Questions for lesson 4 Recognizing things 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Figure/Ground Why is the vase/faces figure ambiguous? Is the figure/ground distinction made entirely at lower sensory levels? How else can it be made? either side of boundary can be figure, and each generates different figures no, high level processing interacts with low level processing to decide figure/ground Context effects can decide figure ground 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Figure/Ground enhancement What properties does our visual system attach to an area defined as figure? one defined as ground? 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Minimalism Why do people sometimes see things that are not there? What problem could this cause in web design? If people are given insufficient information to confirm a shape they will not see that shape. T/F? visual system is designed to detect despite interference or noise (e.g. a cover of leaves) people could imagine things you did not intend F 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Framing Why is it sometimes difficult to see small objects that are not clearly framed? When is this problem most pronounced? How can this be helped? How does framing help the viewer? because without a frame, recognizing a small object in a large visual field is a huge processing task - the scope or boundary of shape composition and analysis is undefined When many possible ways to frame - continuous area with no clear boundaries provide an artificial framing box or surround Limits the area of shape analysis 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Gestalt Gestalt theory points out that in a figure each part can gets its meaning from its relation to other parts, as well as it own properties. True or false? What are four principles of shape composition or organization and give an example of each 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Continuity How is the Gestalt law of continuity an example of information reduction in perception? Give an example of this continuity principle continuity lets us see one thing instead of many e.g. two lines are seen as part of one continuous background line, or colored sections seen as part of a continuous background, like a green field screen windows overlaying are presumed to continue underneath - they actually don’t 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Proximity How is the Gestalt law of proximity an example of information reduction in perception? Give an example of this proximity principle proximity lets us see one thing instead of many e.g. many dots seen as one line When many text lines are blocked together they are seen as a block, and assumed to have a common meaning (e.g. an address block) 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Attention flow What is meant by attention flow? Why is it important to manage it Give an example of bad management of attention flow in web design How the eyes move from one focus to the next It is stressful to have too much movement required Text with jagged left edge requires the user to come back to a different point for each line and so is difficult to read a lot of text like this, putting the menu on the RHS or bottom of screen, putting distracting information at the right or bottom 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Features Why are small objects on buttons often difficult to recognize? What can be done about this? Why do computers have great difficulty recognizing handwriting? How can people do what computers find so hard? Their key features are not recognized See notes Not clear what the key features of letters are, and handwritten letters involve involve symbol part relations not fixed templates, some shapes can fall between two categories, people use context effects (e.g. sentence meaning) to resolve confusion 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Recognition What is the benefit of recognizing something? What is the danger? Give examples of how screen design can use recognition to carry forward previous knowledge? Carry forward appropriate knowledge Carry forward inappropriate knowledge Windows desktop metaphor, cursor as a hand, notebook “tabs”, buttons, switches 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Information Why is it harder to recognize things when there are more possibilities? Give an example from web site design of how more choices causes information processing problems because they carry more information, and require more processing too many different types of attention symbols, or too many choices in a menu, or too many types of button on a form 9/22/2018 Lesson 4

Chunking People can only process about seven things at once. How do they get around this problem? How can web design help with this human limitation? Chunking - see notes Organize material in “chunks” of no more than 5-7 9/22/2018 Lesson 4