Unit-3

Visuals & Design

 Visualization

Introduction

Since the days of the cave dwellers, man has developed many ways to record or
document his ideas. Designers and engineers have progressed from burnt sticks and
cave walls, to stone tablets and chisels, to papyrus and quill pens, to paper and pencil,
to mylar and ink, and now to computer and printer.

. All of these advances in drawing tools and reproduction techniques have improved man ability
to communicate his ideas to others. Leonardo da Vinci is often referred to as the "father of modern
drawing" for his practice and teaching of a method for graphical representation that recorded and
presented his ideas. Gaspard Monge is credited with developing early principles of orthographic
projection that lead to the teaching of Descriptive Geometry. The Industrial Revolution made use
of orthographic projection to create interchangeable parts and mass production techniques. The
Art of Draughting in the 19th century transformed into the Business of Drafting in the 20th century
and has become the Science of Graphics in the 21st century.

Engineering Graphics combines the art of drawing with the sciences of materials and related
technologies to provide systematic procedures for the solving of engineering problems and for
the documentation of these solutions. Today's designers and engineers must be able analyze a
problem; arrive at a creative solution to the problem; and communicate his solution accurately for
something new or improved.

To be successful at presenting his ideas, an engineer must be able to visualize . . . build images in
his head.

Observation skills are also extremely important for an engineer to be successful. Over 80% of what
we learn is through seeing. Pattern seeking, visual induction, mirror imaging, and maze completion
are ways of improving ones ability to visualize. Practice is the best way to improve your
observation and visualization skills and eventually will improve your ability to think
creatively.

What is Scientific Visualization?

1. Data to insight using visual representations 2. Primary Goals of Scientific Visualization

3. Extracting Meaning 4. Achieving Compelling Visual Results

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Purpose of Data Visualization

Harness perceptual capabilities of human visual system to extract information from data sets
Look for structure, features, patterns, trends, anomalies and relationships
Provide a qualitative overview of large, complex data sets
Assist in identifying region(s) of interest and appropriate parameters for more focused
quantitative analysis

The Visualization Process

Visualization components:-

1. Data 2. Displays 3. Interaction Styles 4. Exploratory 5. Confirmatory

6. Production

Visualization Components

1. Data can be either stable or dynamic 2. Visualization can be stationary, animated or

interactive 3. Data processing can be batch or interactive

Digital Image Processing

An image is digitized to convert it to a form which can be stored in a computer's memory or on

some form of storage media such as a hard disk or CD-ROM. This digitization procedure can be
done by a scanner, or by a video camera connected to a frame grabber board in a computer. Once
the image has been digitized, it can be operated upon by various image processing operations.

Image processing operations can be roughly divided into three major categories, Image
Compression, Image Enhancement and Restoration, and Measurement Extraction. Image
compression is familiar to most people. It involves reducing the amount of memory needed to store
a digital image.

Image defects which could be caused by the digitization process or by faults in the imaging set-
up (for example, bad lighting) can be corrected using Image Enhancement techniques. Once the
image is in good condition, the Measurement Extraction operations can be used to obtain useful
information from the image.

Some examples of Image Enhancement and Measurement Extraction are given below. The
examples shown all operate on 256 grey-scale images. This means that each pixel in the image is
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stored as a number between 0 to 255, where 0 represents a black pixel, 255 represents a white pixel
and values in-between represent shades of grey. These operations can be extended to operate on
colour images.

The examples below represent only a few of the many techniques available for operating on
images. Details about the inner workings of the operations have not been given, but some
references to books containing this information are given at the end for the interested reader.

Visual Communication

Visual communication is the communication of ideas through the visual displayof

information. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: art,
signs, photography, and typography, drawing fundamentals, color and electronic
resources. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically oriented
usability. It is part of what a graphic designer does to communicate visually with the audience.

Communication by presenting information in a visual form. There exist a variety of ways to present
information visually, like gestures, body languages, video, and TV. Here, focus is on the
presentation of text, pictures, and diagrams, photos, integrated on a computer display. The term
visual presentation is used to refer to the actual presentation of information.

Design is communication of concepts and ideas.

Good design simultaneously challenges and fulfills expectations.

Basic elements of visual communication are form,

content, arrangement, light, and color. The emotions that
drive visual communication are seduction - conviction -
inspiration.
Design for clarity and impact.
Visual design is a tool for relaying the message; it is not the message in itself.
Good design supports its content effectively with quick access, and without clutter.
The visual arts are a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, film, photography, and
others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature.

