-published thesaurus by Plumb site involves more than deploying standard software functions
Design (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/) offers a visual semantic (scrolling, pulling down menus, clicking from a fixed number of
web of synonyms and definitions in response to 145,000 options, and so on). Instead, the actions required to change the
user-entered words. The semantic web is dynamic: clicking on state of the information are equivalent to actions in the real world,
a synonym reveals yet another web of meaning as an extension with consequences that are quite particular in a visual and spatial
of the first word. Click-and-drag behaviors physically reconfigure sense. Users “build” information in a virtual environment, much
the point from which the web is viewed. The reader actively as they would in actual experience with material objects.

how users process information. The cognitive implications of design represent

a growing area of research. Chapter 7 addresses the rise in importance of
cognitive theory, brought about by the recent shift in practice from designing
objects to designing experiences.

THE SOCIO-CULTURAL
CONTEXT FOR DESIGN:
THE SEARCH FOR PATTERN
Even when tailoring communication to the cognitive needs of individuals, it is
important for designers to understand patterns in the social and cultural values CULTURE

and practices of groups. Much of our thought and how we process meaning is A particular way of
life that expresses
conditioned by living in a social world. certain meanings and
Stuart Hall (see p. 36) cites the cultural theorist Raymond Williams values in ordinary
behavior. According
(1921–1988), who examined varying definitions of CULTURE across history. to Raymond Williams,
Originally referring to the cultivation of crops and animals (agri-culture), culture is “a network
of relationships with
the term came to mean the process of human development during the congruent ways of
Enlightenment (see p. 136). Europe was viewed as “more cultured” than other seeing the world.”

the socio-cultural context for design: the search for pattern 77

 societies as the definition asserted a hierarchy among peoples on the basis
of social progress.36
The term acquired a more specific meaning in the late nineteenth century
and became associated with intellectual achievement, learning, and the arts.
Today we hold a distinction between high culture and popular or mass culture
that has much to do with this perspective.37 This dichotomy presents a dilemma
for the identity of design. On one hand
the field is rooted in the fine arts, with
many contemporary designers having
been trained through an aesthetic
education, and most clients think-
ing that the only purpose of design
is to make things look beautiful. The
earliest documentation of graphic
design history was conceived largely
within the canon of art history, which
emphasizes exceptional individuals
and the exemplary objects they made
in a chronology of important visual or
ideological movements, which may
or may not be as emblematic of their
times as were the anonymous items
of everyday life. In many art history
texts, design and typography are still
treated as footnotes to major artistic
movements in painting, sculpture,
and photography, thus confirming the
demarcation between high and mass
culture. With a few recent exceptions,
museums have affirmed this distinc-
tion by typically collecting one-of-
a-kind and high-culture artifacts as
“objects of art,” and mass-produced
products and printed communication
as “objects of history.” The first major
exhibition of graphic design in an art
museum in the United States did not
3.10 THE NIGHT GALLERY, 1991
take place until 1989, when the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis mounted Art Chantry (b. 1954)
Graphic Design in America; and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Poster for performance at the Center on
Contemporary Art
in New York is the only major museum in the nation devoted exclusively to
historical and contemporary design.
On the other hand, design involves the creation of messages for mass con-
sumption and concerns itself with an enormous variety of audiences, settings,
and communication problems. More recent design histories address the anony-
mous, unsigned objects of popular culture and the broader social contexts that
gave rise to them. Technological changes in how we produce design further
distance the field from its associations with high culture. In democratizing the

78 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 means of production through computer software and
networked communication, technology moved design
beyond the hands of highly trained professionals and the
privileges of corporate wealth to untrained users and do-
it-yourself strategies for publishing and communication.
And following a characteristic post-modern strategy,
designers frequently make reference to mass culture in
their choices about form. The vernacular inspiration for
Art Chantry’s poster for the Center on Contemporary Art
(SEE FIGURE 3.10), for example, does little to reinforce the

upper-class connotations we typically associate with the

high culture of art museums. Design has therefore had
a varied life under definitions of culture that focus only
on its artistic qualities.
During the twentieth century, and consistent with
the rise of the social sciences, we came to view culture as
a particular way of life that expresses certain meanings
and values in ordinary behavior.38 Williams stressed the
strong links between culture, meaning, and communica-
tion in this definition. He viewed cultural experience as
a “network of relationships,” in which the meaning of
communication artifacts cannot be separated from the
social environments and practices in which they reside.39
More recent theories question the notion of “one way of
life” and focus on the process of meaning production
and circulation, rather than on a unified vision—on how
things mean rather than what things mean.

formative and illustrative

roles for design
In An Introduction to Design and Culture (2004), the ILLUSTRATIVE ROLE

design historian Penny Sparke describes design as Penny Sparke’s term

for the concept that
having both ILLUSTR ATIVE and FORMATIVE roles to play design expresses
within culture.40 From one perspective, design reflects the culture in which
it is produced and
the culture and society in which it is produced. Through illustrates the ideas
their subject matter and form, designed objects express and values that are
already present in the
the values and preoccupations of the social environment. social environment.
3.11 DESIGN FOR THE UNIVERSITY
OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, 1825 From another perspective, Sparke says, “Design is part of a dynamic process
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) through which culture is actually constructed.” 41 FORMATIVE ROLE

Jefferson understood the illustrative and The history of architecture is replete with examples of the illustrative role Penny Sparke’s term
for the concept that
formative power of design. His design of design in culture. The design for the University of Virginia by the architect design shapes the
for the university quotes ten styles from
architectural history;none of the examples and president of the United States Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) distributed ten culture in which it
is produced and is
is British. Earlier, Jefferson had designed architectural pavilions, each housing a different academic discipline, around a actually a means
the Virginia State Capitol building based
on a building from the Roman Republic,
rectangular lawn (SEE FIGURE 3.11). A small version of the Roman Pantheon stands at for constructing the
values and ideas
his model for American government. the head, a bricks-and-mortar representation of the ideals of the Roman Republic, that eventually
upon which Jefferson modeled American government. Each of the ten pavilions become part of the
social environment.
uses a different building style, making an encyclopedia of architecture to be

the socio-cultural context for design: the search for pattern 79

 studied by students of that discipline enrolled in the university. There are, however,
no British examples in Jefferson’s plan—an expressive “thumbing of his nose” to
the monarchy from which he sought to distance the young country.
Likewise, the history of graphic design illustrates our shifting cultural values.
FIGURE 3.12 shows a collection of magazine advertisements, produced for Listerine

