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

2. 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
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Lesson 4

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

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
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Lesson 4

5. 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
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Lesson 4

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)
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Lesson 4

9. 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
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Lesson 4

10. 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
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Lesson 4

11. 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
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Lesson 4

12. 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
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13. 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