Common types of visual art:-

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Collage: Collage (From the French, coller, to stick) is regarded as a work of visual arts made
from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. This technique made its first
appearance in the early 20th century as a groundbreaking novelty, however with the passing of
time it’s become ubiquitous. For example, an artistic collage work may include newspaper
clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, photographs, etc., glued to a solid support
or canvas.

Comics: Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images
which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions.
Originally used to illustrate caricatures and to entertain through the use of amusing and trivial
stories, it has by now evolved into a literary medium with many subgenres. The most common
forms of printed comics are comic strips (most commonly four panels long) in newspapers and
magazines, and longer comic stories in comic books, graphic novels and comic albums. In the first
two forms the comics are secondary material usually confined to the entertainment sections, while
the latter consist either entirely or primarily of comics.

Conceptual art: Conceptual art, sometimes called idea art, is art in which the concept(s) or
idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. In
some cases, Conceptual art may not entail any art object per se, but instead manifest solely as
documentary evidence for an “art idea”. In other, less extreme cases, Conceptual art may involve
the construction of images and objects in a manner that frees the artist from their traditional role
as a maker of aesthetic decisions. To give an example, many of the works of the artist Sol Lewitt
may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions.[1] This method
was fundamental to Lewitt’s definition of Conceptual art, the first to appear in print: In conceptual
art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses aconceptual
form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution
is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.

Crafts: A Craft is a skill, especially involving practical arts. It may refer to a trade or particular
art. Crafts as artistic practices are defined either by their relationship to functional or utilitarian
products, such as sculptural forms in the vessel tradition, or by their use of such natural media as
wood, clay, glass, textiles, and metal. Folk art follows craft traditions, in contrast to fine art or high
art. Craft or craft work is also a general term given to activity by people in a covern or an occult
group.

Decollage: Décollage, in art, is the opposite of collage; instead of an image being built up of all
or parts of existing images, it is created by cutting, tearing away or otherwise removing, pieces of
an original image. Examples include in image or etrécissements and excavations. The French word
“décollage” translates into English literally as “take-off” or “to become unstuck.” The termis now
commonly used in the French language in regard to aviation (as when an airplane lifts off the
ground). A similar technique is the lacerated poster, a poster in which one has been placed over
another or others, and the top poster or posters have been ripped, revealing to a greater or lesser
degree the poster or posters underneath. Although artist Mark Kostabi claims that

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“Mimmo Rotella invented the technique of using torn posters to make art in the early 1950s”[1],
examples of the genre done without any surrealist or artistic intent predate this, as do Raymond
Hains’. The lacerated poster was an artistic intervention that sought to critique the newly emerged
advertising technique of large-scale colour advertisements. In effect, the decollage destroys the
advertisement, but leaves its remnants on view for the public to contemplate. The lacerated poster
became an art form as early as 1949.

Decorative art: The decorative arts are traditionally defined as ornamental and functional
works in ceramic, wood, glass, metal, or textile. The field includes ceramics, furniture, furnishings,
interior design, and architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the
“fine arts”, namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture. Some distinguish
between decorative and fine art based on functionality, intended purpose, importance, status as a
unique creation, or single-artist production.

Design: Design, usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture,
and other such creative endeavours, is used as both a noun and a verb. “Design” as a verb refers to
the process of originating and developing a plan for a new object (machine, building, product,
etc.). As a noun, “design” is used both for the final plan or proposal (a drawing, model, or other
description), or the result of implementing that plan or proposal (the object produced). Designing
normally requires considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object, which
usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, iterative adjustment, and re-design.
Design as a process can take many forms depending on the object being designed and the
individual or individuals participating. In philosophy, the abstract noun “design” refers to pattern,
or to purpose/purposefulness (or teleology). Design is thus contrasted with purposelessness,
randomness, or lack of complexity.

Drawing: Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and
techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or
moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes,
wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools which simulate the effects
of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, and
crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in
drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman.

Film: Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as—in
metonymy— the field in general. The origin of the name comes from the fact that photographic
film (also called filmstock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying
motion pictures. Many other terms exist — motion pictures (or just pictures or “picture”), the
silver screen, photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks — and commonly movies. Films are
produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using
animation techniques and/or special effects. They comprise a series of individual frames, but when
these images are shown rapidly in succession, the illusion of motion is given to the viewer.
Flickering between frames is not seen due to an effect known as persistence of vision

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— whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been
removed. Also of relevance is what causes the perception of motion; a psychological effect
identified as beta movement. Film is considered by many to be an important art form; films
entertain, educate, enlighten and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no
translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Any film can become
a worldwide attraction, especially with the addition of dubbing or subtitles that translate the
dialogue. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in
turn, affect them.

