GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE AGE OF

INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Prof. Martin SperkaFaculty of Informatics and Information Technology,

Slovak University of Technology, Slovakiamartin.sperka@fiit.stuba.sk

Anton StolarMatej Bell University,

Faculty of Humanities, Department of Fine Arts, Slovakia

stolar@fhv.umb.sk

Introduction:Traditional graphic design forms could (and evenshould) be practised by individuals depending ontheir relative skill, expertise and inclination. Recentdevelopment of traditional design as well as newmedia has expanded to new divisions,unprecedented collaborations and specializations innews intermediate fields. Currently a graphicdesigner connects various media into one multimediaform. Design and related disciplines as architecture,environmental design, programming production andother technical support staff are moving andchanging their meaning.

The goal of the paper is to explain, compare andshow new design terms within their appropriatecontexts, and to clarify the relationship among themon the background of the traditional significance. Thepaper aims at the analysis of contexts andconsequences, anticipation of the design process,human computer interface in digital environment, andunderstanding a designer´s role in the future.

We suppose that physical interface between usersand artificial systems (computers) will fade and moveto the mental interface according to the advances intechnology. The changes will determine the mannerof sharing information in mouldable advanced New

media environment according to user needs troughMetadesign /bottom-up/ together with the UserCentred Design /top-down/ to achieve commongoals.

1 Traditional mediaThe media before computer era /b.c./ are calledtraditional media – paper based, film, television,radio. We will concentrate op paper base dand sceentype media. The most important and the mostfrequented term in this era has been the graphicdesign, which was credited to W. A. Dwinggins, aletterer, calligrapher and type, book and advertisingdesigner as well as novelist, playwright an marionetteimpresa-rio, who in 1922 proposed the term asdefinition of his own multifaceted professional activity [1].

The original term was certainly broad enough term toinclude layout or board person, type-setter, airbrushartist, books illustrator. During the 1930s, graphicdesigners who were also involved in package andproduct design, as well as those who occupied inindustrial design called themselves ’designer forindustry’ [1]. The machine age led them to bring anew form of cross-disciplinary field, where the visualstyle and industrial production had to correspond(corporate identity). Independent design companytook responsibility for the conception and productionof complete projects rather than specialized aspectsof the whole. In the post war period, as dedicateddesign departments and so-called designlaboratories developed within progressivecorporations, cross-disciplinary programs grew inpopularity as well as necessity. The graphicdesigners had to know how their work fit into thelarger context. Originally stand alone disciplines wereintegrated into overall practices and designers had tobe fluent in much more than their own specialties.

Starting in the 1950s, in an effort to expand graphicdesign in the international business world, designersreferred to themselves with more inclusivedesignations ‘visual communicator, visual designer,graphic communicator, communications specialistetc.’ [1]. Yet even in 1990s, graphic disciplines weremore complex and seem to be identified but a lot ofchanges in graphic design and visual communication

(terms that are used interchangeably) again initiatedquestions about their meaning.

1.1 Graphic designThe Oxford English dictionary contains 24 definitionsof the word design. The most relevant are thephrases ‘to form a plan... to purpose or intend (athing) to be or do (something)...’[10]. Design is ofcourse a word with multiple meanings, but sometypical connotations in more established designdisciplines and in design theory include the parallelemergence of question and answer, the activity ofexploring possible futures, the synthesis of reasonand emotion, the intervention on many simultaneouslevels in a design situation.

Webster defines the graphic design ’…as the art orprofession of using design elements (as typographyand images) to convey information or create aneffect; also a product of this art’ [8]. The primarydefinition is simple about communicating to otherhuman beings through word and images. Generally,graphic design is the applied art of arranging imageand text to communicate a message.

The design process as a whole begins with the firstideas about a project and does not end until the printpiece is produced. The designer develops ideasinside the context of the objectives and user needs.The design process can be divided into a few relativeself-employed phases illustrated in Figure 1. Eachstep in each phase is affected by another and theymust occur before the next step can begin. All of thesteps in the process will occur whether it is by defaultor with purpose. Even though we don’t know a fulldefinition of the term graphic design, we canunderstand it trough its function and creation of thepaper media.

The graphic design effect in traditional media can bedivided according to paper media as an interfacebetween information and user of editorial, book,typography, advertising, corporate or environmentdesign, illustrated in Figure 1. Now in age ofexpanded media, it is not a sufficient way to definethe widening range of the graphic design opportunity.