mouthwash, spanning a period of roughly forty years, much of it under the same
advertising agency. These ads are not likely to make anyone’s “100 Best” list for
their design, but they are typical of the thousands of messages that define the
zeitgeist of particular times. In the earliest image (SEE FIGURE 3.12A), the ad reflects
the prevailing perception of black people in the 1930s and 1940s—a servant
class in support of the dominant white culture. The image seems shocking to us
today, through the lens of several decades of social transformation. By the 1950s
(SEE FIGURE 3.12B–C), political and social change had recast the role of black people 3.12 (A–D)
LISTERINE MOUTHWASH
in images that were “separate but equal.” Not only were there two versions
ADVERTISEMENTS
of the ad for different racial audiences, but the black woman is also modeled
entirely in the image of the white woman. Finally, the ad produced after the civil A chronology of advertising images
for this product reflects the social history
rights movement (SEE FIGURE 3.12D) shows a confident African-American woman of race in America during the same period.
sporting a hairstyle and attitude all her own. We can trace similar changes in In this sense, designed artifacts reflect the
prevailing social values of the culture.
representations in fashion magazines, which reinforce public attitudes about
female “beauty,” or sports magazines and television advertising, which illustrate A Listerine advertisement,
Cosmopolitan, 1941
the dominant social schemas of what it is to be “male.”
In contrast to these illustrative examples, there are situations in which B Listerine advertisement, Life,
1962. J. Walter Thompson Company
design is formative and actually shapes the nature of the surrounding culture.
This is most evident in the application of new technologies. For example, net- C Listerine advertisement, Ebony,
1962. J. Walter Thompson Company
working sites have transformed social behavior for certain audiences. Google
Maps and mobile GPS systems have changed the way many of us understand D Listerine advertisement, Ebony,
1971. J. Walter Thompson Company
our cities and navigate the physical environment. Online versions of the news
and newspapers create certain expectations of what is “current” about current
events and actually contribute to changes in traditional reading habits.
Older media have also had a lasting impact on cultural behavior. Propaganda
posters during the two world wars shifted our views about women working in
industry, people with ethnic and national origins that matched those of our
enemies, and what we thought was absolutely essential for living a comfort-
able life. Our preference for SUVs in the 1990s responded to the auto industry
SCHEMA repositioning attitudes toward the station wagon and military vehicles through
The psychologists its advertising. Contemporary magazines tell us how to dress, what a fashionable
Martha Augoustinos
and Iain Walker used home should look like, and who we should look to as role models. Information
this term to refer to graphics shape our views of public policy or influence our decisions as we exer-
a mental structure
that contains general
cise the privileges of democracy. This role for design is powerful. It assigns to
expectations and design considerable responsibility for the transmission and production of culture.
knowledge about
people, social roles,
events, and places. social schemas
These structures
tell us what to think
Schema theory focuses on how we assign meaning to things through social
and how to behave experience. SCHEMAS are mental structures that contain general expectations
in certain situations
and knowledge about people, social roles, events, and places. These structures
and are formed by
experiences in a tell us how to behave and what to think in certain situations and are formed
social world.
through our social encounters, in real life or as represented by the media.

80 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 3.12A

3.12B

3.12D

3.12C

the socio-cultural context for design: the search for pattern 81

 Schema research aims to explain how people represent information in memory
and how new information is assimilated with existing knowledge—that is, how
people are able to process, interpret, and understand complex social stimuli.42
When we confront a new stimulus, we quickly identify or categorize the gen-
eral domain to which it belongs and respond accordingly with attitudes and
behaviors that we have assigned to that domain through our prior experience.
Many of these schemas are shaped or amplified by media representations.
For example, what teenagers think is “cool” or what someone with average
income thinks is “wealth” is established through television, magazines, and
movies as much as by any real experiences with cool or wealthy people. Because
schemas act as templates against which we compare future stimuli, they are
very important to perception and interpretation. This is
the power of visual communication, and designers must
consider every image-making act carefully for its conse- THE POWER OF STEREOTYPES
quences in creating larger social expectations and attitudes. The design writer Steven Heller addresses the problem of
ROLE SCHEMA ROLE SCHEMAS contain the norms and expected behav- stereotypes in his article “Exploiting Stereotypes: When Bad
Martha Augoustinos iors of specific positions in society and can refer to achieved Is Not Good” for Voice, the online journal of the American
and Iain Walker used
this term to refer to or ascribed roles. “Achieved roles” refers to roles that are Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). He focuses on the 2005 Art
a type of schema acquired through effort and training (such as “doctor,” Directors Club (ADC) Call for Entries, which uses the images
that contains the
norms and expected
“dancer,” or “student”); ascribed roles relate to gender, race, of a black Ronald McDonald and a bling necklace with the
behaviors related to age, or any other human attribute over which we have little copy line “Pimp My Brand” to comment on what designers
people’s achieved
roles (those acquired
control.43 Such schemas are cognitively efficient—they do for a living (http://creativity-online.com/work/art-directors-
through effort or allow us to deal with the inherent complexity of the social club-pimp-my-brand/7947). Heller suggests that the image
training) and ascribed
roles (those assigned
world through a kind of shorthand. When meeting a new may be a “critical poke at how white mass media exploit
by society to age, person, or viewing an image of someone, we use our history contemporary black stereotypes to sell products.” But
gender, race,
of interactions with people who share the same attributes, his critique finds the image distasteful in its “playing to a
and so on).
until we discover other information that tells us that our stereotype of hip-hop as nasty, tastelessly extravagant, and
behavior may be inappropriate or misguided. Schemas do ultimately foolish.”46 He cites the importance of context,
not require deep cognitive processing—they are efficient, affirming that had the image been used “on the cover of
first-level responses to stimuli. a hip-hop CD that critiqued rap language or gangsta style,
STEREOTYPE A STEREOT YPE is a particular type of role schema that then perhaps the message would be more palatable” and
A type of role schema contains social expectations and behaviors. Research indi- within the genre of Blacksploitation films.47 Later in the
in which a number of
traits are grouped in cates that the social content of these schemas is richer in article, Heller raises questions about what the work is
the mind and may be structure and able to elicit more concrete attributes than actually saying: whether it suggests that advertising styles
called forth by a single
visual cue, such as
schemas based on traits alone.44 Stereotypes are especially are changing; or gratuitously ridicules a streetwise style
skin color or dress. difficult to dislodge because a number of traits are grouped that could not succeed in a design competition; or simply
in the mind, any one of which may call forth the others. references popular culture.48
(See box: “The Power of Stereotypes.”) Readers’ postings on the AIGA site on which Heller’s
Schemas may also contain information about places article appeared were mixed—evidence of the degree to
and objects. In A Pattern Language (1977), Christopher which the stereotype does or does not resonate with the
PLACE SCHEMA Alexander defines recurring PLACE SCHEMAS that support social experience of the various authors of the postings.
Martha Augoustinos particular kinds of human activity in the built environ- Self-identified African-American respondents were as diverse
and Iain Walker used
this term to refer to ment. For example, the pattern of intimacy gradient in their comments as others, with some framing the image
a schema in which describes a schema for the arrangement of rooms in a critique within the larger media context, including MTV’s
the content and
spatial organization of
typical American home. Public spaces are generally placed “Pimp My Ride” and other advertising campaigns. The point
elements arise from toward the outside of the home while more intimate spaces
experience with place.
tend to occur deeper in the home’s interior.45 Think how

