Tag Archives: Nerd

Ask a Nerd: Does Graphic Design Matter?

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On the “Ask a Nerd!” hotline, Joan from Canada writes:

Help! A client doesn’t want me to use photos on interpretive signs because they “add clutter and don’t help achieve sign goals.” They suggest text only, or text with a map. Do you know of any good, recent research to help me convince them otherwise? —Joan

Because research is based on carefully reasoned thought and statistics, while I prefer to deal in wild speculation and unsubstantiated generalizations, I turned to Carolyn Ward, editor of the Journal of Interpretation Research for help. Carolyn turned me on to the 2006 masters thesis of Kari Anne Jensen of Humboldt State University. The thesis, titled “Effects of the Artistic Design of Interpretive Signage on Attracting Power, Holding Time, and Memory Recall,” seems to have been written specifically for Joan.

Having defended a masters thesis myself once upon a time, I know that Kari Anne spent the better part of at least three Mountain Dew-addled years struggling through seminars, slaving over projects, and kowtowing to the whims of professors and advisors to arrive at this answer to Joan’s question:

Yes.

To make a long thesis short, here is Ms. Jensen’s abstract:

The majority of visitors to interpretive sites receive information from non-personal interpretive media such as signs, exhibits and brochures. In this study, attracting power, holding time, and memory recall were measured to evaluate two versions of an educational interpretive panel on display at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest (USFS). The original version featured artistic design elements common in traditional interpretive signage. The manipulated version was created using the best practices of artistic design, as defined by research in museums and interpretive settings and cognitive theory. Components of the sign that were manipulated in this study include layout, typography, color, graphics, contour, and the inclusion of a multi-sensory flip-panel. The text copy remained the same for both versions. The manipulated version of the sign resulted in a significantly greater attracting power and holding time. More subjects were able to recall the main message of the manipulated sign, however there was no difference between the two versions in subjects’ ability to recall specific details.

Kari Anne has graciously shared her thesis document and defense with us, so if you’re interested, you can download those documents here:

Thesis Document
Defense Document

Thanks to both Kari Anne Jensen and Carolyn Ward!

Blogging: Not Just for Aging Sci-fi Fans Anymore

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With the World Series effectively over, we now resume our regularly scheduled posts.

A person of Walmart as seen on the People of Walmart blogWhen we launched this site back in March, we asked the question, “Why do we think the world needs another blog?” The Internet is already saturated with the unsolicited opinions of countless middle-aged nerds living in their parents’ basements. Blogging has given us everything from sites like People of Walmart, in which Walmart shoppers make fun of other Walmart shoppers (pictured here), to more useful special-interest sites like Cloud 9 Organize & Redesign, which offers budget-friendly interior-design advice, just to name two of the countless examples out there.

The software that drives many blogs, including this one, is called WordPress. It makes it possible for people who don’t design websites to create and maintain their own online presence. During the Enlightenment, this would have been like giving every individual a printing press and an unlimited supply of paper. Seventeenth-century streets would have been littered with scraps of paper with comments like “René Descartes thinks therefore he’s an idiot” and “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace made me want to throw up my fig pudding.”

One interesting feature of WordPress is that it allows us to see how some Internet users arrive at IBD (which, for the benefit of my wife Sheila, stands for “Interpretation By Design”). We can see what browsers and operating systems our readers are using, the web page that referred them here, the pages that they viewed on this site, and even where those people are physically located. (At the time of this writing, we’ve had readers from the USA, Ukraine, Thailand, Brazil, and Canada in the last six hours.)

Admittedly, this is creepy.

Possibly the creepiest thing we can do is see what search terms Internet users have searched to reach our site. So all of you people in Parkin, Arkansas, who search the term “Shea Lewis” three times a day, we’re on to you. So far, my favorite search term that has landed someone on this site is “can you wear sweatpants to a museum.” I hope that person eventually found some guidance on the issue.

Some other recent search terms and the pages to which readers were referred include:

So this is the world of the Internet these days. Shea uses fashion as an analogy for breaking out of his interpretive comfort zone and this site starts getting visits from people too cheap to buy their own sweat pants or too skinny to find sweat pants that don’t fall down.

On the other hand, blogs significantly broaden the ability of organizations to inexpensively and regularly reach a worldwide audience. The National Association for Interpretation maintains five different blogs (listed under “NAI Blogs” in the sidebar on this site). None of these blogs can quite match the popularity of People of Walmart, which once crashed its server after receiving 2.6 million hits in one day. But NAI’s sites offer a great way for InterpPress authors and NAI leaders to share thoughts, ideas, and information that you will not find on NAI’s traditional website, InterpNet.

I especially encourage interpreters at small sites like community nature centers, historic sites, or museums to maintain blogs. You may find a whole new market of visitors and supporters you never knew were there. And more importantly, they may find you.

