Photos, Good Enough, Visual Memory, Sentences, & Audio

Photos for interaction - Boxes and Arrows

In software applications, photography in most cases is used as content element, since photos express situations of human life very well and thus are well suited to capture and represent a certain message. The images have a semantic meaning, communicating information to the viewer and user of the respective web or software application. However, photography in interactive media is often a trigger for engagement and interaction. Interaction designers working on the product's interaction flows can thus provide visual designers with key information to select and apply visual elements, in order to start the conversation, and keep it alive.

Why Doing Things Half Right Gives You the Best Results - Harvard Business

There are times in life when I expect something to be perfect. When I open the box of my new Macbook Air, for example. Or when I take money out of the ATM.

In most cases though, I expect imperfect. And in organizations, I think that's a good thing -- but not in the if-I-expect-imperfect-I-won't-be-disappointed sense.

Visual Memory and Sentences - Science Daily

In How We Think Before We Speak: Making Sense Of Sentences the author writes:

But how does the language brain act so fast? Recent findings suggest that, as we read or have a conversation, our brains are continuously trying to predict upcoming information. Van Berkum suggests that this anticipation is a combination of a detailed analysis about what has been said before with taking 'quick-and-dirty' shortcuts to figure out what, most likely, the next bit of information will be.

In How We Keep Visual Details In Short-term Memory the author writes:

Another interesting thing was that if subjects were remembering orientation, then that pattern of activity during the delay period had no information about color, even though they were staring at a colored-oriented stimulus," said Edward Awh, a UO professor of psychology. "Likewise, if they chose to remember color we were able to decode which color they remembered, but orientation information was completely missing.

This voluntary control in memory selection, Awh said, falls in line with previous research, including that done by Awh and co-author Edward K. Vogel, also of the UO, that there is limited capacity for what can be stored at one time. People choose what is important and relevant to them.

Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right

The principles of information architecture are exactly what you need to create usable audio. Your approach to creating audio should be similar to developing a large website. In both scenarios you don't want the user to get lost or overwhelmed by content. For any informational audio that is longer than a few minutes, follow these guidelines:

• State the Length
• Give an Overview of the Structure
• Introduce the Topic
• Provide Orientation from Time to Time