82 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 odd it would be to enter the home as a first-time guest through the kitchen or
bedroom instead of the foyer.
Such conventions are culturally driven. In some Arab countries, for example,
public space ends and private space begins at a high wall that surrounds the
property. People who are not members of the family would not think of pen-
etrating the wall without an invitation. But in the United States we sunbathe
and barbecue in open yards, well within view of the neighborhood—privacy
begins at the front door of the house itself.
There are graphic counterparts to some of these cultural patterns in the
built environment. A book design, for example, generally moves through an

in this diversity of feedback is that the image means different of its designer was the presence of a black face. The
things to different people on the basis of their experiences. typographic reference to bling was far less emotionally
The designer’s assumption of a common reading is erroneous. charged because the field of associations with flashy
At the same time, the image is highly charged for most jewelry is much smaller. The inanimate object signals fewer
people. It is not simply a clever advertisement for the ADC associations with motive, behavior, and cultural history than
but a social stereotype, which calls up complex and strongly does race. But when coupled with a black face the reference
held social values and attitudes. becomes more emotional.
What this example demonstrates is that stereotypes are Attitudes toward gender and race are particularly difficult
powerful because they direct attention, guide the encoding as they have strong social reinforcement. A study with five-
and retrieval of information, and save cognitive effort.49 and six-year-old children (Cordua, McGraw, and Drabman,
The ADC image grabs attention because it is in many ways 1979) exposed them to a schema-inconsistent image of
familiar, but unexpected in this particular setting (a design a female doctor and a male nurse. In response to a later
competition). In fact, on the Voice site, some of the Internet question about what they had seen, the children recalled a
postings address the shocking nature of the depiction male doctor and a female nurse, switching the roles to make
specifically because it is used to advertise a previously them more consistent with the gender stereotypes they had
non-controversial competition. In other words, “shock” is one been taught through social experience. Such impressions
result of a stereotype appearing outside its normal context, develop over time and through the continuing reinforcement
hence Heller’s comment that we would find a CD cover more of schema-consistent messages.
palatable. Also, how well we remember an image depends This issue of schema consistency raises questions
to some degree on how consistent it is with our memory about the use of stock photography by designers. Stock
of the stereotype. The ADC image would not have caused photography is based on the premise that we have enough
as much discourse had it not seemed familiar, had it not role and place schemas in common that producing stock
been congruent with already formed stereotypes promoted images will be profitable. The most valuable stock image is
through the media. one that is either so consistent with the prevailing schema
What makes negative stereotypes so difficult to dislodge (for example, mother or businessman) that it transcends
is that an array of social and behavioral expectations is the range of audiences’ individual experiences with these
grouped within a mental category that is recalled simply concepts, or so general (for example, sunsets or flowers) that
by the presence of any single visual trait. If the ADC it can elicit an array of abstract emotions depending on its
call for entries had used a white Ronald McDonald the application. In this case, the stock image falls short by being
resulting message would have been very different. All neither inventive nor specific. It either adds nothing new to
that was necessary to incite the emotional content of the the timeworn cliché or opens up such broad interpretation
advertisement and concern over the ambiguous intention that it is ineffective in delivering the message with conviction.

the socio-cultural context for design: the search for pattern 83

information gradient of typographic scale and content specificity from cover
to title page, table of contents, chapter heading, body copy, and notes. We
exit to marginalia from the primary text and expect smaller, less aggressive
typography in these elements. Because of these visual conventions, it would
seem strange to go directly from the book’s cover to a chapter heading without
any transitional pages.
The masthead of a newspaper, like Alexander’s main entrance of a building,
is separated from the other content of the front page by placement, shape,
symmetry, and scale. It is usually positioned higher than other content and
is surrounded by white space in the same way that attention is drawn to the
front door of a building.
Design can reinforce these conventional schemas or subvert them to change
our relationship to the content and reading experience. The Dutch designer
Irma Boom and the Canadian designer Bruce Mau both designed large books
in the 1990s (SEE FIGURES 3.13–3.14). The number of pages in these books far exceeds
typical editions of the same height and width. By their very sizes, these books
defy linear reading. Instead, they comprise compendia of images and texts that
may be entered at any point, with covers that simply contain the pages, rather
than signify the beginning and end of a story. The altered proportions of these
books also make them formidable objects with their own material presence, 3.13 S, M, L, XL, 1998
Rem Koolhaas (b. 1944) and
not just neutral containers for more expressive two-dimensional narratives. Bruce Mau (b. 1959)
Office for Metropolitan Architecture

84 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

3.14 (above, below, and right)
BOOK FOR SHV, 1996
Irma Boom (b. 1960) These oversized objects push the limits
of the conventional book format, thus
reconfiguring the traditional reading
experience. Readers are not directed
by structure to move in sequence from
page to page, cover to cover, as in
traditional books; rather, they enter the
books at any place with no expectation
of continuous stories.

