GRAP 2030 // Week 7 // Script // Ethics in Design

Ethics Video (Star Trek ‘Ethics’ episode)

As Dr. Chris Thornton says, “The problem is that reducing what may be considered ‘right’ and ‘good’ to objective, quantitative terms can often lose sight of reality as a subjective, quantitative experience—one in which complications and exceptions to general rules will always arise.” And so, you need to find a way to determine your own ethical judgements. In this class, we’re trying to provide you with a way to understand them.

We have three theories of good design and ethical practice proposed by three great designers and critical thinkers:

Papnek argues for a Designers responsibility.

Van Toorn argues that designers should address the public as citizens and not consumers as often prompted by business orientated clients.

Frampton (an architect and environmental designer) argues we should Infuse “humane intelligence” into the made environment.

A designer and good design should

• against the capitulation of human interests to those of the market (what we’re seeing now where economics holds greater value than humanity (Trumpian ethics))
• opposed to the destructiveness of what is and to the catastrophe-inducing economic rapacity that global capitalism is now inducing
• an interruption of the processes of economic “errancy” and therefore a way of helping contend with consequences of negative globalisation (interesting term here—globalisation can have positive effects in addition to negative).
• refuses resignation in the face of the given and refuses to acquiesce to the current domination of modes of reactive, negative, and destructive actions (or the ability to stand up and take action against those issues which might contribute to suffering, either of people, or the environment).

Personal Anecdote

I was requested to photograph the French Film Festival when I knew that it would mean 450 people (revised down from 500) just as the coronavirus restrictions were coming into play. I had to weigh up the income ($675) and the prospect of not having future employment or income for the next few months with the moral and ethical duty to a large group of people and more personally to my parents whom I live with and who are both within an at-risk bracket. However, in passing on the work to others, I’m also essentially promoting the job and putting someone else at risk.

Warm up with quick ten minute discussion regarding Milton Glaser’s Road to Hell

In small groups, quickly discuss (5 minutes) the following items. There is no right or wrong answer and the value is in your discussion.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/78z6xv635aj68if/Milton%20Glasers%20Road%20to%20Hell.pdf?dl=0

1. Design a package to look larger on the shelf?
2. Design a package for a cereal aimed at children, which has low nutritional value and high sugar content?
3. Design a line of t-shirts for a manufacturer who employs child labor?

Four Key Roles of Ethical Design

1. Persons

Reconnection of design to the solving of problems which affect humanity from a human perspective. For example, relieving the discomfort of standing by designing a chair. This could also relate to, perhaps, the designing of a phone in order to establish communication between persons.

Question: is relieving “boredom” a problem to be solved?

2. Relations

Design is about relations and “design designs relations between things and persons and things and nature”. The goal is to establish a design ethics which doesn’t treat these relations as a commodity of time, money, function, interaction. “Nonethical design reduces these to commodity relations (reduces all that a thing can be for us to the imaginary of the act of its purchase) or a utilitarian operative relations” explained by Adorno as technology removing the civil interaction of people to “gestures precise and brutal and with them men.” Design will be good when it serves the “enhancement of relations. Ethics, we might say, works to proliferate relations.”

Question: how does this idea of relations equate to the way that modern social media is often designed and employed to create connection, or to expedite connections?

3. Situations

“Design is the process…of seizing and realising the potential of situations (a) to be transformed; (b) to be so on behalf of or in the interests of or the project of, persons.” This emphasises “that what matters in situations is not their market value, not the capacity to be exploited and reduced for profit, but the human implications of the situations: its capacity to hold promise for how we can better—which today means more sustainably—live our lives.” In other words, we need to use design to improves the way we live our lives within a sustainable means, valuing people and relations, and creating situations in which these are emphasised.

4. Contexts

Mobile phones group discussion

Mobile phones are part of our day to day interactions. They’re a part of almost everything we do. I’d like you to look at the mobile phones and their associated technologies (camera, phone, software and apps, social media enablement) in relation to the above concepts of persons, relations, situations and contexts (use what you know so far about design in context and how it responds to different circumstances).