Figure 1: Process of creation the paper mediaaccording to key phases.

1.2 LayoutTraditional graphic design directed the viewer’sattention through the layout. Layout is thearrangement, or composition, of elements in two-dimensional space. The OED explains that layout isthe act or process of planning or laying out in detail.Word lay out as verb is synonyms to such verbs asdesign, arrange, map (out), plan, set out [8].Designers often use a grid system to help withorganization of visual elements. Invisible linearextensions (subjective lines) are such a strong devicefor relating compositional areas that designers alsouse them in the form of grid system for the layout andorganization of blocks of type, logos, and graphicinformation [16].

Before the layout can begin, design decisions mustbe made about what elements will be included. Thefinal design becomes the model on which layoutdecisions are based, and the objectives establishedat the beginning of a project become the objectivesform the layout as well as the design. The system canbe applied to one image or made to relate acompletely corporate campaign. The modern layouthas involved from symmetrical page by experimentedand implicated visual perception principles.

Differences between traditional page and modernpage are linearity or the sequential organization ofinformation from ‘top to bottom’ [1] on the page.Linearity is based on scroll analogy in whichinformation is perceived as a continuous, sequentialflow. Modern layout disturbes linearity by the splittingthe text into several part – the introduction is on thefirst page (finished by the link to the next part) and therest continues on other pages. Introductory parts ofdiferent topics had also different visual styles.Howver this strategy, used in the newspapers issometimes disturbing, especially when reading largenewspapers in the bus, train or airplane causesdifficulties in turning the pages of the newspaper forthand back. Reading similar text layout on thecomputer monitor is much easier and requires justsimple pointing and clicking.

Layout is important issue in the urban andarchitectural design, where functional and eastheticalcriteria are merged together as well as in the designof microelectronics chips (functional criteria only). Inthe layout of Very Large Scale Integrated electronicscircuits exist many formal design theories, whichenable to automate this activity. The same can besaid about architecture (buildings, urban complexes),

Figure 2: Some graphic design disciplines inthe traditional media.

Book design

Typography

Advertising

Corporate design

Environment design

Editoral design

but where functional criteria are blurred by the socialand aesthetic issues and where formal andmathematically exact methods are not very used.There exist some attempts to automate layout in theWeb design as for example [17]. In more generalsense, layout of graphic document is a parallel to thespacial composition of the photography image. Bothare static. Time and space composition is typical foranimated cartoons or film (video). Dominantly timebased composition is typical for the written or spokentext and music. However written text can becomposed also spacially having additional visuallyaesthetic meaning. (Calligraphy). The same is validabout the music notation, which can be exploited asa visual artefact. All these media use basic elements(lexical or syntactic units) which are composed(according to some exact or intuitive) syntactic rules(the grammar of written text, design rules in 2Dlayout).

2 New mediaThe media post computer era (p.c.) are called Newmedia. The term New media has been used since the1970s by researchers leading social, psychological,economic, political, and cultural studies ofinformation and communication technologies [1].Webster defines New media as ‘…integration ofcomputers, computer networking, and multimedia.’Many definitions of New media or newcommunication technology are simply lists ofparticular technologies or systems or their features.Many focus on computing technology (or theconvergence of computing and telecommunications)and the sense of interactivity that New media giveusers. New time based media are often contrastedwith the, one-way information flows of traditionalmass media. The term New media on design fieldrepresents Web site and CD/DVD-ROM interfacedesign. Creating paper and screen based content isnow almost exclusively on digital platforms – online,offline - both broadband and narrow band, interactivetelevision, SMS, MMS, DVD, CD Rom, PC based orconsole specific such as Sony PlayStation, NintendoGame Cube and Microsoft Xbox. Therefore we willuse also alternative term Digital media.Generally, researchers concerned with technological,economic or behavioural issues have tended to

define New media in terms of system features andservices, industry structures or the psychology ofmedia users [2]. The only difference between currentand past practice is the type of work available. Whenthe internet was first invented, Web design consistedof a very basic markup language that included someformatting options, and the unique ability to linkpages together using hyperlinks. The Web in thesedays is a global hypermedia system but thedevelopment of increasingly sophisticatedtechnologies has fostered its use also a remotesoftware interface [5]. According to Garret ‘this dualnature has led to much confusion, as userexperience practitioners have attempted to adapttheir terminology to cases outside the range of itsoriginal application’.