Found art : The term found art—more commonly found object (French: objet trouvé) or
readymade— describes art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that
are not normally considered art, often because they already have a mundane, utilitarian function.
Marcel Duchamp was the originator of this in the early 20th-century. Found art derives
significance from the designation placed upon it by the artist. The context into which it is placed
(e.g. a gallery or museum) is usually also a highly relevant factor. The idea of dignifying
commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted distinction
between what was considered art as opposed to not art. Although it is now widely accepted in
the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse media and public hostility, as with the Tate
Gallery’s Turner Prize exhibition of Tracey Emin’s My Bed, which consisted literally of her
unmade and dishevelled bed. Found art, however, has to have the artist’s input, at the very least an
idea about it, i.e. the artist’s designation of the object as art, which is nearly always reinforced with
a title. There is mostly also some degree of modification of the object, although not to the extent
that it cannot be recognised. The modification may lead to it being designated a “modified”,
“interpreted” or “adapted” found object.

Graffiti: Graffiti is the application of media by humans on publicly viewable surfaces. One
definition is that it is “a drawing or writing scratched on a wall or other surface; a scribbling on an
ancient wall, as those at Pompeii and Rome.” ( “Graffito”. Oxford English Dictionary 2. (2006).
Oxford University Press.). When done without the property owner’s consent it is vandalism. Some
countries require the owner’s consent before public organisations can prosecute such vandalism.

Illustration: An Illustration is a visualisation such as drawing, painting, photograph or other

work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or
decorate a story, poem or piece of textual information (such as a newspaper article), traditionally
by providing a visual representation of something described in the text.

Installation art: Installation art is art that uses sculptural materials and other media to modify
the way we experience a particular space. Installation art is not necessarily confined to gallery
spaces and can refer to any material intervention in everyday public or private spaces. Installation
art incorporates almost any media to create a visceral and/or conceptual experience in a particular
environment. Materials used in contemporary installation art range from everyday and natural
materials to new media such as video, sound, performance, computers and the internet. Some
installations are site-specific in that they are designed to only exist in the space for which they
were created.

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Mail art: Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term “mail art” can refer
to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, and an art movement. Mail artists
typically exchange ephemera in the form of illustrated letters; zines; rubberstamped, decorated, or
illustrated envelopes; artist trading cards; postcards; artistamps; faux postage; mail- interviews;
naked mail; and three-dimensional objects.

Mixed media: Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more
than one medium has been employed. When creating a painted or drawn work using mixed
media it is important to choose the layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the
layers to insure the final work will have integrity. If many different media are used it is equally
important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are imposed. An old rule
good to remember is “Fat over lean.” In other words, don’t start with oil paints. Plan to make them
the final layer.

Painting: Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a liquid
vehicle (such as water, oil, saliva, arabic gum or other liquid) to a surface (support) such as paper,
canvas, wood or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity
in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest
the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is used as a mode of
representing, documenting and expressing all the varied intents and subjects that are as numerous
as there are practitioners of the craft. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still
life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism,
emotion or be political in nature. A large portion of the history of painting is dominated by spiritual
motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures
on pottery to biblical scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of The Sistine Chapel to
depictions of the human body itself as a spiritual subject.

Photography: Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light.
Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage
chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital
devices known as cameras.Lens and mounting of a large-format camera Photography - The word
comes from the Greek words f?? phos (“light”), and ??af?? graphis (“stylus”, “paintbrush”) or
??af? graphê, together meaning “drawing with light” or “representation by means of lines” or
“drawing.” Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo
is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image
has begun to replace photograph. (The term image is traditional in geometric optics.)

Printmaking: Printmaking is a process for producing editions (multiple copies) of artwork;

painting, on the other hand, is a process for producing a single original piece of artwork. Prints are
created from a single original surface, most commonly linoleum, metal or wood. Each print is
considered an original work of art, not a copy. Works printed from a single plate create an edition,
usually each signed and numbered. A single print could be the product of one or multiple presses.
Printmakers work in a variety of mediums, including water based ink, water color paint, oil based
ink, oil pastels, and any water soluble solid pigment such as Caran D’Ache crayons. The work
is created on a flat surface called a plate. Depending on the process used to lift the print, artists
either carve or draw into their surfaces. Printmaking techniques that utilize digital
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methods are becoming increasingly popular and in many markets are the preferred method.
Surfaces used in printmaking include planks of wood, metal plates, panes of plexiglass, pieces of
shellacked book board, or lithographic stones. A separate technique, called screenprinting, makes
use of a porous fabric mesh stretched in a frame, called a screen. Small prints can even be made
using the surface of a potato.

