Musical Design...
- Feb 2, 2017
- 1 min read
In my last journal I mentioned visual rhetoric and Gestalt. In our readings for this week there is discussion on aspects of composition, such as grouping/placement, harmony, emphasis and flow. In any design, we consider how the viewer, or learner/audience will move through the piece and our design decisions determine the effectiveness of that experience.
We use the principles of composition to establish a visual hierarchy, or the order of how the viewer moves through the design. While this important in any visual communication, for learning, the order of how information is received, cognitively, can make the difference between a successful learning experience or a less effective or even failed learning experience. I cannot emphasize enough how important a cursory study of Gestalt and visual rhetoric helps a designer make sound composition decisions more intuitively.
As a musician, the concept of harmony when it comes to design is very fitting, as there is a musicality, a flow to how we "compose" musical pieces just as how we compose visual design pieces. If our design is used for instruction, in many ways, it is imperative that we keep the goal of conveying the material clearly for the sake of the learner/viewer to have a successful learning experience. The subtleties of our design choices create tension or flow which can aid in how the material is emphasized and contextualized, and building even a basic sense of aethetic sensitivity can make good instructional design great and make effective instructional design exceptional.
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