I used to Irish dance so I have a familiarity with how to design a flier for a dance show or competition but I've never actually put one together.
I've also never used Photoshop so this will be an interesting endeavor for me. Mainly because I've never had Photoshop, the extent of my flier making skills were limited to what I could do in Word.
I guess I'm a little freaked out by the amount of information that needs to be on this page. I was even overwhelmed with the layout design and found myself re-doing the project multiple times... and I don't think my stress level could take it!
Anyway... that's all that I have to complain about... I know that eventually something great will come out of me, but until then, I'll just have to fret over the work I attempt.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
form vs reading
I made up the Confidential Patient Intake Form and actually asked for the opinion of my mother, who is a Registered Nurse. I wanted to make it as clear and concise as possible for patients and loved ones of patients alike so they would be able to fill it out quickly and as calmly as possible.
There's no obvious contrast other than the title of the page which, in boldface, states what the document is and who it's for. The capitalized words/phrases, I don't feel, are contrasting but in theory they are.
I tried to keep a balance in the form by making everything evenly spaced and giving the patient enough line-space to write on. The boxes I put in make it harder to find a balance, because the boxes aren't evenly placed in one line to the other, but the boxes help in efficiency.
I attempted to make everything proportional but I'm not positive if I've succeeded. The entire document reaches from the left margin to the right margin in one way or another, usually by way of line or box.
I repeat the use of the box- for the better use of the patient. I also used lines after the prompt for the information on the patient- this allows them to write in the correct information in the correct area. Since the document is very simple and color would be slightly inappropriate, I thought it best that the design be completely straightforward and efficient.
I feel that this design has harmony. I wanted it to be very easy to fill out and easy to work with in that if a distressed patient or loved one of a patient were to be asked to fill out the form, they could easily be able to fill it out, even in a frantic attitude. The form is easy to read, simple to understand and gives enough room for the information to be put in.
The document has movement in that it's all placed against the left margin (except for the Date) and allows the patient to read from left to right, rather than jumping all over the page.
I don't know if this document has unity, and it definitely doesn't exactly scream for attention, but I didn't feel that was the point. If something has unity, I assume everything works together, and your eye is able to move fluently from one piece of information to the other, and I feel that's what this form does, in its most basic way. It's not meant to be a flashy or warm/inviting form, because it's not meant to be something that other people (aside from an insurance company/the employees of the hospital) will be looking at.
There's no obvious contrast other than the title of the page which, in boldface, states what the document is and who it's for. The capitalized words/phrases, I don't feel, are contrasting but in theory they are.
I tried to keep a balance in the form by making everything evenly spaced and giving the patient enough line-space to write on. The boxes I put in make it harder to find a balance, because the boxes aren't evenly placed in one line to the other, but the boxes help in efficiency.
I attempted to make everything proportional but I'm not positive if I've succeeded. The entire document reaches from the left margin to the right margin in one way or another, usually by way of line or box.
I repeat the use of the box- for the better use of the patient. I also used lines after the prompt for the information on the patient- this allows them to write in the correct information in the correct area. Since the document is very simple and color would be slightly inappropriate, I thought it best that the design be completely straightforward and efficient.
I feel that this design has harmony. I wanted it to be very easy to fill out and easy to work with in that if a distressed patient or loved one of a patient were to be asked to fill out the form, they could easily be able to fill it out, even in a frantic attitude. The form is easy to read, simple to understand and gives enough room for the information to be put in.
The document has movement in that it's all placed against the left margin (except for the Date) and allows the patient to read from left to right, rather than jumping all over the page.
I don't know if this document has unity, and it definitely doesn't exactly scream for attention, but I didn't feel that was the point. If something has unity, I assume everything works together, and your eye is able to move fluently from one piece of information to the other, and I feel that's what this form does, in its most basic way. It's not meant to be a flashy or warm/inviting form, because it's not meant to be something that other people (aside from an insurance company/the employees of the hospital) will be looking at.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Readings for Oct 6
Visual hierarchy is important to any reader. If you're making something that requires concentration and is formal, one must have an easy to read hierarchy of what needs to be filled out.
With a form like the patient intake form, it should be readily available for anyone to fill out. Some people come into a hospital and are stressed out or distraught and this form needs to be incredibly easy to read and figure out. I've been to hospitals where I had to fill out pages and pages of paperwork and it wasn't always easy to read if I was checking the right box (especially when giving blood. I ALWAYS check at least one wrong box).
This form should also be quick to finish so the paperwork turnaround can be quick so the patient's loved one can get back to them.
I'm a huge fan of "fill in the blank" kind of forms because they leave no room for error. If you clearly have No [ ], Yes[ ], I don't know [ ], you clearly know which box you should be checking for "I don't know." The 4Cs are now in my vocabulary as four main foci for making this form. If I'm clear and concise, the patient won't have any problem answering these prompts, but clever may be harder as there is no room for error in a written form. Co-Operative is useable when giving the patient plenty of white space so they a.) have plenty of space to write their symptoms etc and 2) don't write in the wrong spot.