Sculpture: A sculpture is a three-dimensional, human-made object selected for special

recognition as art.

Video art: Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and is comprised of video
and/or audio data. (It should not however be confused with television or experimental cinema).
Video art saw its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s, but has exerted an influence to the present
in the form of video installations. Different artists use different media, but video tape was probably
most common in the form’s early years, though Hard Disk, CD-ROM, DVD, and solid state have
been used. However, despite obvious parallels and relationships, video is not film. One of the key
differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on
many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actors,
may contain no dialogue, may have no discernible narrative or plot, or adhere to any of the other
conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important,
because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the subcategories.

Presentation Graphics

Introduction to Presentation Graphics

Statistical Graphics using abstract non-representational images was only developed in the mid to
late eighteenth century. Previously, the only graphic images were maps with latitude vs. longitude.
The idea of replacing these entities with abstract entities, such as X vs. Y, was a major advance.

Types of Graphics:

1. Data Maps - can be geographical map or one with other information included
2. Time Series - with time as one axis
3. Narrative Graphics including both space and time.

Examples:

Charles Joseph Minard' depiction of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812. It combines a time series
with a data map to display 6D data (time, size of army, location in 2D, direction of movement, and
temperature).

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Another example is the set of images representing air pollution in Los Angeles. This is a "small
multiple" where the same design is used for a set of images to display certain differences.

Another example is the set of images representing air pollution in Los Angeles. This is a "small
multiple" where the same design is used for a set of images to display certain differences.

Relational Graphics is abstract with some X vs. Y. Earlier graphics used an analogy with the
physical world.

Successful statistical graphics have several characteristics. They should:

1. Show the data

2. Make the user think about the substance of the data rather than the presentation
3. Avoid distorting the information contained in the data
4. Efficiently present a large amount of data
4. Allow the data to be viewed at different levels of detail
5. Serve a clear purpose

The graphic should display the underlying information in the data, in a clear coherent fashion,
without distorting the data.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a Windows-based presentation graphics program that can be used for a
variety of applications, ranging from basic printed charts and graphs to complex on-screen
presentations that integrate text, graphics, and figures.

Computer Art

The computer has become an essential tool for anyone working in the fields of design,
photography, videography, illustration, architecture, industrial design, animation, and multimedia
and Web design.

Meaning of graphic:

A form of conveying messages by means of visual images which have been manipulated

Computer Art:

SYMBOLS - logo, sign, symbol, pattern, shapes (can be generated in the computers using
specialised software like Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and Corel Draw.)

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VISUALS - faces, figures, birds, animals, trees (can be digitised and taken into the computer by
using a scanner, digital camera etc. Can be edited and manipulated later using specialisedsoftware
like Adobe Photoshop.)

CLIP ART- pictures and drawings present in computers or available in CDs. Can be used in any
programme.

With Adobe Photoshop, we can use images in masking, tonal and color control, output to the laser
printer and the hi-resolution ink jet. Our images should be digitized for computer processing using
a digital camera, a flatbed scanner, video capture, and online capture using "appropriated" images.
We can also explore Kai’s Power tools, Fractal rendering and Ray- tracing.

Image & Illustration

Vector graphics are the backbone of all line based software. Whatever you are drawing in thes
software, chances are that you are creating the image from a series of vectors. And now, with the
new Live Trace feature, you can easily convert a raster image to a vector graphic. Raster and vector
are the two types of digital images that you work with in graphics programs. So what is the
difference between the two?

Raster
The type of image you might be more familiar with is the raster type. Let’s say you have scanned
several photos of your wedding into Photoshop and created a web gallery with these images. Each
of the scanned photos are raster images made from pixels which are small dots of color. Millions
of these pixels, laid side by- side makeup the image but these pixels are so small all you see on
your computer screen is the photo.

When you scanned your photos and saved the images in the JPEG format for the web, the image
file stored the information about each pixel in that image. One of the drawbacks of using raster
images is the large file size due to the amount of information stored in the file. The more pixels
in the raster image will result in a larger file size. Another drawback to raster images is that you
cannot enlarge a raster image without loosing image quality. The image begins to look fuzzy.

