This reading is a bit different…
I want you to read about design. I want you to learn about how to think about making things that look nice, communicate well, seem planned, etc.
This is a whole subject unto itself – you could get a degree in Design rather than Computer Science. Instead, We’re going to do “Design School in a Day”. Except we’re going to do the shortened version.
(If you want to see the original Design School in a day from last year’s class, you can look here. But that was a 3 credit class so I asked the students to do more).
To get you thinking about design, I want you to read Chapters 2-6 of The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams. This is a great book since it distills out some basic principles for those of us who aren’t designers. This is clearly not all there is, but it’s a good start. These chapters are short, and get the points across quickly. She distills things down to four principles: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. CARP, since she has enough design sense not to pick the other acronym.
The Chapters (and the order to read them)
- A page from Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 – this is a summary of the ideas. Read it first.
- Chapter 2 – Proximity
- Chapter 3 – Alignment
- Chapter 4 – Repetition
- Chapter 5 – Contrast
The assignment for this is a little different: you need to find some things and critique them according to the principles. How do the 4 principles apply? Pick something good and something back (make 2 posts). It can be a web page (give a link), or a menu, or a flyer, or an ad, or …). But give a link (or include the picture), and critique it according to the 4 principles. Does the good one follow the principles? Does the bad one not follow the principles?
You will get more out of this assignment if you look at more things and start to really think about the principles. So contribute to the discussion in your group!
The reading discussion to post to is: on Canvas.
I’d like you to do the reading and the initial posting before class on 11/24 (so we have something to talk about). The second posting and discussion can happen after that.
