Improving concept 2- for testing

• We fade the color of  the road and water, which help people focus on the circle.Make some simple 3D models that stands for the real buildings.
• Remove the  geometrical shapes of the icons. Just leave the symbols.
• In order to highlight the circle, we put it upon the map.
• Adjust the space between the icons.

We hope this concept can work well and we will test it.

Movie storyboard

London subway map

In this subway map, passengers can make decisions on the routes easily.We can learn a lot from this map.

How will we improve our concept?

Because we really don't know how to improve our final concept, we consult with Visser. By his advices, we make clear about what we should do next about our concept.

• All the roads and water, etc in the city map is so obvious that make the maps a little distracting. Therefore, we should try to make it more delicate. We will design another visual system to avoid it.  The graphical presentation of the subway of london is a good example. This is not about the location, but about the routes and about the decisions the passenger can make on the route.

• We will discuss whether it is useful to present the real buildings in 3D. Are the geometrical shapes important? Maybe we could think of an icon or 3D-expression which represents the building.(Like our first concept)

• The assignment is developing a graphical system. We will decide on which parts of visual communication we should focus. The goal is to have a 'game' with tourists in Delft, so our map should attract people's attention and help them to make a decision for route P or K. All the visual cues used in our concept should manipulate or stimulate the decision for route P or K. Therefore, we should abstract your concept, make it balanced, less crowded and develop a visual system.

Improving concept-3 ideas

In our last concept, the icons are separated from the circle, which maybe make people feel uncomfortable. The gradient of the circle may be not obvious for people. Further, there is not obvious difference between route p and route k. We think people couldn’t recognize the two routes. In order to deal with these potential problems, we would improve our concept again. We have three new versions based on the previous concept.

Version1

 route p

route k

• Put the icons together with the circles.
• Abandon the use of color gradient in the circle.
• Indicate the routes by different color and transparency.

Version2

 route k

route p

In this version, we indicate the routes by icons' colors and shadows.

Version3

In the version 3, the way of indicating is saturate.

• The clockwise is route k. The anti-clockwise is route p.
• The icon saturates of every route are all from dark to light.

We don't know which one is better. We will test them or ask Visser.

Improving concept1

After some long hours of struggle we managed to
develop our concept into a colorful design!

Curious for your reaction!

- Elien

Test Procedure Final Design

Test:

We want to know if our design is clear to unfamiliar people with the assignment, therefore we setup a test with around 20 volunteers. The test will be held with people from outside Delft, in order to be sure volunteers do not answer the questions with their insight of the area. There will be two different kind of test sessions; interviewing people by the use of a computer (behind a desktop or the use of Skype) and face-to-face. The use of a computer screen will symbolize the LCD-screen placed on the central station of Delft. Using Skype will also enable us to interview foreign people which are not even familiar with the Netherlands. The procedure will be the same in both sessions:

The procedure:
For about 10 seconds, the volunteers get to see both versions of the final design followed by this question: 'Do you see any conspicuous differences between these two presentations?'

• If yes; what are the differences between the two maps? If no; could you indicate what you see in these two images? 

After the introduction of both maps, randomly one version of the final design (could be route K or P) will be shown with the question; 'You are going to visit Delft for shopping and visiting museums. Which route do you choose, route K or P?

• The answer of the respondent should indicate if they are aware that the K stands for ‘Museum route’ and P for ‘shopping route’. 

The remaining of the interview can be used to ask more specific questions like; Is the map clear? the size, use of colors, contrast etc? Is the meaning of the icons clear? Etc…

  

And off course, any comments suggestions during the or after the interview are welcome!

Maps of Delft

Do you want to know the development of the maps of Delft?
Come here and you will find more interesting things!

Improving concept1-work in progress

We got some useful advice after the presentation on Tuesday. Based on that  we will improve our concept in the following days.

1. Put a general circle on the map but this circle can't stand for the route.
2. Use color saturation because the color hue in our previous concept make the map not clear.
3. Make a new concept by merging the best ideas of the 2 previous concepts.
4. Choose the best ideas in the previous concepts:

• 3D buildings
• Pictures matching buildings
• Increasing scale of pictures from START to END

Development of Initial ideal 1

These are the first concepts for the pedestrian maps to explore the City Center of Delft.

Both the maps start from the Central Station of Delft and show two different versions, one clockwise for the ‘Museum Route’ and one anticlockwise for the ‘Shopping Route’. The ‘Museum Route’ is the map you can find with the name ‘Route K’. The ‘Shopping Route’ with ‘Route P’.