Figures 3, 4 show more frequent disciplines thatcurrently fall under the graphic design or are areaswhere graphic designer is currently finding work as acollaborator in broader design activities. Among themare Web design and CD/DVD-ROM design, whichhas become an entry point for a wide range of artistand designers illustrated in Figure 3.

2.1 Information architectureThe phrase "information architecture" was used inthe 1960s, by R. S. Wurman, a man trained as anarchitect but who has become also a skilled graphicdesigner and the author, editor, and/or publisher ofnumerous books that employ fine graphics in thepresentation of information in a variety of fields. In hiscareer as an architect, became interested in mattersconcerning the ways in which buildings, transportutilities, and people worked and interacted with eachother in urban environments [14].

Information architecture in this time refers to theways in which information is arranged on a Web site.A simple method of information architecture is todraw a site map. A site map is a graphic view of theWeb site how the information in the web site isstructured, and how you get to it. Each box on the sitemap will eventually become a page of the site. AsWands [3] explains: ‘If there are multiple ways to geta box, there need be multiple navigational tools to getthere’.

The role of the architect is to work with the datastructure of the Web site. Information architects areresponsible for determining how the Web site willwork, what data formats are needed, determine whatcontent and functionality the site will contain, how theinformation is grouped, what expectations of theusers will be satisfied, specifies how users will findinformation in the site by defining its organization,navigation, labelling, and searching systems, whattype of programming and software are appropriate.

2.2 Information DesignAlso Known as Communication Design or GraphicCommunication Information design, at its mostrudimentary employs type and graphics to clarify andconcretise mostly no visual information, such as factsand figures. Disciplines like Scientific illustration andrecently Scientific (computer) visualization have thesame goal to visualize what is invisible.This is not anentirely new form. Some kinds of images have beenused throughout the century in public documents,

from scientific reports to high-school textbooks. Oversixty years ago, it was improved by German designerand social scientist O. Neurath [1]. The images werein stages transformed to universal graphic symbolsthat were used in charts, maps and graphs torepresent specific ideas. These images involved to‘pictorial sign symbols’ and structured to lexicons oficons used to clarify all kinds of data what are knownin these days [1].

Pictorial signs and symbols are used in traditionalgraphic design disciplines as well as navigationalbuttons on computer screens of software products,Web sites and CD/DVD-ROMs. The sign symbols oricons are only one small part of information design.According to Heller [1] information design ‘isconcerned with transforming data into information,making the complex easier to understand and touse’. Information design is a rapidly growingdiscipline that draws on typography, graphic design,applied linguistics, applied psychology, appliedergonomics, computing, and other fields. It emergedas an answer to people's need to understand and usesuch things as forms, legal documents, computerinterfaces and technical information.

Figure 3 shows a process of creation of the New mediaaccording to key phases.

Figure 4 depicts some new graphic disciplines to createthe interactive media.

Information design does not replace graphic designand other visual disciplines, but is the structurethrough which these capabilities are expressed [4].The role of the information designer is to guide usersaway from confusion into understanding of subjects.Information designers consider the selection,structuring and presentation of the informationprovider's message in relation to the purposes, skills,experience, preferences and conditions of theintended users. To do this they need specialistknowledge and skills in graphic communication andtypography, the psychology of reading and learning,human-computer interaction, usability research andclear writing, plus an understanding of the potentialand limitations of different media.

2.3 Navigation and interface designThe relationship between user and digitalenvironment has been solved by Human ComputerInteraction HCI, in this time traditional discipline yet.HCI has introduced a new concept to shareinformation as User Centered Design (UCD)illustrated in Figure 3.

Garret [5] says interface design by HCI concept is‘design of interface elements to facilitate userinteraction with functionality and contentrequirements’ that supports data transfer to a flatpanel display in digital format. Jeeves [11] definesHCI as ‘a discipline concerned with the design,evaluation and implementation of interactivecomputing systems for human use and with the studyof major phenomena surrounding them.

Figure 2 illustrates dual nature of the recent Newmedia. While the task centred design is able to theinteractivity like concept action – data when a user atfirst selects action (from menu bar alternatively bytyping ) after that inputs data, in the object orientationinterface is able to use a new concept object – actionwhen a user at first selects object (often as GUI5)and afterward chooses action. For the concept object– action has been established term navigationdesign. Garret [5] says that navigation design is‘design of interface elements to facilitate the user'smovement through the information architecture’.Navigation is a way to pass from one page to another

page into a home site or to other sites troughhyperlinks.The navigation elements are not onlyelements of navigation item of menu bar, controllingpanels or windows, but also each hyper mediareference.

