by Janina Schindler -

Neumorphism in the field of intuitive design

Neumorphism is definitely the design trend of 2020. It combines the skeuomorphic design with the famous flat design and thus creates a special flat but realistic 3D-looking effect. It is aesthetically very appealing, but what about the usability? To answer this question, I researched about the strengths and weaknesses of neumorphism and how it would be applicable in real world situations due to its intuitive design approach. I stumbled about the therm „signifiers“ and how hints contribute to good usability. This lead to a research based on the background of human perception and usability.

Signifiers, not affordances

„As time and technologies change, as we have moved from individual to group, social, and even cultural computing, and as the communication technologies have become as important as the computational ones, how well have our design principles kept up? We know how to behave by watching the behavior of others, or if others are not there, by the trails they have left behind.“ — Don Norman

Don Norman, co-founder and principal of the User Experience/Usability consulting firm „the Nielsen Norman Group“, World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience, wrote the article Signifiers, not affordances about powerful clues, that arise from what he calls „powerful signifiers“. He states that a “signifier” is some sort of indicator, some signal in the physical or social world that can be interpreted meaningfully. Signifiers signify critical information, even if the signifier itself is an accidental byproduct of the world. Social signifiers are those that are relevant to social usages. Some social indicators simply are the unintended but informative result of the behavior of others.

To understand social signifiers, he gives the example of catching a train: You know your train’s departure will be soon and rush to the train station. When you arrive and there is no train, you are automatically looking for clues, if you have missed the train or not. If there are still lots of people at the train station, you know, it may just not have arrived yet, if nobody is there anymore, you probably have missed it. So the state of the train station, the presence or absence of people there, works as a signifier. This is an example of an incidental, accidental signifier. That is the nature of signifiers: often useful, but of mixed reliability. Other examples for social signifiers can be a crosswalk or even trails that signify a shortcut through a park or a planted area.

If you think about that for a moment, everything we are doing is a learning process and to evolve we need constant signifiers and explanations how to continue. We permanently interpret clues or signs that enable us to proceed in a certain way, that especially show us how to proceed. We orient ourselves on the basis of our previous experiences, not only in the social environment, but also in our technical competencies. It has a lot to do with intuitive usage, that comes from signifiers provided for us. In the design field, this is essential for a good usability and a good user experience. People search for any signifier that might guide them through and help them to cope and understand, anything that might signify meaningful information.

„Forget affordances: what people need, and what design must provide, are signifiers. Because most actions we do are social, the most important class of these are social signifiers.“ — Don Norman

A signifier in the digital world is for example the scrollbar of websites on the side, which automatically gives you a clue about how much of the page you are viewing is remaining and on what point you are on the page. Also its length is showing what proportion is visible at the moment. The signifier is an important communication device to the recipient, whether or not communication was intended. For us to function in this social, technological world, we need to develop internal models of what things mean, of how they operate. We seek all the cues we can find to help in this enterprise, and in this way, we all act as detectives, searching for whatever guidance we might find. If we are fortunate, thoughtful designers provide the clues for us. Otherwise, we must use our creativity and imagination. But this is something users usually don’t want to do, which can also be an example for bad usability. The user’s mission is to not perceive the interface in that kind of way, that he has to think about how to use it. „Don’t make me think“ is usually the general view and approach, users follow. 

Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty?

To understand if this is really that significant for users and if so, how it affects them, I took a look at a study of 2017 on UIs with weak in comparison to UIs with strong signifiers on webpages by Kate Moran.

The study first points out that due to flat design, many websites have erased the cues for users to identify, whether something is clickable. Using eyetracking equipment to track and visualize users’ eye movements across interfaces, the researchers investigated how strong clickability signifiers (traditional clues such as underlined, blue text or a glossy 3D button) and weak or absent signifiers (for example, linked text styled as static text or a ghost button) impact the ways users process and understand web pages. They took 9 web pages from live websites and modified them to create two nearly identical versions of each page, with the same layout, content and visual style. The two versions differed only in the use of strong, weak, or absent signifiers for interactive elements (buttons, links, tabs, sliders). To drive the users attention to a certain area of the page, they gave them tasks on the page, for example: „You will see a page from a hotel website. Reserve this hotel room. Please tell us when you have found where you would click.” There were 71 general web-users, who participated in the study. 

Two modified versions of a detail page for a hotel room: The strong version (left) included slightly 3D style buttons, and the light purple color was used only on interactive elements; The weak version (right) had flat ghost buttons instead.

The researchers tracked the eye movements of the participants as they were performing these tasks. They measured the number of fixations on each page, as well as the task time. (A fixation happens when the gaze lingers on a spot of interest on the page). Both of these measures reflect user effort: the more fixations and time spent doing the task, the higher the processing effort, and the more difficult the task. In addition, they created heat-map visualizations by aggregating the areas that participants looked at the most on the pages.

The results show that the average amount of time the user spent on the website with weak signifiers was 22% higher. Also, the fixation time was 25% higher than on the strong signifier pages, which shows the users had to look around more to get where they had to click. 

Strong-signifier version (left): Participants were asked to cancel their rental-car reservation on this page. The heat-map shows most fixations focused around the target tab (as indicated by the red area).
Weak-signifier version: (right) In addition to the focus on the target tab, this heat-map shows many fixations concentrated on the footer links, promotional items, and other items on the reservation form near the target tab. The increased focus on the weak page’s footer is especially troubling, because it’s a signal that the users were getting desperate.