With this form, I feel that it's very important that I left-justify the beginning of a new topic. This allows the patient to understand better what they're meant to write in the blanks.
I don't think it's very necessary to use color, other than a possible gray bar at the top and bottom to put the unnecessary information in which states where the hospital is and/or the name of the form.
Note: I found it ironic that they recommend you don't use serif fonts (number 4, 10 election design guidelines) but the entire Web page is in Serif... probably Times New Roman...
Contrast, Balance, Proportion, Rhythm, Harmony, Movement, Unity. These terms remind me so much of music. One has to have a balance of sounds so the song will be clear to the listener, the song must also have movement and contrast from what was previously done, so the listener won't get bored. These also all make so much sense in terms of making a successful layout since you need to have every aspect of these terms in order to allow a person to use the design to it's greatest ability.
With a form like the patient intake form, it should be readily available for anyone to fill out. Some people come into a hospital and are stressed out or distraught and this form needs to be incredibly easy to read and figure out. I've been to hospitals where I had to fill out pages and pages of paperwork and it wasn't always easy to read if I was checking the right box (especially when giving blood. I ALWAYS check at least one wrong box).
This form should also be quick to finish so the paperwork turnaround can be quick so the patient's loved one can get back to them.
I'm a huge fan of "fill in the blank" kind of forms because they leave no room for error. If you clearly have No [ ], Yes[ ], I don't know [ ], you clearly know which box you should be checking for "I don't know." The 4Cs are now in my vocabulary as four main foci for making this form. If I'm clear and concise, the patient won't have any problem answering these prompts, but clever may be harder as there is no room for error in a written form. Co-Operative is useable when giving the patient plenty of white space so they a.) have plenty of space to write their symptoms etc and 2) don't write in the wrong spot.
With this form, I feel that it's very important that I left-justify the beginning of a new topic. This allows the patient to understand better what they're meant to write in the blanks.
I don't think it's very necessary to use color, other than a possible gray bar at the top and bottom to put the unnecessary information in which states where the hospital is and/or the name of the form.
Note: I found it ironic that they recommend you don't use serif fonts (number 4, 10 election design guidelines) but the entire Web page is in Serif... probably Times New Roman...
Contrast, Balance, Proportion, Rhythm, Harmony, Movement, Unity. These terms remind me so much of music. One has to have a balance of sounds so the song will be clear to the listener, the song must also have movement and contrast from what was previously done, so the listener won't get bored. These also all make so much sense in terms of making a successful layout since you need to have every aspect of these terms in order to allow a person to use the design to it's greatest ability.
Frustration over last week's assignment
OK So I'm just fuming over this so I need to let it out.
We presented our first part of the typeface brief assignments on Tuesday last week. I had painstakingly worked on that stupid thing and deleted it about 6 times before finally landing on something that I kind of liked. I showed it to a friend and he said it was boring- that it needed more diversity in the fonts. I showed it to another friend and she said she liked it a lot and just to bold one or two more words.
So I did that thinking that the message got across and would be easily recognizable as a literary reading quote. The bolded words would easily get the message across what the quote was talking about... and the larger words would give more subtext to the bolded words and so on and so forth.
I get to class and someone says that it's too busy- they don't know what to focus on and they don't understand what purpose the bolded words had.
*Facedesk*
I don't understand where my happy middle is. If I bold the words, people say they don't understand what they're supposed to be looking at, but if I don't, people say they don't understand what they're supposed to be looking at because it's so bland.
I was so frustrated with this thing last week that I was ready to start crying in anger at the Mac I was sitting in front of in the middle of the library.
We have to have an updated draft of this project by Thursday... I don't know how to change it other than starting over because I hate this thing so much and no one else can decide if they like it. I actually like it the way it is, but if it's not going to be accepted and received by everyone else the way I intend it to be, how can it be a good design?
We presented our first part of the typeface brief assignments on Tuesday last week. I had painstakingly worked on that stupid thing and deleted it about 6 times before finally landing on something that I kind of liked. I showed it to a friend and he said it was boring- that it needed more diversity in the fonts. I showed it to another friend and she said she liked it a lot and just to bold one or two more words.
So I did that thinking that the message got across and would be easily recognizable as a literary reading quote. The bolded words would easily get the message across what the quote was talking about... and the larger words would give more subtext to the bolded words and so on and so forth.
I get to class and someone says that it's too busy- they don't know what to focus on and they don't understand what purpose the bolded words had.
*Facedesk*
I don't understand where my happy middle is. If I bold the words, people say they don't understand what they're supposed to be looking at, but if I don't, people say they don't understand what they're supposed to be looking at because it's so bland.
I was so frustrated with this thing last week that I was ready to start crying in anger at the Mac I was sitting in front of in the middle of the library.
We have to have an updated draft of this project by Thursday... I don't know how to change it other than starting over because I hate this thing so much and no one else can decide if they like it. I actually like it the way it is, but if it's not going to be accepted and received by everyone else the way I intend it to be, how can it be a good design?
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