The art of the interface: visual ideas, principles and inspiration for interface designers

Abstract

The diffwulty in life is the choice.” George Moore, Bending of the Bough Though the context is different, George Moore could have been describing our current “information environment”. It is a world of non-stop messages and images. Countless decisions are made daily based on what we see and our perception and interpretation of these things. In addition, constant introduction of technology and tools are overwhelming, with seemingly unlimited choices of ways and media to present information, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. The problem is that no one has given us a greater ability to use and understand all this new information. The idea that more, better tools are the solution could not be further from the truth. In our rush to go faster, further, louder we have forgotten our goal. In our rush to use these enticing tools, we have forgotten that this is all about communication. We need to step back and evaluate this visual chaos. We must understand and re-learn what the basic principles are that create quality communications as well as understand the implications of our visual design choices. Our education has made us verbally literate; now we must educate ourselves to become visually literate.