The results of the study were very clear. For a good usability and user experience, you need an easy, seamless, enjoyable and overall intuitive design. The users should understand their options and possible actions immediately, because designs with weak clickability signifiers waste time and patience. The potential negative consequences of weak signifiers are diminished when the site has a low information density, traditional or consistent layout, and places important interactive elements where they stand out from surrounding elements. So it really depends whether (ultra) flat or flat-ish design is suitable or not.

But now back to neumorphism, what is its potential and where are its weaknesses?

There was a huge hype around neumorphic design in 2020, but also some criticism due to its usability. Based on the research about signifiers and the supporting study, I analyzed why there could be problems and how these problems define themselves. Is neumorphism just pretty, but not usable? 

The three simple actions associated with flat design are: click, move and swipe. When a shadow is placed behind a card element in flat design, the distance to the background is shown and makes it a floatable card. This gives a movable feeling to the cards, so users are more likely to interact with them, not just clicking, but also swiping or moving them. This is something the user has learned from his past experience with technical devices and interfaces, but it’s also an intuitive approach. 

In comparison to that, neumorphic UI elements attach themselves firmly on the ground. This creates the effect, that the user is sure it can’t be moved, because its attached. The neumorphic design can somehow mislead people to perceive the components function in the wrong way and gives a missleading signifier to the user. It conveys that things are constant, even though things like a dropdown-menu are temporarily. The actions that usually are intended to do get lost because of the clinginess of components to the surface.

On the other side, due to the skeuomorphic elements in neumorphism it’s so much easier to understand actions like toggle, buttons, sliders or even joysticks. These are real world signifiers, that lead to an intuitive action on the user’s side.

This solves lots of clickability and click uncertainty problems, which is something that flat design is struggling with, as I mentioned previously in the summary of the study of Kate Moran. She uncovers that flat design often uses weak signifiers due to the minimalistic elements. 

In neumorphism, there is only a small but meaningful color palette. One color is only used for interactive elements, one for active or inactive states and so on, which increases the findability of interactive elements or certain states. The color palette makes these elements stand out from the surface and save a lot of time to find and interact with them. As it has been said in many other articles, the main problem with neumorphism is accessibility. The components don’t have a proper contrast ratio with the background. That is because many practices of neumorphism design only use the shadows and subtle changes in transparency to differentiate components and hierarchy which don’t have proper contrast ratio with the background.

Personally I think, neumorphism is a fresh, modern, flat and minimal 3D-design which is very meaningful, because the skeuomorphic design elements are very intuitive to use. It will not be applicable to every website or app, especially when you have a lot of (complex) content. But most certainly it would be a great opportunity to use it for simple applications, like a calculator app, compass or even the general app overview on smartphones. It works best with clear interactive elements like sliders, buttons and toggles so it could also work great for smart home apps or music production. It definitely needs some adjustments to make it more usable and clear, but it is evolving and has a lot of potential to conquer the design world and give it a new modern touch. 

Sources:

Signifiers, not affordances
https://jnd.org/signifiers_not_affordances/ (19.01.2021)
by Don Norman, published in ACM Interactions, volume 15, issue 6

Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-ui-less-attention-cause-uncertainty/ (19.01.2021)
by Kate Moran

Anti-neumorphism or pro-neumorphism? Well, here is a better solution
https://uxdesign.cc/anti-neumorphism-or-pro-neumorphism-here-is-a-better-solution-f7bd18f22fb5 (19.01.2021)

Images:

image01 and image02: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-ui-less-attention-cause-uncertainty/ (19.01.2021)

image03: https://dribbble.com/shots/9527558-Freebie-Neumorphic-UX-UI-Elements (19.01.2021)

image04: https://dribbble.com/shots/8568745-Smart-Home-App (19.01.2021)

image05: https://dribbble.com/shots/9544415-Playlists-Simple-Music-Player (19.01.2021)

video01: video: https://dribbble.com/shots/13241875-Neumorphic-Joystick (19.01.2021)

video02: https://dribbble.com/shots/10494263-Skeuomorph-Smart-Home-App (19.01.2021)



by Benedicte Rozant -

Clumsy Interactions through everyday objects 05: Is it dependent on the user?

We have identified in the previous articles that clumsy interactions depend largely on a bad concept of an object, but let’s not forget that during an interaction there are at least two interacting elements: the human and the object. Thus we can wonder what is the place of the human in the clumsiness. Today we attribute to a human the responsibility of a clumsy interaction is when an incident occurs and that his action is questioned, we speak of human error. It is estimated that 75 to 95% of industrial accidents are caused by human error. However, we can wonder if the error really comes from human beings, perhaps it is a bad design that has not been detected? This is what we will try to understand in this article.

Origin of the Errors

What is human error? It is a drift of a so-called “appropriate” behavior. This drift comes from the fact that the so-called appropriate behavior is not known or is only defined after the fact.
Today, there are several factors at the origin of human errors, the most common one comes from the nature of the tasks we have to do, which may require a mechanical behavior: to remain attentive over too long a period of time or to follow procedures that are much too specific. As we said earlier, when we create an object or a mechanism, we very easily take into account the physical limitations because they are tangible, the mental limitations remain intangible and much more difficult to apprehend. Without them our mental conceptual model is inconceivable. However, if we are unable to develop a conceptual model, it amounts to asking a user to behave artificially. In our example, we did not consider the idea that the resemblance between the buttons and their layout made them identical and therefore the distinction between the commands was impossible.