Vector
The other type of image, and the one you will be working with most often in Illustrator, is the
vector graphic. Vectors are created with mathematical calculations. For example, if you draw a
line at a 45° angle in Illustrator, the program calculates information such as the start and end points,
the length and the position of the line.

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Vector image files store the information for these calculations instead of pixels. This is why the
vector image file is so much smaller then a raster file. Vector images also fair better when resizing.
When a vector image is enlarged, the computer recalculates the image information and redraws
the image at the larger size. Therefore, the quality of vector images is not lessened when the images
are enlarged.

Difference

1. Illustrations are basically vector graphics and vector text. Vector graphics consist of lines and
curves that contain mathematical objects called vectors.

2. Images create bitmapped graphics. Bitmaps consist of tiny dots of color. The eye fills in the
spaces between the dots so the color appears to be solid. Bitmapped graphics are measured by the
number of dots per unit - usually called dpi (dots per inch).

3. Bitmap graphics are much larger in file size than vector graphics. Therefore, vector images take
up much less storage space and can be downloaded faster.

4. Vector Graphic are scalable to any size without losing quality. A bitmap will change quality if
you enlarge it or reduce it.

5. Some filters can be applied to bitmap images but cannot be applied to vector images.

Vector graphic

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or
polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer
graphics. Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the
representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of
photographic images. There are instances when working with vector tools and formats is best
practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times
when both formats come together. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each
technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use
of tools.

Vector graphics is the creation of digital images through a sequence of commands or mathematical
statements that place lines and shapes in a given two-dimensional or three- dimensional space. In
vector graphics, the file that results from a graphic artist’s work is created and saved as a sequence
of vector statements. For example, instead of containing a bit in the file for each bit of a line
drawing, a vector graphic file describes a series of points to be connected. One result is a much
smaller file.

At some point, a vector image is converted into a raster graphics image, which maps bits directly
to a display space (and is sometimes called a bitmap). The vector image can be converted to a
raster image file prior to its display so that it can be ported between systems.

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A vector file is sometimes called a geometric file. Most images created with tools such as Adobe
Illustrator and CorelDraw are in the form of vector image files. Vector image files are easier to
modify than raster image files (which can, however, sometimes be reconverted to vector files for
further refinement).
Animation images are also usually created as vector files. For example, Shockwave’s Flash
product lets you create 2-D and 3-D animations that are sent to a requestor as a vector file and then
rasterized “on the fly” as they arrive.

Bezier Curve

A Bézier curve is a curved line or path defined by mathematical equations. It was named after
Pierre Bézier, a French mathematician and engineer who developed this method of computer
drawing in the late 1960s while working for the car manufacturer Renault. Most graphics
software includes a pen tool for drawing paths with Bézier curves. The regular users of Adobe
Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Draw or Quark Xpress or any spline-based 3D programs, use
Bézier curves. It can also be used for animation. The most basic Bézier curve is made up of two
end points and control handles attached to each node. The control handles define the shape of the
curve on either side of the common node. Drawing Bézier curves may seem baffling at first; it’s
something that requires some study and practice to grasp the geometry involved. But once
mastered, Bezier curves are a wonderful way to draw!

In vector graphics, Bézier curves are an important tool used to model smooth curves that can be
scaled indefinitely. “Paths,” as they are commonly referred to in image manipulation programs
such as Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and GIMP are combinations of Bézier
curves patched together. Paths are not bound by the limits of rasterized images and are intuitive to
modify. Bézier curves are also used in animation as a tool to control motion in applications such
as Adobe Flash, Adobe After Effects, and Autodesk 3ds max.

Bezier curves are used in computer graphics to produce curves which appear reasonably smooth
at all scales (as opposed to polygonal lines, which will not scale nicely). Mathematically, they
are a special case of cubic Hermite interpolation (whereas polygonal lines use linear interpolation).
What this means is that curves are constructed as a sequence of cubic segments, rather than linear
ones. But whereas Hermite interpolating polynomials are constructed in terms of derivatives at
endpoints, Bezier curves use a construction due to Sergei Bernstein, in which the interpolating
polynomials depend on certain control points. The mathematics of these curves is classical, but it
was a French automobile engineer Pierre Bezier who introduced their use in computer graphics.

