Explaining the Laws of design and layout

Marisa Malhotra (541459) Minh Ha Nhat (537037) Amelie Kpnick (541710)

Communication skill Sylvia Zeigerer WS 2012/2013

Contents
The Goal of the Explanation ................................................................................................................... 1 The Addressee of the Explanation........................................................................................................... 1 The Plan................................................................................................................................................... 2 Executing of the Explanation .................................................................................................................. 2 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................. 4

The Goal of the Explanation

Since the antics the mind has been an object of mystery and awe to humanity. We tried to understand our mind, we claim that we know all its secret. Throughout the centuries mankind has made breakthrough discoveries and invented innovative technologies. Yet even in the 21st century humanity still havent solve all of the secrets of the humans mind. Great and original ideas are born inside peoples mind, however only a few have the possibility to put into realization. Lack of experience, knowledge and guidance make the ideas die at its roots. My goal is help a friend of mine, to realize her dream idea with a website. I will give her the necessary knowledge and I will try to guide her to the best way of obtaining additional information. She isnt a very artistic person and she didnt have the opportunity to learn about design. Hence she is having troubles setting the website look appealing. I find it essential for her to understand the Laws of design and layout, in order to assist her building a successful online shop. I will put my focus on explaining the Law of proximity and the Law of similarity and ,if its necessary, briefly mention the Law of closure. Because in my opinion, grasping the concepts of the first two laws, are more important to design a web page.

The Addressee of the Explanation

My friend Lea Tan is a young sympathetic woman, who is living in the same building as me. We are not very close friends, but we have small talks everyday and from times to times drink a cup of tee together. I often tell her interesting stories about the economy that learned in school or heard in the news. Somehow by telling her those stories (and the fact that I study International business) left her an impression that I know a lot about finance and marketing. We both have a passion for cooking, but unlike me she decided to follow her dream. After finishing Hauptschule in Berlin she took an apprenticeship in a high class hotel as a cook. Lea found a way how to make tasty marmalade with unusual combinations of ingredients, such as pear-lemon-vanilla marmalade. Her dream is open a store, but she is lacking the capital to realise her dream. She decided to sell her creation online and made a website, where people can order her marmalade.

The Plan
Considering that Lea only finished Hauptschule, I have a feeling she is not very familiar with scientific or technical terms. For that reason I will try to avoid using such terms. However to give my words more weight, I will explain one or two technical terms and use a slightly more formal language than what I use in a everyday conservation. To ensure, that she really understand the theory, I will also use visual aid. I will show her picture of examples to respective laws. Also to make the topic relevant to her, I will add practical examples directly related to her website. At the beginning of the explanation, I will praise her for her work to not discourage her or to make her sad. By using I-message I will criticize the web page, without greatly hurting her feelings. Hopefully after she is able to apply the theory into reality, she will seek for more information or even attend a design course. I will also advise her to constantly continue improving her skills and knowledge.

Executing of the Explanation

Hi Lea, I saw your website and I think you did a great job. I can see, that you put a lot of effort in it. But I feel like there is still room for improvement of little details. I believe I can help you, at the university I learned a few things about design. I could show you how to make your web page look a lot more neat and compact. For that purpose, I would like to explain to you the Laws of design and layout, also known as the Gestalt laws. I strongly believe by understanding this aspect, would help you to grow your sales. As the name suggest, this law is a compilation of several laws, which together form the Gestalt laws. In my opinion, for the start you should learn about the Law of Proximity and Law of closure. Now lets start with the Law of Proximity. The Law of Proximity state that: Elements that are closer together will be seen as belonging together. Take a look at this picture1, it will help you to visualize the law. An example how this could help you, would be that you could put marmalade and your homemade bread in a same column or even picture. That way a
1

See Appendix Picture-1

visitor could think that they taste good together and possibly he will order them both. I hope I was able to convey my thoughts to you. Do you need me to repeat something? ( Depending on her answer I will explain it again, otherwise I will continue). Now, lets continue with the Law of similarity. The Law of similarity state: Elements which share visual characteristics will be seen as belonging together. Im going to show you an example picture again2. A practical example would be if you have square jars for 500g marmalade and round jars for 300g marmalade. Or you could give red wrapping for marmalade with exotic ingredients and green for BIO ingredients. Using this method you could encourage people to buy several jars as a set, because they will perceive the similar characteristic as belonging together. Do you need me to repeat something again? Dont worry just ask me. ( Depending on her answer I will explain it again ) I just hope I could help you with the beginning. There are much more design theories, I suggest you try to work with what you learned today and look up for more later. This is a rough scenario of how I could execute the explanation. Of course depending on the situation and person I could give more examples, change the language, repeat more sentences.

See Appendix Picture-2

Appendix
Picture-1, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology, retrieved on 07.01.2013

Picture-2, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology, retrieved on 07.01.2013