When an error occurs, it can cause various effects, serious or not, such as injury, financial loss, or material damage. This error, therefore, needs an explanation, we are looking to find its cause, not to understand it. And that is how some errors become human errors. Let’s take the example of a person who works in a warehouse, one night when leaving he makes a mistake with some orders and instead of closing the doors he opens one. The next day, when he returns to the warehouse, he realizes that things were stolen because the door was open. This person will be designated as the culprit, so he will be considered the cause of the problem. However, this reasoning is erroneous because we have not considered here that there could be more than one cause for a mistake and that the person responsible for the problem may only be the immediate cause and not the root cause of the problem, which is the underlying cause.

We must try to understand why this error occurred so that we can find a real solution.
It is with this goal of discovering that it is the root cause of an error that Japanese people use the Kaizen method called “the five whys”. This means that there can always be a cause hidden behind another cause and that one can find the root cause by asking the question why 5 times. This is a very efficient process and must be done by a team close to the field.

Now that we have a first approach to the root cause of an error we need to understand its link with humans. Generally speaking, an error is not considered as a technical problem or a bad design, it is seen as a personal failure, which means that we do not have the ability to understand how to interact well. A person making an error will therefore tend to blame himself and be blamed yet if we make errors it is because the design focuses on the needs of the system and not those of humans. So we may make errors out of fear of making them or out of fear of being held responsible for some of them.

Slips and Mistakes

Human error can be divided into two categories: slips and mistakes. “Slips occur when a person tries to do one action and ends up doing another. A mistake occurs when the goal set is not the right one or when the plan is not correct,” defines Don Norman.
These types of error do not occur at the same stages of the action. It is important to understand that an action is divided into 7 stages which are divided into two distinct categories: the first one is instinctive and subconscious and the second one is perceived and conscious. The failures correspond to the subconscious stages of action and the misunderstandings to the conscious ones.

Slips are mostly everyday mistakes: when we are used to doing a task, we tend to do it automatically and therefore lack attention, so we can make the wrong action. For example, I go to work every morning turning right, on Saturday I have to run my errands going left, yet I go right. These misfires can lead to clumsy interactions if the design doesn’t take them into account. So designers should avoid procedures that are similar and start with the same steps because there is a risk of confusing them.
Mistakes are due to a human decision. They happen when we are faced with a new situation that does not fit our routine. We are going to have the first type of mistake when we use a new device that we think we know because we had one that looked like it, in this case, the mistake comes from the fact that we are going to use it based on the knowledge of our first device and it may be inappropriate. The second type of mistake comes from a rigid and underdeveloped procedure. For example, I instruct security guards to block anyone who runs out if the guards follow this procedure in case of fire and everyone stays in the burning building.

The user may be responsible

So far, we have been able to understand that what we mostly call human errors are in fact design errors generating awkward interactions. However, this is not the case for all human errors. The human is responsible when the root cause corresponds to a deliberate action on his part. For example an alcoholic person causing an accident is responsible for it and the design of the car is not to be questioned.

Conclusion

There is a tendency to label all awkward interactions as a human error even though they have a conceptual origin, human error should only correspond to inappropriate and deliberate behavior.
We were therefore able to establish a link between the user and his role in the generation of awkward interactions. All this allows us to understand that when we design something, we need to create disaster scenarios in order to detect potential awkward interactions and avoid them.

Definition, In progress

  • A Clumsy interaction doesn’t happen at the moment we use the object, it was there before and can come from the designer and his personal vision of the use of the object.
  • A Clumsy interaction can depend on the conception of an object and more specifically on the design of the experience related to this object when trying to manipulate it, activate it, make it work, and understand it.
  • A Clumsy interaction has several causes, one of which is mostly conceptual. When the origin of the awkward interaction is inappropriate and deliberate behavior, it is then a human error of the user.

Sources :
Book: The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman, 2020

by Lukas Franz -

Getting into your mind

To achieve the aim of benefitting mental well-being, behavioral science and its application to design are essential. Understanding how choices are made is crucial to change user behaviors. To do so, I will take a closer look into heuristics and the behavioral design toolbox.

“Humans run, and ruin, the world, and behavioral science helps us understand and drive changes in human behavior.”

– Monica Parker
Founder, HATCH Analytics

Heuristics

To simplify our day-to-day decision making and to speed up thinking, we use cognitive “shortcuts”. There is a great variety of shortcuts, but here are some teasing examples:

Social proof:
Have you ever matched a response of another person to a social media post, even though you didn’t truly feel the same way? The reason for that is, that being social animals makes us constantly search for social proof and the reward of the tribe.

Availability:
People create judgments only based on their available information. I.e. hearing of multiple plane crashes in the news might make you cancel upcoming flights. Because plane crashes are relatively rare it could be seen as an incorrect evaluation but generally, the availability heuristic also allows us to draw quick conclusions when needed.

Priming:
If you read the word EAT, how would you likely complete the word fragment SO_P? Even if you don’t intend to, external stimuli such as words or body language prime your idea of something.


Behavioral Design Techniques

Optimal challenge
If you make a task too easy for someone they might not continue and if you make it too difficult you could induce fatigue or surrender. The right balance between difficulty and ease of use engages users and makes them achieve their goals.