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 Graphical User Interface

Introduction
One of the most important developments in information technology over the past ten years or so
- quite apart from the massive improvements in hardware technology - has been the graphical user
interface (GUI). The advent of the microcomputer had a profound effect on information
technology. Now that computers were being mass produced, the more units that could be sold the
cheaper they would be - and the cheaper they were the more people could afford to buy them. Cost,
however, is not the only barrier to the purchase of computers -- they also had to be usable. So it
was effectively with the advent of the microcomputer in the early 1980's that the discipline of
human-computer interaction (HCI) became established. Undoubtedly the greatest innovation in
the field of HCI has been the adoption of the graphical user interface (GUI). For the vast majority
of new users the graphical user interface is much more usable than anything that has gone before
- as long as they can see the screen. The fundamental problem is that sight is very efficient. This
is often summarized (somewhat loosely) by saying that sight has a very broad bandwidth; what
sight can do is take in a lot of information and furthermore it has control over that information
flow, allowing the person to focus on what is important and filter out that which is not. Much of
the power of GUIs comes from the fact that they make the most of this ability; they present a lot
of information on the screen but can rely on the power of sight to cope with all of it. None of the
non-visual senses has that same power, that bandwidth.

Origins of the GUI

The history of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) goes back to the 1970s. Project Smalltalk was
established at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Parc) which attempted to look into the future.
The idea was to assume that in the future computing power would be abundant and inexpensive.
How could the best use be made of the power available? Two influential developments resulted:
object-oriented programming and the graphical user interface. Much of the inspiration behind the
GUI came from Alan Kay's vision of the "Dynabook" - a powerful, easy-to-use computer which
would be a portable and ubiquitous source of
information, a vision which is almost frighteningly familiar in this age of laptops and personal
organizers. The Star GUI was implemented on the Alto system and included most of theelements
that are so familiar today: windows, icons, menus, etc. (Smith, Irby et al, 1982). This was still a
development project and it was Apple who went on to commercialize the ideas. The first
incarnation was the Lisa. This was for its time a very powerful microcomputer and had a graphical
user interface.

The Macintosh was released in 1984. It consisted of a keyboard and mouse attached to a box which
contained a 9-inch monochrome screen and a single floppy disc drive. The basic version had 128
kbyte of RAM, though the "Big" Mac was available with 512 kbyte. For its time it was under-
powered and over-priced, compared to available PC clones. What it had that was different was its
user interface. At that time the style of interface was usually referred to as "Wimp," derived from
the components "window, icon, menus and pointer," but that term seemed to dieout due to its
negative connotations and was replaced by GUI - or even "gooie."

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Development of Adaptations
The first commercial Macintosh adaptation was released in 1988. It maintained the screen reader
style of adaptation in that it worked with a variety of applications (though sadly not all - mainly
for technical reasons). The designers took a different approach from that of Soundtrack in that they
got around the need to use the mouse. The basic idea is that whatever the cursor is pointing to on
the screen is spoken out. One can move the cursor using the mouse in the usual way, but when
working non-visually and relying on the speech output that is not really feasible. Therefore
alternative control of the cursor is available through the keypad. For instance, four keys are used
to move the cursor up, down, left and right (8, 2, 4 and 6 respectively).

Other keys have other roles, so that the 5 key corresponds to the mouse button, another takes the
cursor directly to the menu bar and so on.

Conclusions

All of the above developments have followed the same progression in that a visual GUI has been
developed and then at some later time someone else has thought about the needs of users with
visual disabilities and some form of adaptation has been added on to the existing interface. To
some extent the success of the adaptation has depended on the level of access to the existing visual
software. Microsoft's Windows is the most used GUI and it is with the new release of this software,
that possibly the greatest innovation will occur. There are a range of GUI adaptations available
and the change in attitude and
software at Microsoft will probably prove to be significant. So it might be tempting to believe
that the GUI problem is solved. However, I would caution that we should not get carried away
yet.

GUIs are effective because they make the most of this capacity of sight and the problem of adapting
them is due mainly to the fact that the other senses simply do not have that capacity. The
limitation of the current adaptations is that they tend to use just one of the non-visual channels of
communication. In most cases they rely almost entirely on speech communication – supplemented
to some extent by non-speech sounds. It seems unlikely that such a restricted channel can ever be
a substitute for the richness of vision.

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 Poster Design

What is a poster?

A visual presentation serving as a

 Source of information
 Conversation starter
 Advertisement of your work
 Summary of your work

An effective poster

 Delivers a clear message

 Is highly visual
 Is read easily from 1-2 meters away

It all starts with an idea

You must turn that idea into a succinct message and support it with a combination of images and
short blocks of text.

