Comments on: How to Avoid Designs that Split Attention http://understandinggraphics.com/design/how-to-avoid-split-attention/ Design For The Human Mind Wed, 16 May 2012 10:02:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Matthew Hartwick http://understandinggraphics.com/design/how-to-avoid-split-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-512 Matthew Hartwick Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:31:35 +0000 http://understandinggraphics.com/?p=2073#comment-512 Excellent and useful article! I'd only caution against broadly recommending color encoding without stressing the importance of contrast in color choice. That eight percent of the male population has color deficient vision (read: me) is an important design consideration. It's always a shame, and frustrating, to see otherwise attractive and useful-looking graphics rendered functionally meaningless by careless color choice. Excellent and useful article! I’d only caution against broadly recommending color encoding without stressing the importance of contrast in color choice. That eight percent of the male population has color deficient vision (read: me) is an important design consideration.

It’s always a shame, and frustrating, to see otherwise attractive and useful-looking graphics rendered functionally meaningless by careless color choice.

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]]> By: John Bennetts http://understandinggraphics.com/design/how-to-avoid-split-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-440 John Bennetts Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:52:41 +0000 http://understandinggraphics.com/?p=2073#comment-440 It's not just me then! Brought up and trained as a graphic designer in the 40's and 50's in the UK, when the presenter of information (printer, layout designer, etc) took responsibility for presenting it in a largely linear fashion and leading the reader / viewer through it, I've been increasingly bemused and bewildered by the lack of coherence and thought in so many presentations on the web, in graphics, etc. It's what I think of as the 'shotgun approach' - "here it all is - work it out for yourself". (i.e. The pellets of information are blasted at you at random.) I'm not suggesting that the old linear approach can continue, given the tremendous changes in the way that we access information, but the matter of split attention needs to be recognised and addressed in the ways that you suggest. Your comments on using an additional modality are particularly helpful to me as they confirm a decision which I'd already arrived at in relation to a project on which I'm engaged - that using blocks of text alongside a video demonstrating how to use a graphics application was not viable because the viewer would be trying simultaneously to read and watch the demo. Even though they can halt the video to read the next section of text, it's cumbersome and counter-intuitive. Therefore in due course I need to use a voiceover. Thanks for clarifying this issue. It’s not just me then! Brought up and trained as a graphic designer in the 40′s and 50′s in the UK, when the presenter of information (printer, layout designer, etc) took responsibility for presenting it in a largely linear fashion and leading the reader / viewer through it, I’ve been increasingly bemused and bewildered by the lack of coherence and thought in so many presentations on the web, in graphics, etc. It’s what I think of as the ‘shotgun approach’ – “here it all is – work it out for yourself”. (i.e. The pellets of information are blasted at you at random.)

I’m not suggesting that the old linear approach can continue, given the tremendous changes in the way that we access information, but the matter of split attention needs to be recognised and addressed in the ways that you suggest. Your comments on using an additional modality are particularly helpful to me as they confirm a decision which I’d already arrived at in relation to a project on which I’m engaged – that using blocks of text alongside a video demonstrating how to use a graphics application was not viable because the viewer would be trying simultaneously to read and watch the demo. Even though they can halt the video to read the next section of text, it’s cumbersome and counter-intuitive. Therefore in due course I need to use a voiceover. Thanks for clarifying this issue.

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