Prompts both positive and negative.

Topics to discuss

1. technology and the environment
2. personal communications and social media
3. personal and work life balance
4. applications and games for pleasure and distraction

Additional informaiton

• Unknown Fields Division: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
• Phone Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSMSFLAsNzc
• iPod Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHUz99l-eo
• iPhone FaceTime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKoLp_lGo14
• Pokemon GO benefits: https://vancouvertours.com/blog/five-benefits-of-playing-pokemon-go/
• Health applications: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covidsafe-app

VSAR 1102 // Week 7 // Perception and Gestalt Theory

Perception the top-down way our brains organise and interpret information and place in context. All experience of environment is influenced by our cultural and social upbringing and understanding and perception allows us to understand it. Sight is the minds interpretation of the data our eyes are feeding us.

Perceptual Set is the psychological factors that determine how you perceive your environment.

Seeing is believing and believing is seeing.

Emotions and motivations can affect our perception.

Attention

“Attention is the process of selectively focusing on. On aspect of the sensory environment while ignoring other things that seem less important or less worthy of consideration. It is a means for concentrating the mind on a single object, element, or though with the goal of narrowing the number of stimuli in a complex perceptual field.” (Davis, Hunt, 2017).

As stated “Attention is only the first step toward informing, explaining, orienting, persuading, or supporting people in taking action” though he concludes that “design has to follow through on the promise of attention, to deliver on first impressions.”

We’ve previously talked about the idea of persuasion and seduction returning to Katherine McCoy Information and Persuasion (2000) “in these days of media saturation and multi-channeling, there is fierce competition for the reader’s attention, and readers have increasingly short attention spans. Seductive media can persuade a reader to pay attention, to get in bed with the message content and spend some time with it.”

• Which of the serial boxes below stands out and why?

Form Perception

Figure Ground

Figure-ground relationship is the organisation of the visual field into objects (the figures) that sand out from their surroundings (the ground).

According to Meredith Davis and Jamer Hunt in 'Getting Attention', figure-ground is “… our ability to separate elements, based on contrast, into an object and a background. A figure can be any object, person, shape, or sound. Ground is the limitless background or field on which figures sit. Our visual system interprets objects primarily in terms of their contours. Figure-ground reversal occurs when two shapes share the same edge and we switch our attention from one shape to the other, trying to separate the figure from the ground.”

Figure is any object, person, shape, or sound.

• more definite shapes
• typically smaller
• occupying the lower art of the composition (grounded)
• incorporates motion

Ground is the limitless background or field on which figures sit.

Figure-ground relates to our distinction between the one from the other, and the ability to discern the subject from the other.

While there are common traits shared in the way that all humans perceive figure-ground, our ability to perceive what is important is, to some degree, a result of social and environmental conditioning in addition to emotional connection and response.

This is particularly important for me as a motorcyclist on the road–drivers are trained to recognise other cars but are much less likely to notice or see motorcycles and cyclists because they're not trained to recognise them. This leads to the common excuse "sorry mate, I didn't see you" or SMIDSY.

Additional Concepts (Dr. Myra Thiessen)

Visual Literacy is the ability to accurately interpret visual representations in both form (what is it) and meaning (what does it mean/say). We might ask what am I looking at? What do I see? What meaning does it hold? What do I know about it and what does it mean to me? This is affected by context and environment, cultural knowledge, expectations and media.

Gestalt psychology seek to explain perceptions in terms of gestalts rather than by constituents. Gestalts are an organised whole perceived as more than its parts. Gestalt can translate into configuration. So, we impost perceptual organisation when presented with certain visual stimuli. The mind is predistposed to interpret patterns and relationship. We can use this to develop visual arguments which are unique and convincing.