the socio-cultural context for design: the search for pattern 85

 Boom goes so far as to print on the foredges of pages, treating the book more as
architecture than as publication. These design solutions sit materially between
the traditional book and some other kind of object, expressly to challenge the
typical interaction of the reader with content.
EVENT SCHEMA EVENT SCHEMAS are cognitive scripts that describe the sequential organiza-
Martha Augoustinos tion of episodes in everyday activities, such as our morning routine of getting
and Iain Walker used
this term to refer to a ready for work or the sequence of decisions and actions necessary to make an
time-based script for online purchase. They allow us to make plans and to imagine the steps through
everyday activities—a
schema in which
which we may achieve a goal or bring about another set of conditions. We
there is a sequential bring these sequential patterns of cognitive, physical, and social behavior to
organization of
episodes that make
our interactions with objects and assign significance to the ordering of events.
up an activity or event. Software designers make use of event schemas as metaphors for the operation
of computers. We understand, for example, that placing a digital file in the
trash does not mean it is gone forever, unless we follow that action with empty-
ing the trash. Web and software designers construct scenarios—narratives
of use by real or fictional users—in order to anticipate the paths or series of
actions people might take through information or in the execution of tasks.
And signage designers predict the need and readiness of viewers for certain
information at various points along a route, hoping to deliver just the right
message at just the right time. In designing for events or experiences, we must
imagine the steps or key frames necessary to complete the task and study social
behavior for clues about how people do things.
Historically, the interest of graphic designers in theory has focused primarily
on the social and cultural implications of design. Modernist movements in
the early part of the twentieth century shared the aim both to illustrate and
shape a social world that was vastly different from preceding centuries (see
chapter 5). Formal experimentation in the 1980s and 1990s frequently drew
its inspiration from writing in literary and social criticism. Post-modernist
discourse of the same period elevated the importance of cultural pluralism and
the vernacular (see chapter 6). And the tailoring of products for members of
various subcultures within society shaped design strategy in the 1990s. Later
chapters of this book provide further discussion of approaches to theory, linking
the history of design to cultural production.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL
CONTEXT FOR DESIGN:
MATERIAL MATTERS
MATERIALITY The signs produced by graphic designers hold meaning for audiences, not only
The physical qualities through their subject matter and style, but also through the tangible attributes
of a representation
that give it individuality of their physical form. MATERIALIT Y, or the physical qualities of a representa-
and allow it to be tion that give it individuality and allow it to be categorized, is an important
categorized. The
specific visual, spatial,
aspect of what signs mean. The specific visual, spatial, auditory, kinesthetic,
auditory, kinesthetic, and temporal characteristics of form are content. The materiality of designed
and temporal
characteristics
objects arises from choices about media, surfaces, formats, or structures, and
of form. the technology and tools used to produce them.

86 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 A MEDIUM is a mode or system of communication that extends our ability to MEDIUM
exchange meaning. It is the locus of representation. Drawing, typography, film, A mode or system of
communication that
and networked digital communication are media and have characteristic material extends our ability to
attributes that result from how they are produced, reproduced, and distributed. exchange meaning.
Photography and
TOOL S are the means by which we make form or accomplish some other
drawing are media.
kind of task in a particular medium. Tools leave traces of their use in material
form. For example, lines drawn with charcoal, ink, and pixels differ in their TOOL
expressive qualities and references to how they were made. In hand-drawn The means by
which someone
forms, we can tell something about the gesture, speed, and pressure of the hand accomplishes a task in
that made the lines; we can detect if technical instruments were involved and a particular medium.

the confidence with which the forms were hand-rendered. We can also assign
meaning and intention to these tool-based processes and their particular use
in certain contexts—a line that emphasizes, that softens, that hesitates. The
choice to remove the mark of the hand through machine-generated form may
also reveal intent—a desire for precision, for anonymity, for objectivity.
Even digital representations have material properties in a virtual sense, in that
they mimic behaviors and simulate the qualities of objects in the physical world.
We recognize these properties from our life as physical beings, and impose our
understanding of experiences in the real world on our interpretations and judg-
ments of simulations. Ask any gamer about the compelling nature of movement
through the imaginary environments of first-person-shooter computer games.
There is also a material language that is unique to digital media, such as the muta-
bility of objects that transforms them seamlessly across time, that allows them to
disappear and re-emerge, to exist simultaneously in more than one state of being.

media and tools

Choices about media and tools not only influence the meaning of a single
representation in a specific context, but they also establish a field of associations
that shapes our perception of meaning beyond the individual sign itself. Media
refer to the character of our culture at particular times in history, as well as to
our general expectations of information, how it behaves, and what it means.
Before Adobe Photoshop, for example, we made assumptions about the
“truth” of photographic images. The technical means for altering a photograph
usually left some visible residue and required highly trained specialists. We
could all see the cut lines on the cover of the tabloid with the two-headed
baby. Today, the average consumer has access to high-powered digital tools for
assembling and retouching images; he or she understands that photographs
can be altered, and also has the means to accomplish the task at home. Because
it is now almost impossible to determine the veracity of images and because
audiences understand that images can be manipulated, the objective role of the
photographic medium in our culture has been forever compromised.
The media theorist Marshall McLuhan (see pp. 27–28, 209–12) compared
the meaning of things in a print-based culture (since Johannes Gutenberg’s
invention of printing with movable type in the fifteenth century) with those
of an electronic age, describing both as altering their respective cultures. The
mass dissemination of ideas in the medium of print fostered nationalism,
widespread literacy, and the spread of commercial markets. It emphasized

the technological context for design: material matters 87

the importance of spelling and grammar and focused attention on fixed points
of view. The electronic age (and by extension the digital age) reintroduced
the importance of oral discourse, encouraged a kaleidoscope of messages and
opinions, and increased the speed with which news reached the public.
The media researcher Michael Joyce agrees with McLuhan regarding the
transformative power of technology, and describes changes in writing that
have been brought about by the hyperlinked nature of the Web. Writing was
once a matter of determining a singular linear structure for print, but is now a
spatial activity.50 Because the reader can improvise the sequence of information
in a hyperlinked, online environment, every single content component has
simultaneous relationships to many other components, not just to the preceding
and subsequent paragraphs. In McLuhan’s sense, online text is a mosaic—not
the linear release of information we find in books, but a whole made up of an
infinite number of diverse parts in ever-shifting relationships. Structuring a
document as a traditional outline is therefore less well suited to the Web than
working from a three-dimensional model of nodes and connecting lines. This
spatial quality of the contemporary act of writing raises interesting questions
about the design of digital writing spaces and how the current collecting behav-
ior of computer users, in which files are grabbed and recombined from many
sources for later use, can be reflected in the design of digital tools.

surfaces and structures

The qualities of surfaces also contribute to our interpretation of meaning. For
example, we assign significance to the attributes of paper (its weight, texture,
color, and opacity) as well as to how ink sits on its surface. Silk-screen printing
feels different from offset printing. And we are more likely to save something
printed on heavy, glossy stock—for example, a museum catalog—than some-
thing printed on newsprint. Our sense of its value is tied directly to the quality of
surfaces that carry the information and our perceptions of their material worth.
While printed typography signifies something quite different from screen-
based media, we also find differences in our perception of various types of pro-
jected surfaces. McLuhan wrote on this topic, describing the hypnotic aspects
of television (and the computer) as resulting from the way in which our eyes
and brain respond to “light-through” images in contrast to the “light-on” images
of print or film.51 McLuhan suggested that unlike film, which is composed of a
series of still frames, television is an actively reconfiguring image, a “ceaseless
forming contour” that is involving because it demands our constant participa-
tion to complete the image.52 And whereas a film begins behind the viewer and
is projected to a screen in front, “the TV projection begins behind the screen
and winds up literally on the viewer’s face.”53 It is compelling because it invites
us to enter the action and engages us in perpetual participation. While it is
unclear what type of brain research led McLuhan to these conclusions, we can
attest to the mesmerizing effects of television and computer screens. We have
all watched young children sit too close to the screen to discern real content,
yet remain absorbed for hours in the light-through experience.
What is apparent is that designing for a dynamic surface, a visual space that
can change its state of being, is different from designing for static, print-based

