THE FIT BETWEEN FORM AND CONTEXT
-Design as "action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones."
-We can judge design not only on the object and its form, but also on how the designer "framed the problem-context to which the form responds."
-How the designer crafts the message depends largely on how we define the context.
THE SCALE OF CONTEXT
System - set of things interconnected in a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior. Together they have a purpose.
Community - Set of interacting / interdependent systems
THE COGNITIVE CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: HOW WE ARE ALIKE AND DIFFERENT
Gestalt Theory Principles - Scientific understanding between human perception and the physical world.
1) Proximity 2) Good continuation 3) Closure
Fixation - Time the eye rests on a single object/element
Saccade - Rapid eye movement between periods of rest
Design should bring about some kind of affect, emotion, behavior, or reflection
Visceral Emotion - unreasoned emotional response to something
Reflection Emotion - Involved contemplation, memory, and learning.
Learn as ABSTRACT (reason experience) or CONCRETE (sense and feel) perceivers.
We all have a learning preference - prefer by thinking (reflectively) or by doing (actively)
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: THE SEARCH FOR PATTERN
Culture - Network of relationships with congruent ways of seeing the world.
Design has both illustrative (Design expresses culture) and formative roles (Design shapes culture)
Social Schemas - mental structures that contain general expectations and knowledge about people, social roles, events, and places.
Role Schemas - contain norms and expected behavior - Achieved roles
Stereotype - A role of schemas that contain social expectations and behaviors
"What makes negative stereotypes so difficult to dislodge is that an array of social and behavioral expectations is grouped within a mental category that is recalled simply by the presence of any single visual trait."
THE TECHNOLOGICAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: MATERIAL MATTERS
Materiality - physical qualities of a representation that give it individuality and allow it to be categorized. This is an important aspect of what signs mean.
Media / Tools influence the meaning of a representation and establish associations that affect our perception of meaning.
Technology can be enabling or constraining in terms of action possibilities.
THE PHYSICAL CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: EVERYTHING IS RELATIONAL
Physical context is important in regards to legibility and readability
The effect of one variable may depend entirely on the presence or absence of another variable.
We organize experience in our minds via Embodiment / image schemata
THE ECONOMIC CONTEXT FOR DESIGN: EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF "COST"
Design Strategy - helps companies / organizations determine what to do and make, how to innovate, how to implement processes for the benefit of the consumer.
Strategy - Consumption - Sustainability
Context drives design decision making - responsibility of the designer to be well informed and to hold a perceptive on the variety of theories on these issues.
