According to the New York Times, the average person is subjected to over 5,000 advertising messages a day. The more messages we perceive, the greater the background noise.
The more you shout, the more noise is created. Everybody wants to be heard. Everybody shouts. To rise above the noise, you need to shout louder.
Or do you?
What your clients need is a message that cuts through the noise, even if you only whisper.
Formulating and structuring your message is therefore critical to making sure you are heard.
Needs
Establishing the needs of your target group – and therefore the types of messages that are likely to resonate with them – is a key component of your message.
Maslow expressed his triangular hierarchy of needs in 1954. Basic physical needs form the base of the pyramid. Once these are satisfied, people’s desires move up to the next level, safety needs, and then social, esteem and self-actualisation at the apex. We move up and down through these levels depending on our lifestage and circumstances.
To be successful, messages, goods and services need to be aligned with the needs of your target audience at their appropriate lifestage.
For instance, expensive makeup is neither a physiological, safety nor social need. Loreal plays on esteem needs of the professional woman with disposable income ‘because you’re worth it’.
Arguments
Rather than shouting louder, it is better to convince a person with a series of statements establishing your proposition.
That’s right, you came here for an argument.
The first stage in an argument is to delimit the terms of reference. What is in and what is out. Provide too much unnecessary information and your audience gets bored.
Then there has to be a structure to the message to make it worth listening to; a narrative with a beginning, middle and end; a dialogue; a setup and a payoff.
The actual message itself can consist of a primary argument (eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day is healthy) and secondary arguments (fruit and vegetables are cheap and easy to prepare) that help convince the receiver by supporting the main argument.
The optimum message is based on the primary argument, but where there are several supporting arguments, the strongest one is normally used first with the second strongest left until last and the weakest ones in between.
Both primary and secondary arguments may appeal to logic (health benefits) or emotion (better skin tone) to get their point across. However, whilst the receiver can be convinced by rational arguments, logic is no more important than emotion in decision-making.
This is because the receiver firstly identifies with and adopts a position on your message. Based on the position takes, the receiver then filters all the arguments and counter-arguments. If the pros outweigh the cons, then a subconscious decision is made and the receiver rejects the opposition position. In essence, the receivers convince themselves of the course of action to take.
Generally arguments are one-sided, as the receiver can be relied upon to provide the subvocalised opposition. However, two-sided arguments, where the sender expresses the disadvantages as well as the advantages of their position, can suggest honesty and integrity.
Finally, it is important that your audience feels involved and proactive in the messaging process. Your story leads the way, but by allowing the receiver space to work out your message for themselves, they are more likely to come to the desired conclusion.
Aligning your message with the needs of your audience and developing a clear argument gives you the cut-through that you need and the best chance of being heard.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Perception II (discernment)
In previous posts I looked at some theoretical tools to refine and improve messaging. Among these, some of the more practical ones are chunking, perception, scanpaths, wayfinding and content structure;
In perception, there are two key structures involved, difference and discernment.
Discernment and Gestalt pschology
Adjacent objects are generally perceived and processed as a group and considered to have a like meaning. Objects which share similar attributes – size, colour, shape, direction – are also perceptually grouped together.
Grouping objects to create contextual relationships and create implied alignments helps a designer to guide the viewer’s eye through the content.
These principles of perception are explored in the theories of Gestalt psychology, that examine ‘the essence or shape of form’. The phrase ‘The whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ is often used when explaining Gestalt theory.
Fundamental to Gestalt are the laws of Pragnanz, which state that we tend to order things in a manner that is regular, ordered and symmetric;
Gestalt psychology is frequently used in user interface design, for example where text fields and buttons are placed with reference to the laws of similarity and proximity.
Designing familiarity in to layouts through consistent placement of similar types of content creates a rhythm and flow in your designs that allow the viewer to process information quickly and efficiently.
In perception, there are two key structures involved, difference and discernment.