Personalization
To predict and change behavior machine learning utilizes your data and learns about you. Asking for preferences and making recommendations will make up for a personalized experience you are likely to revisit.

Stopping rules
I oftentimes don’t notice how much time has passed when scrolling through Instagram, which is due to the infinite scroll. It is by design that we don’t know when to stop consuming more content. If you want to reduce the habit of the user you can use the stopping rule vice versa.

Takeaway

UX designers have to ensure that products are being created with fairness and positivity in mind. Heuristic and behavioral design techniques should be applied for beneficial purposes to the users only. The last decades have shown us the tremendous power of applied behavioral science to do good. Applications save our time and some products even save lives. But recently shady manipulations have risen to change our behavior just to consume and gain profit for the industry. It is our responsibility as designers to work on our code of ethics to consider the consequential outcome of our designs.

References:
https://medium.com/behavior-design-hub/behavioral-design-2020-and-beyond-dc88a87f3b97

https://uxdesign.cc/the-behavioural-design-toolbox-of-20-ideas-and-techniques-3372d31f2803

https://uxdesign.cc/getting-into-the-minds-of-our-users-c5500b49da92

by Alice Lemontey -

BPE of Science centers in Austria 1

I will continue the exploration of a few Best Pratice Examples (BPE) by showing in those 2 articles an analysis of two science centers I had the chance to visit here before lockdown in Graz and Salzburg.

The COSA Science Center of Graz

In december, I could go through the COSA science center of Graz during around 2 hours. Unfortunately, I could’nt access to the AR/VR part because of covid restriction, but I could go through the main rooms and get the main idea of the museum here.

Entry of the COSA building. On the yellow print you can have an overview of the topics presented in the science center.

There are different rooms in the COSA Center. In the Experimentarium, you can find a lot of hands on approaches and explanations about scientific phenomenas. I’ll detail the medecine experince presented in the cosa MedLab. You can also learn about technology and how are made cars.

I could only attend those, but the science center also proposes special exhibitions and contents through the COSA Plus program and COSA community. Those are social events when you can talk to different partners or guests, and there is also some special workshops and sciences show where professional can explain experiments.

Example of Science Show of the COSA museum
Cosa Community place where you can seat, discuss and practice hands-on experiments

The Experimentarium

We accessed the exhibit with a guide and an other familie. He explained us a bit about the content of each room and then we could go through the content freely and separated from the other familie and guide due to the corona situation.

Entrance of the exploratorium room

Hands-on best practice example : learn how to be a doctor in the MedLab

Material to start the experience

When entering this room I was particularly interested in this hands-on play approach where you are supposed to play a doctor. I was really impressed by the realism and details it got, and It really reminded me some parts of my previous biology cursus. This experience starts with this desk where you can pick up a pencil and a tablet. Then you can enter the rooms where sits the patients and pick one of them to play the doctor with.

First I took the paper here, then I went next to the patient and put the headphones on. When putting it ou can hear the story of the patient. Mine went trough a journey in the wild and went back with terrible stomachaches.

Detail paper of the patient where you can collect informations for further analysis
Monitor next to the patient

In the headphone it is explained that you can write the informations here and you have to take a blood sample. This part was really funny because the model had fake blood in it and I could really take something from its body so it added realism in the gesture.

Then, you have to enter to the analysis where you will have to make some research with the sample, and gather information.

Pictures of the hands-on experiment on the website

I knew how to proceed until this step but got a little blocked through the analysis room. I remember that I didn’t understood how to analyze the blood sample, I was quite afraid to break the material. It would have been great to have more explainations about this part, but everything else was really comprehensible.

Monitor where you can search for different types of sickness and find symptomes associated

After my researches through the monitor I thought I had the good diagnostic, but couldn’t be really sure since I didn’t have the feedback from the blood sample analysis. The last step was to use those screen to note everyinformation. I remember that everything was in German so it was quite complicated to note every information. I think I would definitely have less problem if some english information where written.

Hands-on pratice example : what is green energy ?

After exploring the Experimentarium space, I went throught the sustainability room. Here is an other ambiance, with a lot of information on the wall. The graphics were really great but I think it was a bit too much to understand quickly the goal of each device. We could’nt really tell the difference between usefull explainations for the experiences and just basic information and drawing about the topic.

When entering this room, you have to collect a connected lamp, which allows you to access to the experiments. I liked the idea because it showed the physical aspect behind energy.

One of the wall you can see entering the room. As you can see there are many informations

I tried to get through this activity and really had problems. Every information was written in German again, and the main information about the experiment was hidden under this round block, which was not really logical. An other thing that really confused me was that what seems like an ipad, was non interactiv. I finally understood that the goal of the experiment was to put the phones you can see here on the tablet, which is not what you are expected to do when seeing a tablet. So it reminded me that in order for an experiment to work, you always have to consider the affordance of the device you are using, and here the tablet was non appropriate for me. I would have understood if it was something like the lamp example we showed before. An other thing, was this old phone that I found quite unpractical because it needed my left hand. I would have prefered a headphone as it was used for the other experiments.

Experiment to compare phones and their energy consuption

Underneath you can see a bicycle experiment, which I understood as a sensibilisation to consider more about cyclists and showing it as a good way to save energy.

Picture of the activity from the website

At the end of the room, you can have an otherview of all your results through the key you used for all activites. I liked the idea and sensibilisation behind it.