To facilitate the correct interface design andnavigation in the information space, many formalmethods of modeling it appeared in last years.Information space can be represented as a finitestate machine – deterministic automaton. Visualdepiction of how the user will move and navigatetrough this space of interactive application is in formof navigation flow chart, which is non-linear series ofboxes connected by lines that show the paths ofinformation flow. There is generally a main screen ormenu, which is usually where the users start. Thereare keywords or graphic icons and symbols on themain page that take the user to other areas of theapplication.

2.4 Interaction design Interaction Design is a field and approach todesigning interactive experiences. Interactiveexperiences, necessarily, require time as anorganizing principle and interactive design isconcerned with a user, customer, audience, orparticipant's experience flow through time.Interactivity should not be confused with animation inwhich objects may move on a screen. Interactivity isconcerned with being part of the action of a system orperformance and not merely watching the actionpassively. Interaction design describes the set ofskills that are needed to design the forms throughwhich we can effectively use information technology[13]. According to Gerret [5] the interaction design is‘…development of application flows to facilitate usertasks defining how the user interacts with sitefunctionality…’ and content requirements.

Interaction design is involving term which reflectedtechnical and technological possibility therefore mostdesignations on the design field not commonlyagreed with original explication of interaction designas simple character user interface (DOS, UNIX) orgraphical user interface GUI. The most used GUIsrepresent a desktop metaphore (Xerox idea,commercially introduced by Apple and mass

application by Microsoft Windows). Othermetaphores of user interfaces appeared. Thesesimulate natural communication in a specificappllications (for example simulators and games) byexploiting multimedia, virtual reality and augmentedreality. Scientists, engineers as well as artists anddesigners work on the interfaces which could involvemore human senses.

3 Advanced New mediaAdvanced New media as new kinds of methods andtechniques allow sharing information to advancedmanners. This environment supported by artificialintelligence requires a new kind of expert of graphicdesign. Advanced New media change the structureand contents of our interests, the nature of ourcognitive and collaborative tools, the socialenvironment in which thoughts invent and develop,and mindsets. Fischer [4] reports that advanced Newmedia increases the potential issues and researchproblems for new design methodologies, cognitionand motivation the design of New media and newtechnologies. The changed conditions require a newview to design in future digital environment. Figure 3illustrates effective solution trough intelligentinteractive environment that include the mostsophisticated methods of treating and structuringinformation by top-down way, jointly in conjunction anew form of self-organization design that Fischer [4]labelled the ’metadesign’ and we denote as bottom-upw a y .

3.1 MetadesignIn philosophy or human sciences, meta means, whatgoes beyond or what is more comprehensive orfundamental. In computer science metadata is datathat describes other data (data about data) [8]. Onecould describe any computer programming as ameta-language for interacting with a computer. Metain consequence technology delivers not only contentbut also through its codes and structures, a specificmeaning. This specific meaning is described by ‘themeta information defining a relation betweentechnology, structure, sign and content’ [12].

Extended Markup Language (XML) and other toolsfor creating metainformation are examples of simple

online applications (one step towards the semanticWeb) and faciliate data mining and other moreeffective searching of information in the complexstructures.

Enforcement of the Metadesign is not simple. Itrequires a new way of thinking, active contributorsand not just passive consumers. The bottom-uprelationship between consumer-designer issupposed to change from passive consumer troughactive consumer, end-user, user, power users, localdevelopers, domain designer to ‘meta-designer’ [4].On the other side the develop design top-down willhave to satisfy users needs with sophisticated UserCentred Design.

3.2 User Centred DesignUser Centred Design (UCD) is a comprehensiveproduct development methodology. It starts byclearly specifying the site objectives, and the user'sneeds, limitations and preferences. The HCDanalysis is applied to the design of the product, andthe testing of the product. A UCD approach meetsboth user's need and the business objectives. AsNomesa [15] has shown ‘UCD is circular process andcontains stages like requirements gathering &analysis, content design & structure ,implementation, QA testing, deploy-ment,measurement and analysis’. UCD works with user atevery stage of the process to ensure that the solutiongenerated has the highest levels of usability andaccessibility. The end result is a solution that hasbeen adjusted to the requests of the user. The UCDprocess is continuous and the only way to ensurethat the experience generated by the productremains effective requires that it must be measured.