Gestalt principles include:

• proximity is the relationship created when objects exist within space.
• similarity relates to the shared property of objects grouped together, such as objects of a similar colour, shape, size, etc.
• good continuation we prefer to interpret objects as a smooth continuation rather than two separate pieces, such as two lines crossing in a + being interpreted as two lines crossing rather than two V shaped pieces meeting in the middle.
• closure the interpretation of an image that interprets something closed as opposed to open.
• common fate things that appear to move together will be interpreted as a group, such as a school of fish, birds or peloton.
• relative size more likely to interpret smaller objects as playing the figure on the ground.
• surroundedness 
• orientation can dictate our desire to see depth and relationship between objects.
• symmetry assists in seeing objects as stable.
• pragnanz says that most visual stable or logical form will dictate how the object is interpreted.

Case Study

Dazzle Paint and Camouflage

Dazzle painting was implemented in World War I and continued throughout World War II as an attempt to confuse enemy ships and submarines as to the speed and heading of ships to prevent successful sinking by torpedo. Loud, lurid patterns and false bowlines and wash were incorporated. Effectiveness is contentious without solid scientific data, though the idea is interesting.

You can also attempt to use people's perception to fool them into perceiving a bunch of balloons as a battalion of tanks, or that straw sculptures were planes along a runway. These attempts at camouflage were called the ghost army.

Task: Pathos Personas

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9dnim2p325c35j/VSAR%201102%20Week%207%20Task%20Pathos%20Personas.pdf?dl=0

• Appeal to emotion. The fit of design and suitability to a particular audience. Is it for me?

• Does the audience identify on an emotional level? Is there a feeling of familiarity, personal connection, deep understanding?
• Physical bodily response
• What range of emotions can be exploited?
• Love, hope, anger, happiness, desire, sadness, worry, apprehension, vulnerability, unease, joys fear, etc.
• What visual elements can be drawn on to appeal to emotion?
• Colour, image, sound, words, etc.

Task: Pathos

Break into small groups. Each group receives a different persona and a message that needs communicating. Use the worksheet to guide their exploration and discussion.

Personas

• Elderly and the importance of regular exercise
• Uni student and study abroad options
• Parent with children in preschool and flu shot schedules
• Middle aged professional and community to work by bicycle
• Young professionals and live exports

In small groups discuss and determine an appropriate strategy for how an appeal to pathos (emotion) might be used to identify with the audience. Record your thinking on the worksheet and prepare to present your proposal to the class in a 5-minute presentation.

• Brainstorm your understanding of the audience and the issue / message
• What goals might this persona have? Why might they care about the issue? Why might they choose to engage with it?
• What argument do you want to present? How do you want the audience to respond; what do you want them to do?
• How do you think you might relate to the audience? What emotion do you want to evoke? What will make them care?
• What techniques would you use to create the desired emotional response?
• Why do you think this is an appropriate visual strategy?

Present the following findings to the class for discussion:

• Who is your audience?
• Your observations of who you think the audience might be.
• How do they spend their time?
• What do they like/dislike?
• What might a typical day look like for them?
• Why should or do they care about this problem?
• Is there an aspect of this problem that might affect them or some part of their life?
• What message are they likely to relate to?
• How will you reach them?

GRAP 2030 // Week 6 // Assignment 3 and Research

Definition of terminology and examples for Assignment 3

Globalisation is the interconnectedness of the world today, a result of transportation and communications, global trade and the sharing of ideas and culture. It has been both a positive and negative influence on the world helping to bring everyone closer together while putting economic, political, social and environmental pressure on varying parts of the world.

Here is an interesting article on globalisation from a journalistic perspective but please note that I would expect you to do additional research into understanding globalisation. There are plenty of resources available at the Library so while you might refer to an article like this we also require academic support.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/14/globalisation-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-idea-that-swept-the-world

Research is being discussed this week. Use this as a starting place and bring it together with what you understand about design. Think about what sort of design you’re interested in and find some case samples of research applied to design. There are also books written by designers that include case studies, such as Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek, which might help give you some leads.