Summary/tracking of all your datas collected on the different experiments through the sustainability room

Hands on approach : what is a car anyway ?

In the Cosa technology space, you can develop your own vehicle and get to know the technical components. I find it was really explaining the process behind the construction of the car : through the design that we can see on this print on the wall, to the engineering part with the material construction.

Dark box : escape pause through the space and sea

To finish my journey in the museum, I went trough the dark space big media installation. I was really impressed by the setup and really appreciated the experience. It allowed me to relax and change environment. I think this part is more entertaining than teaching, I can’t say I really rememberd the content about the story, but it was still appreciating.

Dark room

Conclusion about the Cosa :

I was really impressed by the COSA center and would definitely like to go back to it with more time, and with all the facilities opened. The strenght of this museum for me, are the hands-on approaches and vision of a few professions related to science with the medical experiment and the car building. I could find a lot of similitudes between this museum and the previous example about the exploratorium because it axed on the hands on approach, there was an explainer and the center also proposes diverses activies and shows. The negative points were for me the accessibility to non german speaking people, the lisibility of information, and a few some affordance problems : there was a lot of information in each room and the hierarchy between the titles and content were not really visible. An other thing for me was the experience during the corona situation. I felt a bit unsecure doing the experiments since there was many hands on approaches, and I really question myself about the close future of science centers if this pandemie continues on a long term level.

Through this visit I really understood the social aspect behind science center. I think I may be part of those people which learn through interaction of social person and by mimicking things. Since I experienced problems without any guide (which was due to the corona situation), I really think it is something to take in account when designing an exhibition, in particular in science center. It reminds me of the questions about learning I mentioned at the begining of this subject about : what are the different types of learning, and how to imply every type in an exhibition ?

To finish, an other point to take into consideration is the affordance, continuity and conceptual models we have with the devices. It reminded me those principles from the Don Norman book , the design of everyday things that I read for my research on the portemonnaie project.

Sources :

https://www.museum-joanneum.at/en/cosa-graz

Don norman, the design of everyday things

by Sabine Probst -

The Environmental Film Activist Handbook | entry nine

Conservation Psychology (part 1)

„Humanity faces environmental challenges on every level from local to global. Human population growth and human activities are negatively affecting the ecological process that support life as we all know it, and the effect of these changes on human well-being will be profound. Recent quantitative assessments of the human impact on nature give a sobering picture; the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that about 60% of the earth’s ecosystem services are being used unsustainably. Using ecological footprint methodology, the Global Footprint Network has calculated that humanity’s load on the biosphere is about 150% of earth’s capacity, up from 70% in 1961. These trends result from individual behavior patterns as well as from the societal infrastructure constituted by our institutions, governance systems, and ways of interacting. At staked are two inextricably linked sets of values: concern for the present and the future quality of human lives and care about the vitality of the biosphere and its other inhabitants.“ (Conservation Psychology: Understanding and promoting human care for nature, second edition, Susan Clayton and Gene Myers, 2015, p.1)

“Conservation Psychology is defined as the use of psychological techniques and research to understand and promote a healthy relationship between humans and the natural environment.“ (Indirect quote, Conservation Psychology: Understanding and promoting human care for nature, second edition, Susan Clayton and Gene Myers, 2015, p.2)

„Conservation Psychology seeks to direct rigorous research toward the goal of sustainability and the rely on the results of that research to make recommendations about specific techniques.“ (Conservation Psychology: Understanding and promoting human care for nature, second edition, Susan Clayton and Gene Myers, 2015, p.2)

by Markus Weber -

Warum Proceduralism in 3D Art?

Ziel bzw. Aufgabe von Proceduralism ist, Assets, Texturen oder ganze Terrains zu generieren, um den Workflow zu vereinfachen und Projekte schneller umzusetzen, während aber Qualität und die Ideen der Künstler nicht aufgrund von automatisierten Prozessen verloren geht. Sie kann als helfende Hand gesehen werden, die bei der Umsetzung von kreativen Arbeiten behilflich ist.

Adolfo Reveròn: “Proceduralism focuses on creating procedures rather than assets, it provides a way of addressing workloads in a flexible way. With proceduralism, you can approach projects that would normally be too great in complexity or volume to do by hand. You can also address tasks that might require accuracy and lots of testing and iterations.”

Proceduralism bewegt dem Künstler oder 3D-Artist dazu, sich hauptsächlich auf den kreativen Output zu fokussieren, während der technische Hintergrund automatisiert vom Computer übernommen wird. Kleinere, sich ständig wiederholende Arbeitsprozesse gelangen ebenfalls in den Hintergund und die daraus gewonnene Zeit und Energie kann für weitaus einflussreichere Arbeiten genutzt werden.

Das Erstellen eines einzelnen 3D-Modells verbraucht unglaublich viel Ressourcen in Bezug auf Geld und Zeit. Eine etwas zu ironisch verstehende, aber durchaus treffende Darstellung von Andrew Price schildert die derzeitige Entwicklungslage in der 3D-Branche recht präzise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlgLxSLsYWQ

Nehmen wir als Beispiel die Häuserblocks her, welche im Hintergrund der Darstellung zu sehen sind. Jeder dieser Objekte folgt dem gleichen Schema. Lediglich kleine Unterschiedsmerkmale wie die Größe des Gebäudes, Anzahl bzw. Anordnung der Fenster und die Texturierung machen jedes dieser Objekte zu einem Unikat. Bei der Anwendung von Procedural Modelling würde man wie folgt vorgehen: Anstatt jedes Gebäude manuell von grundauf neu zu gestalten, werden verschiedene Parameter festgelegt, welche den daraus resultierenden Output formt – beispielsweise die Anzahl der Fenster, minimale/maximale Größe des Gebäudes oder Standorte bestimmter Elemente wie Türen und Beleuchtungsmöglichkeiten. Mit dieser Vorgangsweise werden unter Berücksichtigung aller eingestellten Settings zufallsbasierte 3D-Modelle generiert.

