Unit 1: How People See

Optical Illusions – the brain interprets what we see based on what we know.

2D/3D – Our eyes are hard-wired with sensitive cones that interpret light. We see in 2D and our visual cortex interprets the image into a 3D representation.

Peripheral and central vision – we can identify scenes if the peripheral elements are present and the central focus is blurred. “If you want viewers to concentrate on a certain part of the screen, don’t put animation or blinking elements in their peripheral vision.”

Recognizing Patterns – our brains look for, and recognize, patterns and take in white space as part of a pattern. Designers should use basic shape recognition and patterns in designs, preferably 2D, since this is a faster method for our user’s brain to interpret.

Geon: geometric icons; basic recognizable shapes used to identify objects

FFA: the fusiform face area; allows us to instantly recognize those we know and bypasses the usual channels of interpretation.

Facial Recognition – we prefer to see human faces and are drawn to them as early as newborns. The eyes are the main focus, letting us know if what we’re seeing is “alive.”

Perspective – we draw what we see in our minds. Most people will draw an object with angles and perspective.

Canonical Perspective: when an object is drawn from a “perspective slightly above looking down and offset a little to the right or left.” This is another technique designers can employ, i.e. with icons, to have a user instantly recognize an element.

Focus – user tend to ignore the top portion of a screen because they’ve learned it is less relevant and tend to look at the center of the screen. Therefore, the most important information a designer wants to convey should be at the top third of the screen or site.

Affordances: when an object gives you cues that help you interact with them; action possibilities in the environment. Affordances are helpful tools to a user that helps them interact with information on your page. 

Inattention blindness or change blindness – “when you pay attention to one thing and you don’t expect changes to appear, then you can easily miss changes that occur.” The “Gorilla” video is a prime example of inattention blindness.

Chromo stereopsis – the effect when one color jumps out while another recedes.

Color-blindness – a deficiency to see differences between colors. When using color employ other means of identification as well, for example using line weight and color to distinguish objects.