For example, one of my favourite advertisements related to motorcycling is called “Inconvenience Stores” which was a campaign run by the advertising agency CHE Proximity and looked at how to connect with motorcycle riders and encourage them to trust that SWANN Insurance knew what their culture was about.

https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/case-study-swann-inconvenience/

https://www.cheproximity.com.au/work/inconvenience-stores

For example, one of my favourite advertisements related to motorcycling is called “Inconvenience Stores” which was a campaign run by the advertising agency CHE Proximity and looked at how to connect with motorcycle riders and encourage them to trust that SWANN Insurance knew what their culture was about. Also, if you’re analysing this campaign, are you analysing the video or the campaign itself? What constitutes the design work?

Rhetoric as we’ve learned is multifaceted. You want to make sure you define what rhetoric is and how it applies to visual communication. Then, demonstrate your understanding of ethos, logo, and pathos, maybe kairos, and combine it with your understanding of semiotic theory (signs), and the development of meaning. Find an example of something that you personally find interesting, and deconstruct it to demonstrate your knowledge.

Cultural values and conceptual framing should be defined. Provide references. Use these to demonstrate your knowledge—this is what an essay is about. Examining and applying the theory we’ve been discussing to practice. 

Illustrated Essay so make sure that you find and include visual examples. Choose to define these as well though. Provide a description of the form of the illustration / image / advertisement and then elaborate on this within theoretical context. 

Read 'The World of Wrestling' description from Roland Barthes Mythologies (1973), pg 16

Wrestling, on the contrary, offers excessive gestures, exploited to the limit of their meaning. In judo, a man who is down is hardly down at all, he rolls over, he draw back, he eludes defeat, or, if the latter is obvious, he immediately disappears; in wrestling, a man who is down is exaggeratedly so, and completely fills the eyes of the spectators with the intolerable spectacle of his powerlessness.

This function of grandiloquence is indeed the same as that of ancient theatre, who principle, language and props (masks and buskins) concurred in the exaggeratedly visible explanation of a Necessity. The gesture of the vanquished wrestler signifying to the world a defeat which, far from disguising, he emphasises and holds like a pause in music, corresponds to the mask of antiquity meant to signify the tragic mode of the spectacle. In wrestling, as on the stage in antiquity, one is not ashamed of one's suffering, one knows how to cry, on has a liking for tears. 

Illustrated Essay

Aim:

Respond to one of the questions listed below in a thoughtful and informed way. Take a position and develop a well structured, logical, and convincing argument to support it. Draw on relevant literature and personal experience to provide context for your argument and use appropriate imagery to illustrate your points.

Objective:

Develop an argument in response to one of the essay questions in the section below.
Examine and think critically about design as a social practice and what this means in the context of the question you choose. Choose specific examples to provide context for your argument and draw on appropriate sources and imagery to support your ideas. Cite your sources accurately and consistently.
Think about how the issues you discuss connect and try to reflect on them in relation to the way you see your own practice.

Method:

Choose ONE of the following essay questions:

For Communication Designers and Product Designers:

1. What is Globalisation? How does it affect consumers and the world in which we live?
2. Of what value is user research to a successful design outcome? Explain your reasoning using selected examples or a specific case study of design?
3. What is rhetoric and what is its role in design practice and outcomes? (This response must go beyond defining ethos, pathos, and logos and look at how they are used in design.)
4. (For Communication Designers only) Choose one of the communication campaigns from the list below:
• The I am Nature environmental advocacy campaign ad from WWF.
• One of these Nature is Speaking environmental advocacy ads from Conservation International.
• One of these Like a Girl campaign ads from Always: Keep Going Robohawks OR, Unstoppable, OR, Super Bowl XLIX

*All links to these examples are supplied in learn online

...then, write a detailed critique of its impact from one of these three theoretical positions, either:

• The cultural values and conceptual framing it uses to communicate its message—how and what is its intended effect on the viewer?
• The rhetorical appeals it employs (including pathos, ethos and logos), how does it use these and what is the intended effect on the viewer?
• The social or environmental ethics it carries, how does it carry them and why?
1. (For Product Designers only) Choose one of the designers from the list below and find one example of their work:
• Marc Newson (see videos for week 12)
• Patricia Urquiola (see videos for week 12)
• Ray and Charles Eames (see videos for week 12)
• Hella Jongerius (see videos for week 12)

...then, write a detailed critique of it from your point of view using one of these three theoretical positions, either:

• The cultural values and conceptual framing it uses to communicate its purpose and value to the user?
• The rhetorical appeals it employs (including pathos, ethos and logos) to communicate its purpose and value to the user (consider how the object employs sense perception beyond just the visual)?
• The social or environmental ethics it does/does not carry, how it does/does not carry them and and why?

In response to your chosen question, you will develop a well-structured and critically informed argument. Think about what key issues, ideas and theories relate to the topic and the way in which you are formulating your viewpoint. Consider your position in response to what the question poses. Do you think strongly one way or another, or are there merits to both sides of the debate? Why? Is there conflict between what you think and how design currently functions in the area of concern?

You must examine a wide variety of sources that explore design and design thinking, including design history and contemporary criticism. Think about what these ideas mean to the way that design is practiced and consider design’s role in society and what impact it has, or could have. Also, consider sources from cultural studies and the social sciences. Support your argument with evidence from appropriate peer-reviewed literature and use images to provide context.

Assessment:

Submit a 2000 word essay (minimum) + references and bibliography using an appropriate and consistently applied referencing style of your choice (Chicago preferred). Use images as necessary. You must submit your file using the learnonline site as a Word (.doc or .docx) file only. Please use the essay document template supplied (below) and ensure your document it named and titled accordingly. Your file should be saved according to the following example: thornton.c_assignment_1.docx

This is an illustrated essay assignment and as such you must provide visual examples to support your argument. You can use as many images as is necessary to adequately illustrate your points but do not include anything that is not absolutely necessary. All images from other source must be properly referenced. Images of your own work should be stated as such along with a short statement explaining the context of when and why the work was created.

You must draw on at least 5 relevant sources and, by means of appropriate referencing, clearly demonstrate in your text how you are exploring these author’s ideas. At least 2 sources must be new ones you have identified, not only those already on the course reading list. All sources must be credible, academic, peer-reviewed texts. Keep in mind, in addition to when you use someone else's words, you must also cite authors every time you draw on their ideas to support your own.

This assignment is worth 40% of your course mark.

It will be submitted no later than 11pm on Wednesday 10th June via learn online only. Emailed and hard copy submissions are not accepted.

Submission and return of assessment tasks

See above under Assessment details.

*Please also note that in accordance with AAD School policy, this course does not apply a penalty deduction for late assessments and unless an application for an extension, together with supporting documentation has been lodged and granted prior to the due date, it is expected that all assignments must be submitted to deadline. Late submissions will not be marked.

The school's position is as follows:

"AAD does not apply a penalty assessment deduction for late submissions and late submissions may not be accepted at all.

Acceptance and assessment of late submissions for students who do not meet the APPM policy ‘Extension to complete an assessment task’ will be determined by the course coordinator.

Course coordinators may request evidence from the student to support their claims for late submission.

Course coordinators are required to keep an electronic record of student’s late submission agreements and include AADStudy in the email correspondence in order that submission requirements, conditions and dates are kept as records on the student’s file."

Research Questions

How might keeping a sketchbook, digital journal or 3D mockups, including sketches and drawings, qualify as research?
How might you improve on your use of ideating, sketching and drawing to turn it into research?
Why might your own design exploration of your ideas and beliefs outside of client work?
What knowledge can you gain from developing personal projects?

VSAR 1102 // Week 6 // Online Tutorial

Activity // Define

• Ethos
• Character
• Credibility
• Persuasion
• Information

Ethos is how you convince your audience of your credibility, maintain or exploit your reputation, and what you're known for.