Concept 1

What we implemented in the first concept is a gradient of color. This gradient is showing the subtle differences in the clockwise and anti-clockwise route.  Furthermore the important spots in the city center have been transformed in 3D objects. This will not only draw more attention to the readers, but it also functions simultaneously as a landmark. The red dots next to the important buildings indicate the tourists to be aware and look around on the map for the specific activity / landmark.  

The shopping bag should not be visual on the final design, it was just a temporary filling for a ‘shopping activity’. Otherwise it would be to obvious what is the shopping route.

Development of initial idea 2

For the development of CONCEPT #2 more than one VISUAL CUE was applied in order to convey VISUAL INFORMATION.


As a 1st pop-out effect, we used a white background for the buildings outside the "circle" opposed to a light grey for the inside, so that our area of interest could be visible without capturing all the users' attention. 


As a 2nd, more evident pop-out, the FOCUS POINTS were highlighted with color, to mark their importance inside the route. Color were applied to buildings as a reverted idea of "shading". 


A 3rd element to orient the user smoothly in the direction to proceed was provided by using the variation between yellow and purple in the color spectrum to indicate the path for route K, and the variation between yellow and dark green for route P.


A 4th element to enhance the direction of the route clockwise and anti-clockwise was the placement of pictures of the HOT SPOTS increasing in size from the beginning to the end of the route.


To avoid the use of arrows or other too-evident symbols, the pictures were matched to the HOT SPOTS of the map by applying the corresponding color as a shadow of each image, other than placing the images as close as possible to their map location.


These cues were drawn by the study of the book "Visual Thinking for Design", with special attention to chapters 2,3 and 4,for issues regarding pattern recognition and color perception.

A cool city map..

WHAT ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO?


This cool work of graphic design comes from the series of city neighborhood posters designed by Ork Inc., a company based in Chicago, Illinois..


Ork Inc. started their work in 2007 and by now many cities have been designed in this modern typographic and stylish way..


Check more here!




EMILIA

Interpretation

Mapping initial idea1

List of cultural spots(3D buildings, Route K)

• Prinsenhof Museum
• Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara
• Old church
• Vermeer centre
• New church
• Delft heart
• Stichting Museum Paul Tetar van Elven
• DOK centre
• Theatre
• Military Museum

List of shopping spots(red shopping bag, Route p)

• Market
• Beesten market
• Shopping Centre De Veste
• Zuidpoort
• Vesteplein
• Breestraat 

The conclusion of first meeting

At first we analyze the assignment, which  took us a lot of time. Because there are many confines, we got stuck. By brainstorm and discussion, we got two raw concepts.


We will put these elements into our design:

• building modle replace the symbols
• Size
• Saturation / contrast
• Orientation of the circle  

On this Thursday, we will put our first ideas into practice and compare which one is better.

Go,go,go!!!

The design task of assignment2

For assignment2 we have to design two different kind of maps. These maps show a tourist route through Delft. Though depending on the way you walk the route (clockwise versus anticlockwise), will influence the focus of this route (respectively ‘Cultural route’ versus ‘Shopping route’). 


We have to design two alternatives of this map, focusing on either the Cultural route or the Shopping route. The difference between these two versions should be subtle, in such the case that a tourist would not see the difference when he’s coming back the next day to do the route again.


These different versions of maps solve the problem of the fears of either shopkeepers of the city council. When only one rotation is presented, visitors to Delft will not have much time left for the last part of this circle. Therefore either the shopkeepers or city council would not benefit from tourists.

Starting this week, we will start designing and testing our two versions of this map. 


We will present our progress on this blog.

Evolving Spark Network

Hey everyone!

Saturady evening was Museums' Night in Rotterdam, and since I was in an arty/nerdy mood, I decided to check what was going on there.

I visited an interesting interactive installation at V2, "Evolving Spark Network", by artist and researcher Edwin van der Heide.

The overall feeling was of an extremely overexcited environment, sparkling and crackling lights and sounds in a compulsive matter. More than ten minutes inside and we would have had a heart attack :)

But the concept itself is quite attractive, under the insight wea re gaining about the HUMAN BRAIN NEURAL CONNECTIONS: the network of sparks represents the neurons of our brain, and can give a super interesting idea of the dynamism involved in processing perception into cognition..

Exhibition ends on March 14th, so if u wish to take part to this electrifying event, just drop by!


Emilia