The 12 Days of Usability (1/2)
Posted on December 5th, 2011 | Leave a comment
Cyber Monday falls on November 28th, the week after Thanksgiving. Every year more people are beginning their shopping season online by taking advantage of Cyber Monday’s online-only deals.
As shown above, Americans spent a whopping $32.6 billion dollars online last November and December, up 12% from the year before. With all of these consumers doing their holiday shopping over the Internet, how do you convince them to buy your products?…
It’s Not Just Rudolph’s Nose That’s Red
Posted on December 2nd, 2011 | Leave a comment
So we’ve discussed the basics of color theory as it relates to the color red, and we showed you red logos and websites. But how does red fit in with regards to the rest of the design world, such as packaging and printed pieces? How can different shades of the same color communicate such a multitude of meanings? Wikipedia has 47 pages dedicated to different shades of red, and with this sheer variety, it is bound that different colors will have slightly different psychological associations. Let’s take a look at some other uses of the color red and reflect on the color psychology behind these designs…
The World Wide Web of Red
Posted on December 2nd, 2011 | Leave a comment
Last week we talked about the psychology behind the color red, and how it has been proven to actually increase your blood pressure, heart rate and appetite. Red can be associated with passion, adventure, and violence, which explains why many of the following websites chose to feature it in their color palette. But is color alone enough to convey your message and create a site that’s easy to navigate? Let’s take a look at some red websites and see whether or not their use of color affects their usability…
Paint The Town Red
Posted on December 2nd, 2011 | Leave a comment
We here at Studio K&M love colors. As artists, how can we not?! Colors have been our tools ever since we opened our first box of Crayola Crayons and experienced the sweet smell of variety (or maybe it was wax). As we grow as artists and designers our appreciation and understanding of color grows as well, but how many of the decisions that we make regarding color are intuitive? How often does the science of color come into play?…
The Psyche on Automatic
Posted on July 25th, 2011 | Leave a comment
Social Psychologist Amy Cuddy studies the ways people perceive others through body-language and other non-verbal gestures. Amongst many fascinating points made, her description of the ‘Halo Effect’ – by which we tend to assign either entirely positive or entirely negative dimensions to people – is instigated by character attributes that should logically have no bearing on personality, like attractiveness or micro-gestures. We believe the field of face-to-face marketing and sales has much to learn from this line of thinking…