"A speaker makes use of ethos (to increase credibility) if he refers directly or indirectly to his own qualities; pathos relates to appealing to the emotions of the public, and logos to the arguments he uses to try to persuade his audience.[1]" 

Ethos is "the credibility of the rhetor, the person or institution who wants to persuade the viewer of a message by means of an image" which may be employed using signs within the advertisement, such as lab coats on scientists, or using brand ambassadors to align themselves with a particular value. Sports brands use elite athletes to demonstrate the performance and value of their products, for example, or when charities use celebrities as their ambassadors. Those may also be established through more subtle design elements, such as a professional looking website as opposed to one which looks outdated or tacky.

Credibility asks do you look and act professional, or, at least suitable for the role. Eg. a lawyer might be expected to wear a suit and tie, a doctor or scientist to wear a lab coat, a tradesman to have overalls and a tool belt, an artist or creative to be covered in paint or look eccentric

[1] Van Den Broek, Jos, Willem Koetsenruijter, Jaap De Jong, and Laetitia Smit. ‘Visual Rhetoric: Images That Persuade’. In Visual Language: Perspectives for Both Makers and Users, 88–120. The Hague: Eleven International Publishing, 2012.

Persuasion according to Katherine McCoy in "Information and Persuasion: Rivals or Partners?" defines persuasion as “a basic definition of persuasion is an attempt to shape or change a user’s behaviour or attitude. Persuasion exerts a direct influence on behaviour, and promotes a response. Promotional communications encourage behaviour.” Persuasion makes use of seduction which “initiates the entry step in the communication process, promising a reward for the audience’s attention.”

“In these days of media saturation and multi-channeling, there is fierce competition for the reader’s attention, and readers have increasingly short attention spans. Seductive media can persuade a reader to pay attention, to get in bed with the message content and spend some time with it.”

Information has a number of definitions according to Merriam-Webster but we'll focus on the following:

1. a (1): knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction
       (2): intelligence, news
       (3): facts, data
    c (1): a signal or character (as in a communication system or computer) representing data 
2. the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence

In other words, Information is related to things we know to be fact. Within graphic design and visual communication, Katherine McCoy defines says many designers think of Information as “noble” when compared to Persuasion and Seduction employed by advertising. McCoy notes that Richard Sal Wurman coined the terminology “information architecture” to describe graphic design. This “vision of communications fits well with the modernist ideal of objective, rational design” and that “persuasion is distasteful, associated with the worlds of advertising and marketing—emotional, subjective, manipulative, and superficial.” Information, in other words, is often described in contrast to persuasion and seduction—which flex subjective appeals (pathos)—as the more objective message or content.

However, McCoy argues that information and persuasion are employed together in all forms of graphic design in order to attract and seduce the reader in order for the communication loop to be completed through reader interaction and understanding. Her example relates to a stop sign—you must engage and seduce the driver through the bright colour red in order for them to notice, read and understand the sign and then take the action required. She elaborates on this example in regards to electronic communications which employ various stimuli (visual, audio, and tactile cues) to direct readers to interact with the Web sites or software correctly.

Activity

Each group to analyse one of the following advertisements. Show and discuss with the class how ethos is being used and why you think it is effective. You have 15 minutes. If you run out of things to discuss regarding ethos, then move on to pathos or emotional content of this image.

VSAR 1102 // Week 6 // Reading // Katherine McCoy "Information and Persuasion: Rivals or Partners?"?"

McCoy, Katherine. ‘Information and Persuasion: Rivals or Partners?’ Design Issues 16, no. 3 (2000): 80–83. doi:10.1162/07479360052053342.

“Some content is understood as information and some content is labeled as persuasion, promotion, or even propaganda. In this scheme of things, information is noble.”