I recommend that you add content at least weekly, write seasonal or topical posts, promote the site in your newsletter and on your traditional website, and mention sweat pants a lot.

Comic Sans saves the day

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Yes, we’re hard on Comic Sans here at IBD. In fact, a month or two ago, I wrote that using it makes a designer look like a hack. So rather than kick a typeface when it’s down, I thought we’d give it its due. The above video, called “Font Conference,” presents Comic Sans in a new light.

Regarding my own interest in this video, there are two possibilities (perhaps not mutually exclusive):

1. It’s a funny way to anthropomorphize some of the common typefaces we’ve all come to know and recognize.

2. I am a bigger nerd than I thought I was. I am aware as I watch it that I am laughing out loud at jokes about typefaces, but I can’t help myself.

Regardless, there are a number of funny, quotable lines (“Pencil, telephone, hourglass! Diamonds, candle, candle, flag!”), but the top honor, in my opinion, goes to when the font Ransom, holding Courier and Curlz MT hostage, demands placement in a variety of media, including Microsoft Works. Times New Roman responds, “You’re insane. Nobody uses Microsoft Works!”

Paul’s Grammar Pet Peeves: Part 1 of Literally Millions

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When I studied journalism in college, one of the first things my copy-editing professor said to the class was, “This course will not make you any friends.” Indeed, the only person at the party less popular than the typography nerd has to be the grammar purist. With that, I bring you the first installment of my top grammar pet peeves!

Me/I
I theorize that when English speakers learn their native language, they so frequently get corrected for using “me” incorrectly that they start using “I” all the time, no matter what. Now you hear statements like, “People often tell Shea and I how much they love our website” (which is incorrect because it should be me instead of I and also because they actually hate our website).

My favorite quick and easy way to think my way around this one is simply to remove the other person from the sentence. You wouldn’t say, “People often tell I how much they hate my website.” You would say, “People often tell me how much they hate my website.”

IMG_1697-bLess/Fewer
I blame grocery stores for this one. Every time you see a “10 Items or Less” sign at your local market, I encourage you to get in line with 11 items just to protest the poor grammar. (Kudos to Whole Foods, pictured here, for getting this one right.) The word fewer should be used for items that can be counted (like items in a grocery cart), while less is for what they call mass nouns (like milk or sand). Think of this as the “Things vs. Stuff” rule. When you leave the hatchback of your car open and drive 80 miles per hour on the highway after a trip to the grocery store, you will end up with less stuff and fewer things by the time you get home.

An Historic
As I watched coverage of the presidential election last fall, I cringed every time I heard Barack Obama’s election described as an historic moment. And these weren’t just the local news pinheads, but respected national journalists like Charles Gibson and Jon Stewart! When did America stop pronouncing the H in historic? What is this, Great Britain? We don’t hit our thumbs with an hammer or drive an hydrofoil through Florida swamps. The H in “historic” is not silent like the H in “honor,” so it seems to me that it should be a historic moment rather than an historic moment.

His or Her/Their
This one is not the fault of English speakers, but rather the fault of the English language. Where is our gender-neutral singular pronoun? They have it in other languages! It’s technically incorrect to say “A person traveling in Philadelphia should monitor their cheesesteak intake” because a person is singular and their is plural. But the grammatically correct version, “A person traveling in Philadelphia should monitor his or her cheesesteak intake,” is clumsy.

You could say, “People traveling in Philadelphia should monitor their cheesesteak intake,” but instead, I propose that we make a gender-neutral proper name like Chris, Pat, or Terry the official gender-neutral pronoun of the English language. This would make the correct version of the above example, “A person traveling in Philadelphia should monitor Terry’s cheesesteak intake.”

Problem solved.

People Who Stand Rather than Walk on Escalators or People Movers
This is not a grammar pet peeve. Just something that annoys me.

Literally
The common usage of this word has completely inverted its meaning. People use the word literally to emphasize hyperbole in a statement, as in, “Literally every time I go to the grocery store, some weirdo is there taking pictures of the ’10 items or fewer’ sign.” Clearly, that just happened the one time (maybe twice), so what Terry means here is, “Frequently when I go to the grocery store, some weirdo is there taking pictures of the ’10 items or fewer’ sign.” If Terry wants to use hyperbole, Terry can still say, “Every time I go to the grocery store, some weirdo is there taking pictures of the ’10 items or fewer’ sign.”

The problem with this misuse of literally is that it saps it of its power when it’s used to emphasize an impressive actual fact like, “This website gets literally tens of hits every day.”

The CCC in Parachute Pants?

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When I began junior high school my modus operandi was to stay off of the radar and try not to be noticed. Being somewhat scared by the idea of conflict between me (nerd) and upperclassmen (complete with mustaches and other tosterone induced signs of coolness). I wanted to disappear into the crowd. That all changed when my Grandmother bought me a red pair of parachute pants (at that date and time parachute pants were really cool, I promise). I was excited about my stylish new pants but quickly found out that it is hard to go unnoticed when the friction of your (uh, my) husky legs rubbing together in copious amounts of red nylon creates such a “whooshing” sound that is reminiscent of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scratching some old school vinyl. I was officially on the radar from that point on. Now erase the image you may have of me in parachute pants or anyone in parachute pants for that matter and I will continue.