88 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

media. In their earliest technological iterations, computer displays replicated
print. We referred to screens as “pages” and arranged typography in columns
and layouts, erasing one display and replacing it entirely with another, much
as we do when turning the page of a printed book. As the capabilities of the
technology grew, film became the metaphor for computer media; the quali-
ties of time and motion constituted new variables in the graphic designer’s
expressive repertoire, allowing us to manage complex information by releasing
content incrementally over time and with specific temporal behaviors.
As we will discuss in chapter 7, however, the current question is whether the
dynamic surfaces of interactive media, in contrast to motion graphics, represent
an extension of the traditional domains of graphic design and filmmaking or
define a very new challenge to longstanding principles that guide the creation
of form. Are they simply surfaces on which we organize information content
and visual elements, or are they much deeper windows into people’s emotional
and cognitive engagement with the world? Is it our job to design only the visual
attributes of objects with which people interact (the look of interaction) or to
provide conditions and tools that support their self-defined experiences (the
behavioral AFFORDANCES of interaction)? If our goal is the former, we focus on AFFORDANCE

the attributes of the representation, on its visual characteristics, the ordering James J. Gibson’s
term for the
of its content, and its inventory of features. But if our intention is to design for quality of an object,
experience, we focus on the attributes of the interaction, on the capabilities environment, or
technology that allows
of the user to act on his or her motivations, to control outcomes, and to apply someone to perform
or extend the system in the service of personal and social needs. an action. Technology
can be enabling
Formats and the structures that contain representations also carry meaning or constraining
and influence our behavioral expectations through their material nature. For in terms of such
“action possibilities.”
example, we have a general notion of what constitutes something we call a
“book”: a hinged cover with multiple pages, read sequentially from left to right.
As a schema, we know what is expected of us behaviorally when confronting
this object. We have some idea of its organization—that it will contain a title
page, some introductory material, and chapters or some equivalent division of
content. Our past experience tells us there is usually a one-to-one relationship
between text and images within the pages and that we are expected to discover
these relationships by reading the text in a linear fashion.
Although we can stretch the limits of this organizational structure as design-
ers, there is a point at which a book is no longer a book and becomes something
else. The structural changes in the large books by Boom and Mau push that
envelope (SEE FIGURES 3.13–3.14). In many ways they take on the characteristics of
the Web through their invitation to read out of sequence, demonstrating that
as new technologies emerge they influence their predecessors.
A magazine has a very different structural nature from a book. Its design
format begs us to scan and to assemble meaning by looking quickly at pictures,
captions, and headlines, deciding to read the main text only after determin-
ing which of the many articles interest us. We know that it is composed of
non-sequential narratives that may be read in any order without significant
differences in our understanding of their meaning. We also recognize that
advertising material originates from a source that is different from the editorial
content and interrupts the flow of reading.

the technological context for design: material matters 89

 Despite their increasingly high production values, magazines also tend to
occupy a less noble role in our culture than books. We typically view them
as ephemeral objects that contain information that is of more short-term
consequence in our lives than the information in textbooks, great literature,
or important works of non-fiction. Because we are less likely to keep maga-
zines than books, we tolerate and are actually attracted to greater novelty and
superficiality in their material nature, knowing that their content and physical
qualities are simply products of a particular moment in time. For collectors
of older periodicals, it is precisely the temporal associations with the material
nature of the publication that are appealing.
The publication Nest:A Quarterly of Interiors stretched the material boundar-
ies of the traditional magazine format (SEE FIGURE 3.15). During its brief history,
which ended in 2004, the magazine produced issues with magnetic patches,
tongue depressors, scalloped die-cut borders, and individually spattered covers.
Never taking itself too seriously, unlike the more august Architectural Digest or
the sophisticated Interiors, the magazine reveled in its material role as ephem-
era. Self-described as “where high-style London and Paris interiors meet igloos
and prison cells on equal terms . . . where those who look and those who read
meet on equal terms,”54 the magazine used material means to reinforce its
distinction from other interiors magazines on the newsstand and to subvert the
traditional glossy, two-dimensional surface and the sense of thousands of identi-
cally reproduced copies. Nest established as its identity the constant reinvention
of format within the technological context of magazine design. Its self-defined

90 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

 role in an environment of endlessly repeatable mastheads, type choices, and
colors was to introduce new materials and processes with each issue.

technological affordances
The technology by which visual messages are created, reproduced, and distrib-
uted defines more than their material nature. Technologies have affordances,
characteristic capabilities or functions that enable or constrain certain types
of interactions among audiences, content, environments, and the originators of
messages. Books have the affordance of self-pacing; film does not. Websites have
the affordance of instant information updating and user-generated content;
silk-screened posters do not. Word processing has the affordance of allowing
different authors to work on the same document in different locations at the
same time; calligraphy does not. Such affordances determine how easy or
difficult it is to distribute certain kinds of message, who receives them, what
they mean, and how recipients are able to respond.
For example, the affordances of offset printing dictate that all copies of a
single edition be identical and that content producers demonstrate certain
qualifications and resources to publish. The time necessary to print information
and the processes for disseminating it determine the length of time between its
conception and eventual reception by audiences. On the other hand, the pro-
gramming code of digital media makes it possible to vary electronic documents
in one or more ways for each recipient, and anyone with minimal software
skills can post information on the Web with no one’s permission. Unlike print,
the time between electronic message origination and dissemination can be
measured in seconds, rather than days and weeks.
The affordances of the Internet also allow users to navigate seamlessly
among linked sites created by different content producers, so that it is often
unclear that they have left one source and
arrived at another. Information on the Internet
is dynamic and changeable at any time, afford-
ing time-sensitive updates but providing users
with little assurance that information on a site,
once seen, will be the same when they return.
The order in which users view information is
self-determined and interactions with sites
can be tracked, analyzed, and inform future
engagement with the same or other content.
And because anyone with software expertise
can publish online, confidence in the credibility
of Web information is in direct proportion to
the frequency of bad experiences.
3.15 NEST MAGAZINE COVERS, Marshall McLuhan summarized the impact
1997–2004
of technology on culture in his phrase “the medium is the message,” asserting
The graphic identity of this magazine, that the “personal and social consequences of any medium . . . result from the
edited by Joseph Holtzman, was defined new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or
by the constantly changing material
qualities of its covers. by any new technology.”55 Think, for example, of the time when long-distance
conversations took place only through surface mail or the telephone. But today