Ein sehr schönes Beispiel hierzu kreierte Anastasia Opara, welche mithilfe von Procedural Modelling ein Haus am See samt Dokumentation entwickelt hat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL4pKdahqbI

Proceduralism bietet also einen unglaublich großen Spielraum für Flexibilität in der 3D-Gestaltung wie in Games, Filmen oder allgemeinen VFX.

Adolfo Reveròn: “A single well-trained procedural artist is able to create a full world, environment or set of assets that would normally require a team of 3D artists in the past.”

Simon Kratz: Texturing: Simply put, you don’t create content manually by painting individual pixels by hand, but by defining a rule for the creation of each pixel.

by Esma Kurbegovic -

Dance Music Culture Pt. 3 – Mental Wellbeing Issues

In 2018 one event shook the electronic music scene- Avicii had committed suicide, shortly after his close friends reported how happy and inspired he seemed. He retired from playing shows and instead of getting better, it looks like he got worse. The event was quite a shock, but it lead to numerous other electronic musicians to take a break from music and focus on their mental health. Last year Eric Morillo (49) and i_o (30, one of my personal favourites) both committed suicide, along with countless others- the list is too long. What is behind these events? The trend is worrying and uncovers a dangerous truth hidden behind the DJ desks…

Mental health has always been a big issue in the music scene, especially after the rise of popularity in drugs. This is especially prevalent in the electronic/dance scene. The deadliest part of the whole story is the lack of sleep. DJs can sometimes play daily shows up to months at a time, leading to dangerous lack of sleep. They take drugs and drink alcohol in order to keep u with the crowd and also stop themselves from crashing. This is a vicious cycle that leads to many dying and those who survive experience total mental depletion. Burnout, depression and anxiety creep up onto touring DJs, especially on comedown from drugs, and this gets worse and worse with prolonged chemical abuse. On top of that, people in the industry do not seem to have proper support from experts, or refuse to listen until it’s too late.

A big problem in the music industry is that it is heavily populated with 2 high-risk groups- young, inexperienced people and people with previous mental health issues. Living such a high-paced life filled with dangerous temptations will quickly exaggerate mental disorders and on the other side overwhelm the young and developing mind, breeding many insecurities and mental struggles.

Having a public life is a very hard thing to deal with. The most notable example of this is Britney Spears’ breakdown. Though she is a pop star and not an electronic musician, this is quite relevant to this article, as Britney is a musician under heavy public scrutiny. She is a prime example how badly negative press can impact someone’s mental health. On top of that, she is still being controlled by her family and management to an extent. DJs are also heavily directed by their management and this often leads to them feeling powerless, even miserable.

i_o once mentioned in his Tweets how during the times of the pandemic, we can truly see how many people care for us. Those who do will check in on us daily and offer help in any form they can. Unfortunately, one of his last posts on instagram, with a caption “do u ever question ur life” wasn’t taken as a warning sign that he needs checking up on.

This documentary gives an insight behind the scenes and showcases interviews with iconic DJs, like Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Eric Morillo, Seth Troxler, Luciano and other, giving us an insight in how they feel being part of the business:

This second documentary is about the world’s “craziest” DJ, Fat Tony, who claims he had spent over a million pounds on drugs, during his 28 years of using. He clearly shows us how much problems drugs cause to DJs and multiply their mental health struggles:

This article is a reminder to frequently check on your loved ones and make action, don’t just leave them with a few empty words.

by Petra Vymazalova -

augmented reality – application for learning a language | 4

There are many devices or physical objects trying to include options for deaf or hard-hearing people. Currently apps for learning the sign language are mostly without AR so without objects or signing avatars which are computer-animated virtual humans built through motion capture recordings. As described in the previous blogs, there are options showcasing the content with videos or pictures and predominantly showing the hands. In videos on various apps and on YouTube real individuals are signing and their whole upper body is shown which is more helpful to get to know the language better.

Overall there are four phases which are important when learning the language of signing:

  1. First of all learn one chosen alphabet and fingerspell it
  2. Secondary learn common signs
  3. Afterwards or meanwhile phase 2 you will get to know and learn the grammar and stucture of sentences
  4. Lastly sign with other people

The final concept should educate on and help with phase 1, 2 and 3 to prepare for phase 4.

AR objects and avatars

AR possibilities and concepts which are currently developed to help the sign language learners differ depending on the showcased AR objects within the apps. As you can see in the next examples, some are using flashcards, physical cards you have to buy beforehand. The flashcards have different illustrations like hand guestures or fingerspelling to learn the alphabet. By hovering the smartphone over the cards avatars start to sign letters and words or augmented 3D objects appear to represent the sign (like a augmented bear or heart is appearing when the signs are showed).

