Design Principles of Multimedia Application （Group 6）

Introduction

            Multimedia application is a collection of a variety of media resources, establish logical relationship of all kinds of information, the client use to control and display through human-computer interaction interface.

A good design begins with an awareness of lots of elements which include: line, texture, directions, value, shape, color and size.

It is very important for us to follow the principles when we start to design a multimedia application.

Design Principles of Multimedia Application

Harmony

 Harmony in design principle meas all parts of visual iamges related to and complement each other. Harmony in graphic design can be displayed through a variety of ways, usually by a delicate balance of variety in repetition. When you have all sorts of elements, but put them together by some common traits, you are creating a harmony between the different parts of the whole. Woven together by introducing some common, through the shape, color, function, etc... Can bring the feeling of design harmony. in the image provide above, we can see the circle pattern repetition in a intersting way, the overall visual image comes together,  pattern or shapes and help us to avhieve harmony druing designing. 

Unity

This means that the simple, each element in the design work is feel belonged there, creating a whole unit in many pieces.

Unity design can bring a warm feeling to the audience, because in general, the sense of unity is warm.

BALANCE

The objects on the screen should strive to balance the up and down or so. Data as far as possible not to pile upon a certain place, don't have desultorily feeling.

Examples of good and bad balanced design。

  

Above is a graphic I saw which goes against the principles of balance, it takes long time for the readers to balance the picture in their minds. But the right balanced graphic is very formal in appearance.

PROXIMITY

Proximity helps creates organization. By dividing similar elements together or in close, the designer can create relationship of the elements, it is a principle of management related to the design of elements, the said that they should be grouped into close to the plane containing the whole work. Whether a web page, physical pages, or even bigger things like posters or billboards. No matter, says principle provision, the related elements should be able to close to each other. It also provide a focal point can help the reader to get ideas where should start to read and where to stop. But proximity does not mean that all the element have to be placed together, it means they can be visually connected in somewhere, maybe in font, font size and color.

From this principle, we can find there are a connection offered through its implementation, the proximity principle conveys that togetherness, the connection cannot be broken otherwise it will be a bad design.

REPETITION:

Repetition is to point to: design aspects of the need to repeat in the whole works. Repeating elements can be a font, a thick line, a project symbol, color, design elements, or it could be a format, spatial relationships, etc., the reader can see any ways can be used as a repeating element. Repetition is one of the purposes of unity, and enhance the visual effect.

Repetition can strengthens a design instead of tying individual elements together, it helps to create association and consistency.

In this photo, created one of the key duplicates (gallery), along with color and spatial relationship of repeated, can transform these items and maintain a consistent look and feel, makes the work is very professional.

 

Contrast

Size contrast

Size contrast in one of the most respected elements of design, the size difference is less, the sense that gives a person a shen with moderate, difference is big, the size of the sense that gives a person is bright.

As the picture provide above, the right graphic provide with a bigger size contrast than left, it shows more attractive of reader’s eyes.

       Color contrast

Color has a stronger visual impact than other visual elements, and easy to arouse people's psychological change and emotional reaction at the same time, when a user see a multimedia application, the first notice is color., according to a survey of the American popular color studying center shows when people is in choosing one product,  there is a "seven seconds law ”  in this brief but very important 7 seconds, the role of color accounted for 67%, become an important factor decided to judge the application, in the interface design, if the color selection and collocation is proper, can in a short period of time to new users to leave deep impression, will bring the result that expect is less than our design. The table blow shows the different colors give different feelings.

Color	Feelings when people saw these colors.
Red	Enthusiasm, initiative, joy and anger, blood
Orange	Happiness, trust, vitality, fresh, autumn
Yellow	Warm, transparent, happiness, hope, wisdom and brilliance
Green	Health, life, peace, peace, security
Blue	Reliable, power, cool, credit, eternal, relaxed, professional
Purple	Intelligence, imagination, mysterious, noble, elegant
Black	Deep, dark, contemporary feeling
White	Simple, the Spring Festival, fresh and clean
Gray	Calm, neutral

From a report of a web analytics company named KISS metrics , we clearly can see that both men and women like blue and green, perhaps this is the most common color in nature ; Both men and women more hate orange and brown. And different is men like black, while women hate grey; Women are like purple, while men hate purple. So that color preference of men and women is different. We should consider this differences before start to design a multimedia application.

Examples of good and bad color chose

 

 

Most of the people will click the left green button, because in terms of intuition, and green represents the passage, permitting, through the meaning of the red tend to warn and stop.

So when start the design, not simply to match color with his be fond of, there is a big part of the reason by the positioning of the product itself as well as the standard color and overall tone and decision, and we should fully consider the feelings of users when they are using, although not completely satisfy all users, but at least we have to take care of most of the users. Understanding to the customer for the product positioning, we can determine how to choose the most appropriate color direction for design.

Conclusion:

After this assignment, I have a clear understanding about the design principle of multimedia applications. First of all, I know the design elements, which include: line, texture, directions, value, shape, color and size.  And know the principles of designing a multimedia application.  Harmony, unity, balance, proximity, repetition and contrast. Color also is very import during designing, this will guide me to design in my future life.

Reference: 

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[Assessed at 22 September 2013]

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