Learn how to design better user experiences and user interfaces with this introductory presentation on the fundamentals of Visual Perception and cognitive psychology.
2. I have Expereince in:
Game Designer
Game Tester
Web Designer
Teacher: Highschool
College Professor
Graphic Designer
Theraputic Mentor
Web Programmer
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4. What is Visual Perception?
The ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing
information that is contained in visible light. The resulting percep-
tion is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision (adjectival form: visu-
al, optical, or ocular)
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5. Visual memory
is the ability to retain information over an ade-
quate period of time.
Visual sequential memory
is the ability to perceive and remember a se-
quence of objects, letters, words, and other
symbols in the same order as originally seen.
Visual form constancy
is the ability to recognize objects as they
change size, shape, or orientation.
Visual spatial skills
refer to the ability to understand directional
concepts that organize external visual space.
These skills allow an individual to develop spa-
tial concepts, such as right and left, front and
back, and up and down as they relate to their
body and to objects in space.
A
B
Center Focus/ Field of Vision
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6. Visual Focus / Peripheral Vision Activity
Grab a small handful of LEGOs
Keep your head stright in front of you
Play with the LEGOs
Turn your head sideways so that you can only see the LEGOs in your
peripheral vision
The Takeaway
Notice how hard it is to handle objects
Peripheral vison is used for detecting motion, environmental awareness.
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7.
8. Bottom Up Processing
Object cented Theories
Geons are the simple 2D or 3D forms such as cylinders, bricks, wedges,
cones, circles and rectangles corresponding to the simple parts of an ob-
ject in Biederman’s Recognition-by-components theory. The theory pro-
poses that the visual input is matched against structural representations
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9. Top Down Processing
Our brains make the best guess to what
we are seeing. Built on our expereinces/
prior knowledge
Assume illumination is coming from top
Vantage paint important calvin@interfaceawesome.com
10. Top Down/ Bottom Up Processing Activity
Read drawing prompt
Sketch object on white paper
Trace over drawing marking just the intersection points like illustrated
below but dont add numbers. This is supposed to be hard.
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11. The Takeaway
Keep your form language consistant and clearly differentiated contrast is key.
Extensive User Testing in improtant: Age and culture variance very important.
Use established patterns button design patterns
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12. Cone Distribution / Color Sensitivities
Color is a physiological and psychological response to light
Most sensitive to green wavelength: distiguish more shades
Red spectum has the most overlap with the other wavelengths triggered more often
Blue least sensitive
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13. Luminance Or Brightness
Luminance is comparative
Based on available light
Determines Focus
Value is more important than hue
contrast
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14. Overlap or Occlusion
Visual Field Position
Familiar Size: Human Scale
Texture Gradient: Degradation of
fidelity
Atmospheric Perspective
The Gleaners - Jean Francois Millets
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15.
16. Bibliography
Cognition The Thinking Animal (Person Pretence Hall 2007)
The Color Sensitive Cones
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/colcon.html
Bleicher, Steven (2005). Contemporary Colour: Theory & Use. New York: Delmar. pp. iv, 23, 24.
ISBN 978-1-4018-3740-2.
De Craen, A. J.; Roos, P. J.; Leonard De Vries, A.; Kleijnen, J. (1996). “Effect of colour of drugs: Sys-
tematic review of perceived effect of drugs and of their effectiveness”. BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 313
(7072): 1624–1626. doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7072.1624. PMC 2359128. PMID 8991013.
Dolinska, B. (1999). “Empirical investigation into placebo effectiveness” (W). Irish Journal of Psy-
chological Medicine 16 (2): 57–58. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
“Blue streetlights believed to prevent suicides, street crime”. The Seattle Times. 2008-12-11.
Shimbun, Yomiuri (December 10, 2008). “Blue streetlights may prevent crime, suicide”.
Can Blue-Colored Light Prevent Suicide?
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