the technological context for design: material matters 91

we are reliant on e-mail, and any network downtime places a company at a
serious disadvantage in the competitive business market. The frequency of
business interactions increased exponentially with the advent of e-mail, to the
extent that some companies have developed protocols for limiting the amount
of time employees devote to sorting useful messages from ones that require no
action. On the other hand, our general threshold for the formality and spelling
accuracy of business correspondence has declined. We are far less critical of
errors and, in some instances, we accept e-mail or text messaging shorthand
in lieu of standard English. Historians lament the loss of letter-writing as a
record of past events, and many of us have difficulty in determining which
version of a document we have saved. On a personal level, we often use e-mail
as a substitute for conversations that would be less comfortable or convenient
on the phone, and we are quicker to respond without thinking in digital form;
writing and mailing handwritten letters took time, during which many tempers
cooled. And because electronic files can be traced or observed by third parties,
our sense of privacy is challenged. In other words, the introduction of e-mail
technology forever altered many practices in how we go about our lives and
what things mean.
Beyond its precision or ability to mimic historical form-making processes,
digital technology also has affordances that reflect certain formal biases. Adobe
InDesign, for example, uses the modernist grid as the basic format for layout.
By setting margins and gutters (measurements demanded by the software
and depicted on the screen layout), the user enters text and image into pre-
determined divisions of space. Adobe Illustrator, on the other hand, opens
with a blank field in which type is not represented as a set of boxes to be filled.
Therefore, the kinds of typographic composition that are encouraged by the
two software programs differ. It is possible to work against these affordances,
to circumvent the functions that are foregrounded in the design of the interface
(by setting InDesign columns at “1” and margins at “0,” for example), but their
presence is evidence of a technological bias in the software for certain kinds
of form. Further, the perspective of the software developer is reflected in the
information requested of the user. In asking for the width of margins instead
of the width of the typographic columns, for example, the software reflects
its lack of concern for legibility, which normally results from the number of
typographic characters per line and increments of leading, not from the size
of an arbitrary space left over after margins have been set.
What all of this means is that technology is not neutral. It embodies values,
both in how it is constructed and in the decision to deploy it. As such, it refers
to its history of use and the practices that surround it. The observation that “the
computer is just a tool” is missing the point. It is a tool with a point of view and
with the ability to change user behavior and our expectations of information.
Additionally, as technology becomes more immersive—exists more as a
convincing simulation of some reality—it is no longer a tool or a medium in the
same sense as pen and ink. It represents its own world, one with implicit and
explicit rules, communities of practice, and transformative power over what
and how things mean. The technological responsibility of the graphic designer
is therefore not simply to master software programs, but to understand the

92 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

technological context as enabling or constraining cognitive and social behav-
iors that have a direct impact on the success of communication.

THE PHYSICAL CONTEXT

FOR DESIGN:
EVERYTHING IS RELATIONAL
The importance of the physical context for design is obvious. The material
surfaces on which messages reside; the distances between viewers and designed
objects; the attributes of the surrounding environment that compete for viewers’
attention; and the LEGIBILIT Y and READABILIT Y of form—these are just a few LEGIBILITY
aspects of the physical context that govern the effectiveness of design. The degree to which
typographic forms
We all experience the frustration of digital displays that are too small to read, and layouts are
menus that are too large to be used when sitting opposite a dinner partner, and decipherable, based
on their appearance.
identification signage that is lost in a sea of screaming messages. And some-
times the consequences of a designer’s failure to consider the physical context READABILITY
of information can result in more than frustration. The instrumentation on The degree to which
typographic forms
potentially dangerous medical equipment, package warnings about product use, and layouts are easy
and text in a primer for children learning to read—if not designed appropriately, or desirable to
read, based on
all can produce catastrophic outcomes that last a lifetime. their appearance.
It would be comforting if the complexity of these physical issues could
be reduced to a set of rules that predict results—the optimal point size for
type or the most legible color combinations for computer screen displays,
for example. And it would be reassuring to have an inventory of the vari-
ous physical conditions that affect the usability of design solutions. There
are books and workshops that attempt to provide a one-size-fits-all solution,
which respond to a climate of increasing accountability. It is not uncommon,
for example, to find human-factors experts who claim that “white space is not
good” or that web-screen navigation “should always be arranged in an inverted
‘L’ because users cannot find it otherwise.”
The research that informs these claims is, however, sometimes suspect,
and such variables are, by their very nature, REL ATIONAL . The effect of one RELATIONAL

variable may depend entirely on the presence or absence of another variable. The idea that
judgments about how
Some studies, for example, tell us that serif type is more readable because the design performs (its
horizontal nature of the serifs facilitates the left-to-right eye movement of legibility, readability,
expressiveness,
reading. At the same time, other studies confirm the ultimate legibility of sans reproducibility,
serif. And just what serif or sans-serif typeface at what point size and leading and so on) depend
on the particular
(line spacing) are we talking about? (SEE FIGURE 3.16.) combination of
Perceptual psychology offers theories that suggest some design solutions formal variables,
audience, and setting.
may be better than others in various respects. Yet such studies rarely account
for the situatedness of design problems, for the specific attributes of the context
and audiences with whom a design must work. In one study, for example, visual
comparisons of a donkey and a toaster at different sizes are used to test for
the viewer’s speed of recognition of actual sizes of the same objects and their
relative distances apart when judging scale. Placing images of donkeys and
toasters on blank sheets of white paper hardly replicates most conditions in
which making quick judgments of relative size matters. And the content and

the physical context for design: everything is relational 93

contrasting shapes of the two objects are so incongruous that it is hard to 3.16 TYPE SAMPLES
believe that they represent any likely comparative task in real life. These types Both headlines are set at 24 point and
of study therefore have little transferability to real design situations unless they body copy at 12 point. Because the serif
Bodoni has a much smaller x-height
are tested in the actual circumstances of use.
(the height of lowercase letters) in
On the other hand, the emerging design research culture in universities comparison to the generous proportions
shows promise for building more relevant theories of the perceptual implica- of the sans-serif Helvetica, it requires
less additional vertical space between
tions of design form in various physical settings and for confirming or denying lines of text to make it legible.
designers’ intuition about what does and does not “work.” For example, research
by the design professor Dennis Puhalla addresses how people assign hierarchi-
cal significance to text on the basis of projected color in such software programs
as PowerPoint. Puhalla’s work stops short of recommending particular color
combinations in favor of the more useful discovery that contrast in intensity
(brightness or dullness) and value (lightness or darkness) is significant and
that hue (the particular color, such as blue or green) is not.56 This finding is
of far more use in that it identifies a general principle for making decisions in
individual situations and addresses a specific, recurring context (digitally pro-
jected text). There is a difference, therefore, between studying a phenomenon
(such as color) and studying its application in a context.
In general, communication that succeeds in gaining audience attention
exhibits some visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or temporal contrast with its
physical setting. A well-known design educator used to preach, facetiously, to
students, “If you can’t make it good, make it big . . . if you can’t make it big,
make it red.” Yet there are clearly times when visual restraint creates the most
contrast. The storefront signage in a commercial strip and the supermarket
ads in the newspaper provide ample evidence that when all messages “scream,”