Discernment and Gestalt pschology
Adjacent objects are generally perceived and processed as a group and considered to have a like meaning. Objects which share similar attributes – size, colour, shape, direction – are also perceptually grouped together.
Grouping objects to create contextual relationships and create implied alignments helps a designer to guide the viewer’s eye through the content.
These principles of perception are explored in the theories of Gestalt psychology, that examine ‘the essence or shape of form’. The phrase ‘The whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ is often used when explaining Gestalt theory.
Fundamental to Gestalt are the laws of Pragnanz, which state that we tend to order things in a manner that is regular, ordered and symmetric;
- Principle of closure – the viewer infers elements in order to complete a regular figure
- Principle of similarity – the viewer groups similar elements together
- Principle of proximity – spatial proximity induces the viewer to perceive a group
- Principle of symmetry – symmetrical images are perceived by the viewer as a group even if separated by distance
- Principle of continuity – The viewer infers continuing patterns
- Principle of common fate – Elements with the same direction are perceived by the viewer as a group
Gestalt psychology is frequently used in user interface design, for example where text fields and buttons are placed with reference to the laws of similarity and proximity.
Designing familiarity in to layouts through consistent placement of similar types of content creates a rhythm and flow in your designs that allow the viewer to process information quickly and efficiently.
Perception I (difference)
In a previous post, I talked about how designers transmit knowledge, share concepts and process information through language, and how structure and legibility affect the visualisation of messages and inform the design decisions you make on a daily basis.
To help your audience understand your messaging, you need to know how they will receive and decode the information you send.
Scientific study has provided designers with a number of theoretical tools to refine and improve their messages. Among these, some of the more practical tools are chunking, perception, scanpaths, wayfinding and content structure.
In perception, there are two key structures involved, difference and discernment.
Difference threshold and Weber’s Law
Understanding our ability to perceive information and distinguish one information set over another can help designers target their messages for maximum impact.
Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Differences (no, really!) suggests that there is an identifiable minimum amount of change that can be defined for a viewer so that they are able to notice a difference in any one design
If the amount of perceptual change remains a constant (and can thus be predicted unconsciously by the viewer), then it is easier for your audience to process and distinguish between different types of information. This regular rate of change is known as the ‘difference threshold’.
Weber’s Law can be used to help designers make constructive choices in making information follow an obvious hierarchy.
For example, setting a consistent rule for the differential sizing of type headings, say in 4 point increments, establishes a clear information hierarchy in the mind of the audience.
Similarly, decisions on the relative weights of fonts in typeface design can also be informed by identifying the difference threshold.
User testing of visual assumptions against Weber’s Law can help confirm the designer’s intuition regarding aesthetic considerations and help establish clearer communication with the audience.
To help your audience understand your messaging, you need to know how they will receive and decode the information you send.
Scientific study has provided designers with a number of theoretical tools to refine and improve their messages. Among these, some of the more practical tools are chunking, perception, scanpaths, wayfinding and content structure.
In perception, there are two key structures involved, difference and discernment.
Difference threshold and Weber’s Law
Understanding our ability to perceive information and distinguish one information set over another can help designers target their messages for maximum impact.
Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Differences (no, really!) suggests that there is an identifiable minimum amount of change that can be defined for a viewer so that they are able to notice a difference in any one design
If the amount of perceptual change remains a constant (and can thus be predicted unconsciously by the viewer), then it is easier for your audience to process and distinguish between different types of information. This regular rate of change is known as the ‘difference threshold’.
Weber’s Law can be used to help designers make constructive choices in making information follow an obvious hierarchy.
For example, setting a consistent rule for the differential sizing of type headings, say in 4 point increments, establishes a clear information hierarchy in the mind of the audience.
Similarly, decisions on the relative weights of fonts in typeface design can also be informed by identifying the difference threshold.