Sometimes it is a good thing to go unnoticed in the products we create. That’s right, some things go best unsaid or mostly unnoticed. We have had several posts on IBD that were written to help improve the chances that your product will be read or used by visitors. You may now be wondering why go to the trouble to create it, if it is not designed to be conspicuous?

What sparked this post for me was a recent trip to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas and the discovery of a well designed sign at the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Overlook of the Petit Jean Valley. In most cases the architecture of the CCC (a public relief program that was active from 1933-1942 employing young men across the country to primarily focus on natural resource conservation projects) compliments the landscape, is aesthetically pleasing and was designed to enhance the visitor’s experience.

Petit Jean CCC Structure 001

Upon arriving at the overlook, I was immediately I was drawn to the view and the dramatic landscape. Secondarily, I recognized that I walked right through a CCC picnic pavilion as a gateway to the view’s most dramatic point, without even noticing the pavilion. The historic structure encased the view and made it possible for our group to enjoy it safely from it’s most dramatic point. After soaking in the landscape we began to notice the “parkitecture.” Freeman Tilden states in Interpreting Our Heritage that interpreters “do well to…create the best possible vantage points from which beauty may be seen and comprehended; and…do all that discreetly may be done to establish a mood, or sympathetic atmosphere.” The CCC was successful at reaching this same goal at Petit Jean State Park, setting the stage for an interpretive experience.

While looking more closely at the construction and elements of the structure I noticed a stone carved sign that did an excellent job of blending in. Pretty much the polar opposite of red parachute pants, again lose the image.

Petit Jean CCC Structure 002

I’m not sure if the sign is original to the structure (more than likely not) and then was altered in 1981 by the YACC or added in 1981, but either way it speaks volumes to the understated design of the CCC. The material for the sign is consistent with the other construction materials and the landscape. There is no reason for it to stand out; the message is understated, matter of fact, and perfectly appropriate. As simple as it is, it has plenty of character. From the inconsistent kerning (letter spacing) to the regal, hand carved, serif, letter forms that are consistent with the era work well to speak volumes.

Next time you are creating a sign or product take into consideration the impact of the product on the landscape.  Sometimes the location may call for red parachute pants and other times it may simply call for classic blue jeans. You make that call.

Ask a Nerd: Are Script Typefaces Legible?

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Dear nerds,

I have been thoroughly enjoying the many discussions about different typefaces. I’m wondering what your thoughts are about scripted type (type that copies cursive handwriting). Some coworkers of mine and I have had some interesting discussions about using scripted type for subtitles on interpretive signs. Althought it might “set a mood,” my concern is that it might be difficult to read for certain audiences. I know studies have been done on the effect of all caps on reading speeds. Have you encountered similar studies that look at the effect of scripted fonts for interpretive panels?

Thanks for your continued help, Cal

Cal,

There has been a lot of research on typography, much of it contradictory or too specialized for general usefulness. Also, as my grad school roommate Kristy Pennino points out, most of the research is done by behavioral psychologists and not typographers. Still, there are certain points of agreement, like the fact that upper- and lower-case letters are more legible than all caps, as you point out.

Here’s an important point researchers agree upon related to your question: Regular, roman (not italics) type is more legible than slanted, italics, or oblique type. Typically, these studies relate to italicized versus roman type, but since most script typefaces are slanted, you can draw your own parallels. You can find a couple studies related to this subject on the Education Resources Education Center (ERIC) website:

EJ416365 – The Effects of Italic Handwriting on Legibility: The Methods and Findings of a Three-Year Study

ED265540 – An Evaluation of the Speed and Legibility of Italic Handwriting

Another important factor is the difference between legibility and readability. Certain typefaces are more legible than others because of the clarity of their design. At a certain size and/or a low enough word count, however, even less legible typefaces are still readable. That is to say, if you have few enough words and a large enough point size, you can get away with using a script typeface.

phils-small

philswinIn the examples here, the traditional serif typeface Adobe Garamond is more legible than Edwardian Script. In the longer sentence at the smaller point size, “The Phillies are World Series champions,” the script typeface is difficult to read and should not be used, but in the simple, two-word “Phils win!” both are readable and either one would be acceptable.

An article on Wikipedia (I know, weak reference, but it’s still a good point) has this to say:

“If the columns of a newspaper or magazine or the pages of a book can be read for many minutes at a time without strain or difficulty, then we can say the type has good readability.”

Think about how long you are asking visitors to read certain passages when making decisions about your typefaces. Once you get one short phrase or sentence, I’d err on the side of the more traditional, non-slanted typeface for better legibility.