94 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

no one will be heard, and that too much contrast creates a pattern of visual
clutter in which the boundaries and meaning of a single message are lost in the
chaos. These relationships must therefore be crafted individually and take into
consideration an environment that competes for people’s attention.

physical embodiment
Design also addresses the physical context in the sense that it deals with mean-
ings that arise from our own physical place in a setting. Many of our metaphors
for talking about the virtual space of the Internet, for example, involve refer-
ences to our spatial locations in a physical context: the “information highway”;
“site”; “address”; and the concept of “going to” somewhere (when changing
content or source) are not literal but figurative references to bodily movement
through a physical world.
Some technologists have compared our perception and navigation of cyber-
space to the way in which we interpret and move spatially through the built
environment. The work of the urban planner Kevin Lynch in his book The
Image of the City (1960) is often cited in this context. Lynch studied people’s
conceptions of the urban environment and found recurring similarities, regard-
less of the city in which they lived. Urban dwellers organized their conceptual
map of a city into districts, nodes, edges, paths, and landmarks. 57 Districts
are areas that have some identifiable character and that we may enter. Some
cities, for example, have a warehouse district or an arts district. This is not a
political designation as much as a perception that a particular area of the city
has distinctive functional or visual features that define it in contrast to other
areas. Nodes are destination points, places to and from which we travel. We can
also enter a node (for example, when we go to a city park or visit a collection
of shops on a city block). Lynch describes an edge as a boundary between two
areas of the city. It may be well defined by a wall, railroad tracks, or a major
highway, or it may be fuzzy as we move from one district to another. We may
or may not be able to enter an edge. Paths are the channels along which we
move and they connect nodes. Landmarks are visible reference points but we
do not enter them. They may be viewed from a variety of angles and are used
in orienting our movement.
If we were to draw a diagram of an information search on the Internet, we
could think about the collection of sites defined through a keyword by a search
engine or a content area within a site as a district. A node would be a specific
site or a particular document within a site. Edges would be the embedded links
that take us to related content without engaging in another keyword search—in
some ways, edges define conceptually “adjacent territory.” Landmarks would
be the keywords through which we search. Their repetition in each entry pro-
vided by the search engine simulates different points of view around which
our search can be oriented. What is not visible in cyberspace, however, is the
path that connects two nodes. With a click we instantly arrive at the second
site, having no sense of how we “got there.” Several software programs attempt
to reveal the path (Acrobat, PowerPoint, and InDesign, for example, display
linear sequences of pages on the screen when the user is working) and the
log or history of movement over time is recorded as URLs in Internet use.

the physical context for design: everything is relational 95

 At present, most of these metaphors are text-based, but there is some belief that
a spatial metaphor for virtual navigation could be more helpful and intuitive
than one based in language.
In The Body in the Mind (1987) the philosopher Mark Johnson writes about
EMBODIMENT EMBODIED or image schemata. These are structures of physical activity through
Mark Johnson and which we organize experience in our minds.58 Johnson describes the work of
George Lakoff used
this term to refer to the linguist Susan Lindner, who formulated a small number of prototypical
the idea that cognition schemata as diagrams. Lindner’s diagram for
and language are
shaped by physical
“out,” for example, is a confining circle with an
experience—that is, arrow exiting from the contained area (SEE FIGURE
by bodily interactions
3.17). We understand this concept (moving away
with a concrete world.
from containment) through our earliest bodily
experiences, none of which is dependent on cul-
ture for its meaning. For example, as toddlers OUT PATH
we break from the confinement of a crib, the A B
source goal
enclosure of a parent’s arms, or the restraint of
a highchair. Johnson and Lindner believe that
these early physical experiences allow us to
grasp such linguistic metaphors as “out of office,”
“shouting out,” and “coming out.” As we mature, 3.17 IMAGE SCHEMATA
our abilities expand from simply processing concrete stimuli to thinking Based on the work of Mark Johnson and
Susan Lindner
and communicating through abstraction. Lindner and Johnson suggest that
these are not independent operations but that language is embodied by our The theory of image schemata suggests that
we have common physical experiences that
past physical experiences. are culturally neutral. These experiences
It is possible that such schemata also extend to the interpretations of visual underpin our use of metaphors, which, by
contrast, are culturally determined. Above
and spatial compositions. The landscape architect Lawrence Halprin designed are the schemata for the physical experiences
the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. Occupying 7.5 acres of in and out.
(3 hectares), the memorial is composed of four outdoor “rooms,” each tracing
an aspect or period of the former president’s life. Visitors move physically
through time and the story of his life, in contrast to the more static, singular
presentations of most memorials and monuments. The visitor’s bodily passage
out of containment in one room into the next corresponds metaphorically to
the changes in Roosevelt’s life.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., designed by the
architect Maya Lin, lists names in chronological order of death, starting at the
central corner of the memorial and moving outward. It is said that this design
is also a physical gesture—that of the dead reaching out to embrace the living
who have come to view the memorial.
It is therefore evident that the physical nature of artifacts and environ-
ments has special standing in our cognitive, social, and cultural interactions
with the world. Designers take action by making real things through which
people achieve goals in their exchanges with other people and places. And
the concrete attributes of these objects have important consequences that
extend beyond function.