User testing of visual assumptions against Weber’s Law can help confirm the designer’s intuition regarding aesthetic considerations and help establish clearer communication with the audience.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Science Museum Brand and Identity
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| © Johnson Banks |
'The chosen idea stemmed from research (Johnson Banks) did on codes, puzzles, patterns and basic digital typefaces, and we found a way to shorten the word science so we could create a grid-like ‘stack’ of the letterforms.'
The posters on the London Underground look great, with the distinctive typography (Font: SM Grid from The Foundry) standing out from the visual clutter around them.
Great idea, great structure, great execution.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Evolving English
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| © British Library |
In the course of my visit, what struck me was that no sooner did individuals or institutions try to fix English within a set of rules, so the language evolved as accepted usage changed.
The first part of the exhibition gives an overview of early, middle and then old English, using documents from the permanent collection to chart the development of the language. Whilst the court and state used French, and Latin was the language of the Church, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was the first widespread text seen in old English, the language of the people.
The rest of the exhibition is non-chronological, but divided into themed pairs;
- Written and spoken English
- Native and foreign English
- English at work and play
The development of English as world language is bound up in the development of England as a nation, with social class and with the literary, scientific, manufacturing and trading links forged with countries round the world.
The growth of the British Empire helped spread English around the globe, and also enabled it to absorb a vast number of new words from other countries into the language.
Structurally, everyday English continues to develop. Useful words are added whilst unnecessary words quietly fall into disuse. Today, young people mix yardie, east asian and estuary English to create a new street language that is owned by its speakers.
Concerns about the decline in the quality of English usage, never far from the headlines, have been regularly expressed since 1712 when Jonathan Swift proposed an ‘Approved English’ committee along lines of the Academie Francaise. This suggestion has never been taken up officially in Britain, so as a language English has been free to adapt, add, appropriate or coin new words as required – and in doing so has evolved into a dynamic and flexible world language.
It's a tool that too many designers ignore.
Have you got a strategy?
Strategy is one of those terms that designers love to hate. More often than not because the person hearing it doesn’t understand what it means (and ‘strategy’ only scores 10 points in buzzword bingo).
Whereas tactics are concerned with actively doing something, strategy is all about your plan for actively doing something. The key words here are ‘your plan’.
Launching straight into a piece of design without knowing why you are doing it, or what you are trying to communicate or to whom you are communicating, is, quite frankly, a waste of everybody’s time and effort.
Having a strategy is not a ticklist exercise, but a methodology for getting to where you want to be.
It can take many different forms from a simple who, what, why, where, when and how, through to a more formal PRINCE2 documented process.
The scale and depth depends on the nature of a project – a flyer will not need the same attention to detail as a campaign.
The important thing is to make your strategy work for you so that you have a solid base on which your communication is built. Each element of the framework can then be tested to make sure your design decision-making is evidence-based and sound.
You can then argue that you may not like the solution, but you can’t argue with the solution.
Plan to succeed
Start with a blank sheet of paper, and on it define a structure within which you can construct your design. By creating a pattern of decisions and actions in the present, you can guarantee success in the future.
So before you even think about words and pictures, you need to work your way through your strategy and see how it will influence the design;
And then there are all those paper tools you can use to help inform your strategy (all with their little acronyms);
Do you need to use them all? The answer (of course) is that it all depends on the nature of the project, but a partly informed strategy is better than no strategy at all. And as they say in the army, ‘Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.’
Whereas tactics are concerned with actively doing something, strategy is all about your plan for actively doing something. The key words here are ‘your plan’.
Launching straight into a piece of design without knowing why you are doing it, or what you are trying to communicate or to whom you are communicating, is, quite frankly, a waste of everybody’s time and effort.
Having a strategy is not a ticklist exercise, but a methodology for getting to where you want to be.
It can take many different forms from a simple who, what, why, where, when and how, through to a more formal PRINCE2 documented process.
The scale and depth depends on the nature of a project – a flyer will not need the same attention to detail as a campaign.