Creating your poster

 Carefully plan, draft, edit, and construct your poster

 What size is your poster?
 How much money can you spend?
 Who is your audience?

Formatting your poster

Title: Title of the project, the people involved in the work and their affiliation

Introduction: The problem you are trying to solve, project aims and objectives

Results: Illustrative examples of the main results of the work

Further work: Recommendations about future research

Summary: What you have set out to do, how you did it, the key findings and the main results

Methodology: Basics of the techniques that you are using

Conclusion: Main findings

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Formatting
Layout: Headings help readers find key sections

Balance the placement of text and graphics

 Use white space creatively to define flow of information
 Don’t fight “reader gravity” that pulls eye from top to bottom, left to right

Text:

Minimize text
 Keep text elements to 50 words or less

Use phrases rather than full sentences

Use an active voice
Avoid jargon

Text: font and size

 Serif (Times Roman) or san serif (Tahoma)?

Text should be large

o At least 36 point for title panels; 24 point for text

o Double-space, left-justification

Be consistent. Choose one font and then use it throughout the poster

 Add emphasis by using boldface, underlining, or color; italics are difficult to read

The text should be large enough to be read easily from at least 6 feet away

The title:

The title letters should be 1.5-2 inches tall

o Authors names may be printed smaller

o Affiliations can be even smaller
o Titles (eg, PhD) usually left out

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Poster session number should be printed separately

 Typically placed on top of the title banner

Text Tip

 Check your spelling—and not just with spell-checker!

 Attempt to fit blocks of text onto a single page
 Simplifies cutting and pasting when you assemble the poster (that is, if you are doing a
cut and paste poster)

Graphics

 Graphics communicate relationships quickly

Graphics should be simple and clean

 2-D line graphs, bar charts, pie charts

 Avoid 3-D graphs unless displaying 3-D data
 Use photos that help deliver your message
 Avoid clip art
 The success of a poster directly relates to the clarity of the illustrations and tables
 Self-explanatory graphics
 A minimal amount of text materials should supplement the graphic materials
 Use regions of empty space between poster elements to differentiate and accentuate these
elements.

Color

 Light color background and dark letters for contrast

 Avoid dark background with light letters

Stick to a theme of 2-3 colors

 Overly bright colors attract attention, but tough on the eyes

 Consider people who have problems differentiating colors—one of the most common is
an inability to tell green from red

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Use related colors to unify your poster

Muted colors for background, intense colors as borders or emphasis

Color can enhance the hues or contrast of photographs

 Use a light background with darker photos; a dark background with lighter photos
 Use a neutral background to emphasize color, a white background to reduce the impact of
colored photos

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 Logo Design

Logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and
even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition.

Logos are purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization.

Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

In the days of hot metal typesetting, a logotype was a uniquely set and arranged typeface or
colophon (Publishing). At the level of mass communication or simply in the high street a
company's logo is today often synonymous with its trademark or brand.

History
Numerous inventions and techniques have contributed to the contemporary logo, including
cylinder seals (c.2300 BCE), coins (c.600 BCE), and trans-cultural diffusion of logographic
languages, coats of arms, watermarks, silver hallmarks and the development of printing
technology.

As the industrial revolution converted western societies from agrarian to industrial in the 18th and
19th centuries, photography, and lithography contributed to the boom of an advertising industry
that integrated typography and imagery together on the page. Simultaneously, typography itself
was undergoing a revolution of form and expression that expanded beyond the modest, serif
typefaces used in books, to bold, ornamental typefaces used on broadsheet posters.

Modernism had shed its roots as an avant-garde artistic movement in Europe to become an
international, commercialized movement with adherents in the United States and elsewhere. The
visual simplicity and conceptual clarity that were the hallmarks of Modernism as an artistic
movement formed a powerful toolset for a new generation of graphic designers whose logos
embodied Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s dictum, “Less is more.” Modernist-inspired logos proved
successful in the era of mass visual communication ushered in by television, improvements in
printing technology, and digital innovations.

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Example:

Corporations, businesses and products

Due to the design, the color, the shape, and eventually additional
elements of the logotype, each one can easily be differentiated
from other logotypes. For example, a box of Kellogg's cereals
will be easily recognized in a supermarket's shelf from a certain
distance, due to its unique typography and distinctive red
coloring. The same will be true when one is at the airport looking
for the booth of the Hertz Rent-A-Car company.