96 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

THE ECONOMIC CONTEXT FOR
DESIGN: EXPANDING THE
DEFINITION OF “COST”
It is difficult, in a general survey of design theory, to address the breadth
and depth of the economic context for design and to summarize the complex
role design plays in the economic health of specific companies. The history of
design has been one of service to commerce, as well as to culture, and design
is accountable to a range of economic priorities and fluctuating conditions.
Several university programs focus on design as a business operation and a
number of professional associations offer training in DESIGN STRATEGY. Recent DESIGN STRATEGY

books by business leaders acknowledge design thinking as a competitive edge in A segment of design
practice that helps
the marketplace. And new areas of practice, such as service design, emerge as companies and
companies recognize the ability of designers to plan and innovate. organizations to
determine what to
There are, however, contemporary trends that raise questions about how make and do, how to
we understand the range of economic concerns that face today’s designers. In innovate, and how to
implement processes
2005 the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman published The for the benefit of the
World is Flat, in which he asserted that technological and economic shifts in the consumer as well
as the producer.
distribution of production and manufacturing have leveled the global playing
field. We need only look at the number of jobs once held by Americans that are
now done by people in India and China to understand the increase in globally
co-dependent economic relationships that defines contemporary business.
In an article for Atlantic Monthly, however, the economist Richard Florida
argued that Friedman got it wrong, that the world is spiky, not flat. Florida
describes hills and valleys in the distribution of economic potential and cau-
tions that we cannot think of countries as homogenous in either their cultures
or opportunities. He offers three types of place in the world that have less to do
with geopolitical boundaries and more to do with potential in the confluence of
resources: those that can attract global talent and create new products; those that
manufacture the world’s goods and support its innovation engines; and those
with little connection to the global economy and few immediate prospects.59
Under Florida’s perspective, it becomes apparent that designers must often
choose between working at the peaks for centers of innovation or applying their
talents toward helping those in the valleys. The methods are often the same,
regardless of the economic context, but the scale of socio-economic realities
often calls for different outcomes and requires collaboration among people
with different incentives, cultural behaviors, and values.

strategy
How objects look and work is certainly part of the competitive advantage that
design brings to the top ten percent of the world’s market for design. But there
are less obvious ways in which design functions as an extension of the business
context and influences the quality of goods and services and the costs consum-
ers pay. For example, a well-known electronics manufacturer was having trouble
with expensive service calls. Forty percent of the calls resulted in “no service
necessary,” simply because customers could not understand how to install their
new television sets. The company asked design consultants to redesign user
manuals to address the problem. The design team studied the situation and

the economic context for design: expanding the definition of “cost” 97

 discovered that the company expected one-color printed manuals to describe
the connection of several wires, all of which were black, and buttons, all of
which were exactly the same shape. There was no way to illustrate in pictures
or to describe in words which wire or button was to be used.
More revealing, however, was that the people who designed the television
sets were in the product-design division of the company and the people who
designed the manuals were located in the service division—and they never
spoke to each other. The consultant’s recommendation was to move the manual
designers into the same division as the television designers so that they could
design products and manuals simultaneously, thus avoiding formal attributes
of the televisions that were impossible to describe in one-color printing. In
this example, the design solution involved a change in corporate structure
and a very simple change in form, both of which had big economic benefits
in reduced service calls.
One economic role for design is therefore to develop business strategies that
improve goods and services for consumers while fostering responsibility and
innovation within companies.

consumption
Much has been written about the economic context for design from another
CONSUMPTION perspective—that of its complicity in fueling CONSUMPTION. The German critic
The acquisition Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) studied the shopping arcades of nineteenth-
and use of goods by
a consumer. century Paris. He wrote of the urban spectacle of department-store windows
and advertising (which continues today in our contemporary malls), indicat-
ing a link between economic enterprise and patterns of social behavior. The
historian Stuart Ewen (see also p. 47) discussed “form following value” and
the illusion of upward mobility that comes from owning objects associated
with a particular socio-economic status that we may not have achieved.60 And
the French critic Jean Baudrillard (see also p. 23) talked about a consumer
society that envisions wellbeing as “measurable in terms of objects” and
“growth” as equivalent to affluence.61 Some of these ideas will be explored
in later chapters, but at this point it is sufficient to say that design and mass
media are essential to a capitalist economic system that assigns social value
to the consumption of material goods.
The economic consequences of design therefore reside not only in its ability to
execute a successful business strategy or to provide good service but also in the
SUSTAINABILITY social perceptions of value engendered by an economy based on consumption.
Concern for
the ecological
implications of the full sustainability
lifespan of goods. The There is also a direct link between patterns of consumption and our views
concept is discussed
in William McDonough,
regarding the appropriate use of resources—an issue that has received consider-
Cradle to Cradle (2002), able attention in recent years. Public policy in Germany now requires that every
which argues that
an industrial system
mass-produced object includes a plan and cost for its reuse. The information
“takes, makes, and designer Richard Saul Wurman once estimated that the typical Sunday edition
wastes,” rather than
generates ecological,
of The New York Times consumed 3,900 tons (3,538,000 kilograms) of newsprint
economic, and and that the annual consumption of ink used to print the paper, if it were milk,
social value.
could supply every citizen of Wichita, Kansas, with 2 gallons (7.5 liters) per

98 THE DIMENSIONS OF CONTEXT

week for a year.62 He also estimated that 55 percent of the space in an average
edition at that time was consumed by advertising, not by news.63
There are many resource implications in various forms of printed waste.
The big message in these statistics, however, is that the cost of a publication
resides not just in the bill paid by the client, but also in the relationship between
information and material lifespan long after the message has been delivered.
A resource-driven view of design would therefore ask, “How much stuff is
necessary to do the job, and is the job worth doing in the first place?”
It is easy to think of design as a discipline removed from its economic
context, as above the fray of economic competitiveness and service to private
enterprise. It is encouraging that today’s students are anxious to help good
social causes and cultural agendas and that they see design as empowering
ideas that might otherwise never reach public consciousness. But it is also
important to understand that all design is social production; that advertising
does as much, or more, to define who we are and what we believe as any
“socially oriented” poster or media spot. Design can leverage its position in
commerce to present positive images that consider long-term consequences
for society as well as short-term profit for clients. Good design may be good
business, but it is also accountable to the social agenda.

SUMMARY
While each design challenge resides within a context, how we define the scope
of possible forces that vie for the designer’s attention is significant. The first task
of the designer, whether presented with a fully formed problem-statement or
not, is to determine which aspects of context are most important to the achieve-
ment of the communication goal. Designers must often rank equally pressing
performance demands that are in competition. In general, a designer must
think at the level of systems and information lifespan, even when designing
products and components. The nature of contemporary life makes it unlikely
that the consequences of design action, however small, will be confined to the
success or failure of communication objects alone.
Context has various dimensions: cognitive, socio-cultural, technological,
physical, and economic. A variety of theories drive design decision-making
with respect to these dimensions and it is the responsibility of the designer to
be well informed and to hold a perspective on these issues. As the means for
making and reproducing form become increasingly accessible to audiences
through computer software, the role of the designer is now to bring expertise
to the management of the complex forces at play in any communication context.

summary 99