It was interesting to see that most avatars occur as whole individuals. On one side the lower body does not contain any relevant information when looking at the facial expression and arms but on the other side it personifies the real conversation with a whole communication counterpart. In my opinion the facial expressions of the avatars in these examples are not recognizable enough even though they are essential. But it is difficult to animate mouth and facial movement and only with huge effort precise and realistic enough. After all it is significant to think about which information is important for the communication and learning process in the end. Also how objects or avatars should be displayed and animated or could be beneficial to include in the final concept. Furthermore should be analysed how AR could be used to support the learning process.

Examples

Sources

https://virtualrealitypop.com/learn-american-sign-language-using-mixed-reality-hololens-yes-we-can-e6e74a146564

https://child1st.com/blogs/resources/113559047-16-characteristics-of-kinesthetic-and-tactile-learners

This M’sian App Makes A Sign Language Class Out Of Cards, Complete With A Lil’ Teacher

by Katharina Berger -

Die Verwendung verschiedener Tonkonventionen in Traumsequenzen

Die optische Darstellung von veränderten Bewusstseinszuständen wurden schon in dem Blogpost „Die Ästhetik der Darstellung induzierter Bewusstseinsveränderungen im Film“ behandelt und auch auf das Thema Traumsequenzen wurde im Post „Die Verwendung von Traumsequenzen in narrativen Filmen“ schon eingegangen. Dieser Blogpost beschäftigt sich ebenfalls mit diesen Themen, beleuchtet jedoch nicht das Thema Bewegtbild sondern Sound.

Begleitmusik, Sound und Soundeffekte spielen schon seit den Anfängen der Filmgeschichte eine große Rolle. Schon als es nur Stummfilme gab wurden diese im Kino mit Musik begleitet. Der Film sowie der Stummfilm sind nämlich beides keine rein visuellen Phänomene. Filmmusik untermalt und verstärkt nicht nur die visuellen Reize von Filmen, sie schottet den Zuseher auch von seiner Umwelt ab und zieht ihn in die Handlung hinein. René Clair spricht bei diesem Phänomen auch von einer betäubenden Wirkung.[1] Gerade in Traumsequenzen kann der Sound ein kontroverses Thema sein. Um eine Abgrenzung zwischen Traumsequenz und Realitätseindruck zu schaffen gibt es zwei Herangehensweisen.[2]

  • Die erste beruht auf dem Hinzufügen von Klang und Klangobjekten. Dies kann einen Irritationsmoment auslösen und so den Traum als solchen kennzeichnen oder auch nur sehr subtil verwendet werden.
  • Die zweite nutzt genau das Gegenteil. Der Realitätseindruck wird durch eine Ausdünnung akustischer Reize abgeschwächt. Auch diese Möglichkeit kann von einer sehr subtilen Reduktion von Geräuschen bis hin zu Stille reichen.

Basierend auf diesen beiden Methoden können verschiedenste Gestaltungsmethoden und Tonkonventionen eingesetzt werden, die im Folgenden näher erklärt werden.

  1. Ausblendung von Umgebungsgeräuschen

Vor allem in urbanen Umgebungen kann fast von einer Reizüberflutung akustischer Reize gesprochen werden. Menschen sind permanent ihrer akustischen Umwelt ausgesetzt, was die Absenz von Geräuschen hervorstechen lässt und einen Kontrast zu den üblichen Umgebungsklängen darstellen kann. In Traumsequenzen können Geräusche langsam abklingen oder auch direkt in eine abrupte Stille übergehen.

  1. Stille

Wie auch das Ausblenden und die Reduktion von Umgebungsgeräuschen, stellt Stille einen starken Kontrast zur gewohnten Umgebung dar. Interessant an diesem Stilmittel ist, dass sich die Bilder durch das Fehlen der Audiospur nicht verändern. Meist ist der Ursprung der Geräusche, die zuvor gehört wurden, in der Traumsequenz aber nicht vorhanden sind, trotzdem weiterhin zu sehen.

  1. Fokus auf einzelne Geräusche

Nicht nur der Fokus auf die Stille, sondern auch der Fokus auf ein bestimmtes Element der Tonspur sticht aus üblichen Umgebungsgeräuschen hervor. Teile der Tonspur verstummen und rücken andere, zu diesem Zeitpunkt relevantere, in den Vordergrund. Flückinger spricht bei diesem Phänomen auch von einer antinaturalistischen Selektion.[3] Stille sowie die Konzentration auf ein bestimmtes Geräusch oder einen bestimmten Aspekt der Tonspur geht oft mit einem Blick nach Innen einher und richtet die Aufmerksamkeit eines Charakters oder auch der Zuseher auf sich. Beispiele dafür sind das Ausblenden aller Geräusche, ausgenommen dem Atem oder dem Herzschlag. Auch innere Monologe zählen zu diesem Phänomen. Meist wird der Fokus auf die Klänge gerichtet, die eine dramaturgisch wichtige Funktion einnehmen oder von großer Bedeutung für den betroffenen Charakter sind. Auch übertriebenes Lautstärkeempfinden ist abhängig von der Person und ihrer Wahrnehmung. Diese Stilmittel gehen oft mit visuellen Methoden wie einer Schärfeverlagerung, der Lichtsetzung oder Änderung der Einstellungsgröße einher.[4]

  1. Hall

Zu den häufig verwendetet klanglichen Traummarkierungen gehört auch der Hall. Besonders wenn vor dem Einsetzen dieses Stilmittels Stille geschaffen wird, weist Hall eine sehr besondere Klagcharakteristik auf. Um Hall noch zu verstärken wird oft auf visuelle Stilmittel, wie Doppelbelichtung oder verschwommene Bewegungen zurückgegriffen, was zu einer Verdichtung von auditiven Informationen führt.[5]

  1. Dröhnen und Grollen

Diese klanglichen Auswüchse von Naturphänomenen kommen vor allem bei der Darstellung von Albträumen zum Einsatz, da sie einen bedrohlichen Eindruck machen und sich so direkt auf die Spannung einer Szene auswirken. Der Zuschauer empfindet dadurch die gleiche Angst und Aufregung, wie auch der Protagonist der Szene.