Current trend in intelligent communication system ischaracterized by ‘multiple communication modalities,distribution of information and control, and flexibleadaptation to the user’ [14]. Distributed multimediaand global information network such as Internet arethe key enabling technologies for such a system.Intelligent agent technology is a new approach to theintelligent system development which harmoniouslyworks with distributed multimedia and Internettechnologies. It also allows the developer to create

intelligent system with greater adaptability to theuser. Wyllys [14] explains that the most successfulexamples of intelligent agent understand user'slanguage, infer user's real goals, derive plans tosatisfy user's goals, and carry out the plans. Suchagents also utilize various ‘multimedia resources andother agents on the network, in order to communicateto the user in the most effective way’ [14].

4. The designer in advanced New media A few years ago, the technology did not allow forsophisticated design nuances. Today it seems thatgraphic design was never easy. The designer inthese days is solely an architect, leaving themechanical aspects of Web page CD/DVD-ROM

construction to programming and production experts.Problems that were serious five years ago have beeneasily solved in the repertoire of contemporarygraphic design.

In the try to redefine graphic design in the 1990s, theWeb has involved traditional graphic applications,such as type and page layout, wed to non-traditionalgraphic design such as sound and motion [1]. Therole of designer has involved to two ways. Some Newmedia designers come directly from traditionalmedia, while others bypass traditional entirely. Whiledesigner in traditional media should understandprepress and printing limitations (can actually makewithout contact to press room), the Web and

Figure 5 outlined the model of interaction process in advanced new media according to two collaboration bottom-upand top-down ways.

CD/DVD designer must work directly with thetechnology to achieve results. Different designersuse different methods - combining market research,user testing, prototyping and trend analysis. Agraphically designed object can be expressive orneutral, hard sell or soft sell, classical or radical.Graphic design may be utilitarian, but it is not void ofthe creative essence too. Some designers may havepersonal styles, but none can be islands withoutbridges to clients, production personnel or otherdesigners. Although good instinct is part of thedesigner's arsenal, there are more scientific ways tomake appropriate design. The level of complexity orsimplicity is determined either by the nature of themessage or the preference of the designer.

A good graphic designer is able to adapt existinghistorical or contemporary models and derive uniqueapproaches. The future of graphic design rests in itsability to be absorbed into different sectors of humanactivity from art and sciences to entertainment. Thevolume of cross-disciplinary activities that affectdesigners today is going to grow in the future and“graphic design” will become a much more massivediscipline that will include the ability to write, todesign, to communicate, and to edit. To develop auseful theory of decision information processing,designer needs to further understand the process bywhich humans make decisions, how informationaffects this process, and how to construct effectiveinterface technologies to enlarge user performance.Designer will become less specialized and moreoriented to cognitive science especially cognitivepsychology, philosophy and culture to create anappropriate structure of sharing information. Thiscomes by patient study of user’s knowledgerepresentation and enthusiastic practice.

For a long time, designers have dealt with uncertainlydefined problems, which caused them to develop avariety of skills and methods necessary to generatecreative solutions. On the other hand, certain thoughtin the fields of human-factors have dealt with well-defined problems that generate specific knowledge.A broader approach, combining these two ways ofthought, is necessary to deal with the complexity ofinteraction in the future.

ConclusionThis paper has provided a brief history and overviewof some terms of the major themes and influencesthat have shaped the original field of graphic design.Current graphic design in advanced New media isnot only defined as visual problem. The field ofgraphic design diffuses into experience design,interaction design and sensorial design near (includedesign all sense) to cognitive science. The originalvoluntary design has become component part thesophisticated UCD that facilitated and activated theindividual users to enter into digital environment. Thispaper is not intended to provide either a completehistory of the past or a full scale future trends. It israther to give a context for the recommendationswhich will follow. It examines some of the options thatgraphic designers are offered today and analyses thewidening expectations of users in relation totechnological shifts that have allowed the graphicdesigner to branch away from traditional towardadvanced New media. Understanding what design isand how it works in both philosophical and practicalcontext will be more important than decorating digitalartefacts with the goal to give a form to the content.

AcknowledgementThis project was partially supported by grantVG1/0161/03 (Information processing in thedistributed environment of intelligent agents).

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