Some well-known logos include Apple Inc.'s apple with a bite missing, which started out as a
rainbow of color, and has been reduced to a single color without any loss of recognition. Coca
Cola's script is known worldwide, but is best associated with the color red; its main competitor,
Pepsi has taken the color blue, although they have abandoned their script logo. IBM, also known
as "Big Blue" has simplified their logo over the years, and their name. What started as International
Business Machines is now just "IBM" and the color blue has been a signature in their unifying
campaign as they have moved to become an IT services company.

There are some other logos that must be mentioned when evaluating what the mark means to the
consumer. Automotive brands can be summed up simply with their corporate logo—from the
Chevrolet "Bow Tie" mark to the roundel marks of Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, to
the interlocking "RR" of Rolls-Royce—each has stood for a brand and clearly differentiated the
product line.

Other logos that are recognized globally: the Nike "Swoosh" and the Adidas "Three stripes" are
two well-known brands that are defined by their corporate logo. When Phil Knight started Nike,
he was hoping to find a mark as recognizable as the Adidas stripes, which also provided
reinforcement to the shoe. He hired a young student (Carolyn Davidson) to design his logo, paying
her $35 for what has become one of the best known marks in the world (she was later compensated
again by the company).

Logo Design:

Logo design is an important area of graphic design, and one of the most difficult to perfect. The
logo (ideogram) is the image embodying an organization. Because logos are meant to represent
companies' brands or corporate identities and foster their immediate customer recognition, it is
counterproductive to frequently redesign logos.

Color is considered important to brand recognition, but it should not be an integral component to
the logo design, which could conflict with its functionality. Some colors are formed/associated
with certain emotions that the designer wants to convey. For instance loud primary colors, such

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 as red, are meant to attract the attention of drivers on highways are appropriate
for companies that require such attention. In the United States red, white, and
blue are often used in logos for companies that want to project patriotic
feelings. Green is often associated with the health andhygiene sector, and light
blue or silver is often used to reflect diet foods. For other brands, more
subdued tones and lower saturation can communicate reliability, quality,
relaxation, or other traits.

Brochure

A brochure (also referred to as a pamphlet) is a type of leaflet. Brochures are most commonly
found at places that tourists frequently visit, such as museums, major shops, and tourist
information.

Booklet brochures are made of multiple sheets most often saddle stitched (stapled on the creased
edge) or "perfect bound" like a paperback book, and result in eight panels or more.

Brochures are often printed using four color process on thick gloss paper to give an initial
impression of quality. Businesses may turn out small quantities of brochures on a computer printer
or on a digital printer, but offset printing turns out higher quantities for less cost.

Brochure Design

Three fundamental points:

1. General and morphological features

2. Advertising aspects
3. Production process

Brochures are designed and used:

 As a marketing tool to advertise services or products;

 As an information providing tool to inform people about specific things like
HIV/Aids, TB, etc.

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When you design a brochure to sell or explain your products or services, you must remember that
this brochure is going to "talk on your behalf" about your services or products that you offer. It is
extremely important to make sure that your brochure gets the correct message across, is clear and,
most important of all, sells or explains your product or service - which is your ultimategoal.

Tips for designing a brochure

Some designing tips:

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 use should complement each other. Make sure your
foreground colour (text) is clear and gentle on the eyeswhen
combined with the background colour.

Paper quality plays a very important role when you want to

impress somebody with your brochure. Remember that if
your brochures are going to be in a display stand, good
Paper quality quality paper will prevent them from flopping over and
looking unattractive and messy. There is no point in planning
the perfect brochure, excellent layout, etc., when the paper is
of a poor quality.

A well designed brochure is the best way to introduce your company to your
potentialcustomers.

A brochure has three functions:

 Informative function: a brochure is usually used to inform your potential

customers with regards to your company. This information is related to your
company presentation, a new product or service that your company offers, or
a recent change in your company name, etc.

 Advertising function: a brochure is really important as an advertising tool,

which attractively allows you to promote one or more products or services.
For further details this function will be analyzed in the section called
Advertising aspect.

 Identification function: a well-done brochure design allows you to maintain

a same criterion through all your company brochures. If this criterion
(sometimes called concept) is unified in all the brochure types, it will make
your company to be recognized automatically. It will give to your company
prestige and credibility. It is important for your company brochure not only
have a “concept”, but also to have a logo: a well designed logo is essential
for any company, is one of the first steps to start an advertising campaign.

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