The important thing is to make your strategy work for you so that you have a solid base on which your communication is built. Each element of the framework can then be tested to make sure your design decision-making is evidence-based and sound.
You can then argue that you may not like the solution, but you can’t argue with the solution.
Plan to succeed
Start with a blank sheet of paper, and on it define a structure within which you can construct your design. By creating a pattern of decisions and actions in the present, you can guarantee success in the future.
So before you even think about words and pictures, you need to work your way through your strategy and see how it will influence the design;
- Have you a mission statement (do you know why you are doing this)?
- Do you know what your aims and objectives are (where are you now, where do you want to be and how are you going to get there)?
- What are the characteristics of the brand you are working with?
- What are the communications criteria (segmentation, positioning)?
- Do you have a communication plan (audience, medium, message, schedule, budget)?
- Do you know what the communication channels are?
- What does success look like (and how will you measure it)?
And then there are all those paper tools you can use to help inform your strategy (all with their little acronyms);
- SMART – Specific. Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound
- SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
- AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
- PPPP - Product, Price, Place, Promotion
Do you need to use them all? The answer (of course) is that it all depends on the nature of the project, but a partly informed strategy is better than no strategy at all. And as they say in the army, ‘Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.’
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Probability, randomness and chance
It’s not strictly on topic, but I caught a fascinating discussion on probability, randomness and chance on Radio 4’s series The Infinite Monkey Cage.
Co-presented by astrophysicist Professor Brian Cox, the discussion ranged from the ‘birthday paradox’ where the probability of two people in a random group of 23 chosen people sharing the same birthday is greater than 50%, to the idea that people are predisposed to pattern recognition because we have evolved with the survival mechanism to extract patterns from not much data ie. spotting tiger stripes in the surrounding foliage.
Mind you I’ve enjoyed what Professor Cox has to say ever since I accidentally watched Danny Boyle’s Sunshine with the scientific commentary dubbed on to the action and found that it all made sense (sort of).
But one of the questions raised by the programme was to ask why people interpret a chance event as being somehow preordained, and why we seek to interpret such results with other meanings. The thought was that because people have a memory of past events, we use that as a filter to understand present events.
It reminded me of how patterns and numbers crop up all the time in design and how designers can use this knowledge to engage their audience by having them infer content structure, through the filter of previously remembered events, from the groupings and alignments in the design.
Such relationships as the golden ratio of 1 to 1.618, the rule of grouping in threes and fives, picture composition using intersecting thirds, and all manner of gestalt relationships are used to help the viewer to process information more quickly.
A practical example of this effect can be seen in website design. Most peoples experiences of the web are made elsewhere, so your site needs to conform to the expected web page layout if you want the user to be able to quickly engage with the content.
Of course, knowing that rule means that, in the case of Johnson Banks, you can break it for good effect if you want to surprise your audience.
 |
| Brian Cox |
Mind you I’ve enjoyed what Professor Cox has to say ever since I accidentally watched Danny Boyle’s Sunshine with the scientific commentary dubbed on to the action and found that it all made sense (sort of).
But one of the questions raised by the programme was to ask why people interpret a chance event as being somehow preordained, and why we seek to interpret such results with other meanings. The thought was that because people have a memory of past events, we use that as a filter to understand present events.
It reminded me of how patterns and numbers crop up all the time in design and how designers can use this knowledge to engage their audience by having them infer content structure, through the filter of previously remembered events, from the groupings and alignments in the design.
Such relationships as the golden ratio of 1 to 1.618, the rule of grouping in threes and fives, picture composition using intersecting thirds, and all manner of gestalt relationships are used to help the viewer to process information more quickly.
A practical example of this effect can be seen in website design. Most peoples experiences of the web are made elsewhere, so your site needs to conform to the expected web page layout if you want the user to be able to quickly engage with the content.
Of course, knowing that rule means that, in the case of Johnson Banks, you can break it for good effect if you want to surprise your audience.
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