  1. Veränderung des Frequenzbereichs

Ein weiteres Stilmittel zur Abgrenzung eines Traums von der Realität ist die Verlagerung der akustischen Reize in tiefe Frequenzbereiche. Die dadurch gekennzeichnete Wahrnehmungsveränderung wird dadurch erreicht, dass die Klänge in höheren Frequenzbereichen, die für die Präsenz eines Klanges verantwortlich sind, herausgefiltert werden.

  1. Ton-Bild-Inkongruenz

Einige der bereits genannten Tonkonventionen können auch unter dem Begriff Ton-Bild-Inkongruenz zusammengefasst werden. Das Aufheben der Synchronität zwischen Bild- und Tonspur schafft es, dem Ton eine zusätzliche Funktion zu geben. Der Ton kann dadurch etwas suggerieren, das im Bild nicht wahrzunehmen ist. Auch ein Zeitunterschied oder eine zeitliche Verschiebung von Bild und Ton kann hierbei zum Einsatz kommen und fällt unter Ton-Bild-Inkongruenz.[6]

  1. Externe Reize als Zusatz

Die letzte Tonkonvention, die in Traumsequenzen häufig verwendet wird, auf die näher eingegangen werden soll, ist der Zusatz von externen Reizen aus der Wachwelt. Wie auch in realen Träumen, können Geräusche aus der realen Welt in Träume integriert werden und andere Funktionen einnehmen. Erst das mehrfache Wiederholen eines Geräusches schafft es eine Verbindung zwischen dem Traum und der realen Welt zu schaffen und den Charakter der Traumsequenz aufzuwecken.

So unterschiedlich die visuellen Stilmittel und Abgrenzungsmerkmale von veränderten Bewusstseinszuständen, wie zum Beispiel Träumen sein können, so unterschiedlich sind auch die auditiven Tonkonventionen. Wichtig ist nur der Kontrast zwischen realer Welt und Traumsequenz. Auf welche Art sich diese Beiden unterscheiden und wie die Grenze gezogen wird ist von Film zu Film unterschiedlich.

[1] Brütsch, Matthias: Traumbühne Kino. Der Traum als filmtheoretische Metapher und narratives Motiv, Schürer 2010, S. 36f

[2] Nguyen, Michael: Veränderte Bewusstseinszustände. Subjektivierung und Traumdarstellung im Filmton, ungedruckte Bachelorarbeit, Fachhochschule Dortmund 2017, S. 83

[3] Flückinger, Barbara: Sound Design. Die virtuelle Klangwelt des Films, Schürer 2012, S. 407ff

[4] Nguyen, Michael: Veränderte Bewusstseinszustände. Subjektivierung und Traumdarstellung im Filmton, ungedruckte Bachelorarbeit, Fachhochschule Dortmund 2017, S.89ff

[5] Nguyen, Michael: Veränderte Bewusstseinszustände. Subjektivierung und Traumdarstellung im Filmton, ungedruckte Bachelorarbeit, Fachhochschule Dortmund 2017, S.94

[6] Nguyen, Michael: Veränderte Bewusstseinszustände. Subjektivierung und Traumdarstellung im Filmton, ungedruckte Bachelorarbeit, Fachhochschule Dortmund 2017, S.104f

by Katsiaryna Palishchuk -

Redesign of familiar things

One of the most hackneyed sources of inspiration for young people is Michael Tonet’s long-suffering chair No. 14.

Designers turn it not only into other chairs, but also into things that are fundamentally different in type. The Englishman Darren Lago, for example, decided that such a recognizable object could be used as a lamp and just screws the bulbs to it.

Designer Ron Gilad has used scaled-down models of the chair, made of steel, for the wardrobe legs and bench, that he created for the Adele-C brand.

The fate and legacy of Charles and Ray Eames was redesigned as well.
Designer Carl Sanford modified the chair to use a garden wheelbarrow as a seat.

The sovereignty of designer products  — hat was suggested by the German Hiob Haaro, who released a crystal souvenir ball, inside which, instead of the usual snowman or the Eiffel Tower, there is a Juicy Salif juicer designed by Philippe Starck.

Czech designer Jan Čtvrtník has created a new version of Alvar Aalto’s famous vase, which aims to remind the world of the challenges of global warming.

The outer contour of the vase (sketched by Aalto from the outlines of one of the Finnish lakes) remained the same, but the inner one shows how the lake should have shrunk over the past decades.

And last, but not the least, the Englishman Michael Eden remade the classic Wedgwood vase.

He chose the same material for its new interpretation — porcelain, but instead of burning the vase in the oven, he printed it on a 3D printer. To highlight the possibilities of modern technology, Eden painted the vase in acid colors.