Richard Sal Wurman coined “information architecture” to describe graphic design. This “vision of communications fits well with the modernist ideal of objective, rational design” and that “persuasion is distasteful, associated with the worlds of advertising and marketing—emotional, subjective, manipulative, and superficial.”

Question

• What do you feel is the difference between graphic design and advertising?
• What forms of graphic design are also advertising?
• Is advertising always a bad thing and where might it have uses?
• Who participates in advertising?

Information and persuasion are not a dichotomy, “they are modes of communication that overlap and interact.”

Information must be persuasive in order to be noticed, distribute its content or encourage a behaviour as “even ostensibly informational content—factual, objective, even numerical—conceived with pure “informational” intentions of the sender—the airport or the local government—with no promotional intentions, must persuade many readers to pay attention, and to get involved.”

“Even an audience member that “needs” some information (i.e., for traffic safety) also must possess the “desire” for this information to complete the communications look. A message only becomes information when someone cares to make use of it.”

Persuasion “creates desire”.

Persuasion Definition

“A basic definition of persuasion is an attempt to shape or change a user’s behaviour or attitude. Persuasion exerts a direct influence on behaviour, and promotes a response. Promotional communications encourage behaviour.”

Seduction Definition

“Seduction is a key tool for persuasion.”

“Seduction initiates the entry step in the communication process, promising a reward for the audience’s attention. Once drawn into the communication piece, the quality and relevance of its information takes over, engaging the reader on deeper levels.”

“In these days of media saturation and multi-channeling, there is fierce competition for the reader’s attention, and readers have increasingly short attention spans. Seductive media can persuade a reader to pay attention, to get in bed with the message content and spend some time with it.”

Abbreviated to “these days…there is fierce competition for the reader’s attention…Seductive media can persuade a reader to pay attention…and spend some time with it [the message content’.”

Interactive Electronic Communications + Nonlinear Messaging

This provides a great discussion regarding digital navigation and UX design. However, in practice, I believe this is applied more to the banner and sidebar advertisements that websites serve daily which act as distraction from the information the reader visited the sight to glean. Advertising here doesn’t so much “seduce” the reader into paying attention to it but rather jumps in front of the reader shouting and waving its hands around like a child seeking acknowledgement.

“Persuasion and seduction seem especially relevant for the design of interactive electronic communications. Nonlinear messages make it difficult to orient and direct the reader with traditional graphic strategies conceived for linear message sequencing. An Internet site’s reader can choose their own paths, breezing by key content, and may be diverted by links to other sites on the Web.”

I’d argue that techniques employed by website marketing firms operate less on the idea of seduction and are based more on hijacking and subterfuge.

See: Reply-all #3 We Know What You Did

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/awhmex

Interview with the Ethan Zuckerman who invented the Internet popup advertisement with a link to the article https://www.eyerys.com/articles/people/1367632976/opinions/advertising-original-sin-web. Note that the original The Atlantic article appears to be unavailable online.

McCoy continues: “seductive communications strategies can direct and prompt the reader/user to follow comprehensible reading paths, and to make appropriate responses in software operation.” She attributes responses in interactive media such as highlight “Ok” buttons as “persuasion to reduce effort and to channel the reader to useful paths through complex material and difficult software tools.” For Websites, this might also correlate to the way sites react to user action such as drop down menus and highlighted options.

Seduction in Three Steps

Attributed to Julie Khaslavsky and Nathan Shedroff in “Understanding Seductive Experiences.”

1. Enticement “attractions attention and makes an attractive promise.
2. Relationship “gives small fulfillments (or feedback) and promises more fulfilment.
3. Delivery “on final promises, and the experience ends in a memorable way.”

This comes with a note “that effective seduction need not actually reach the third stage—that useful ongoing, long-term relationships can be based on incremental fulfillments.”

There’s a strong connection here to the way in social media such as Facebook and Instagram manage to engage and hold readers and users. Hearts and Likes provide validation for participation—the more you get the better you feel and the more you like—which encourages constant use. This seduction cannot be fulfilled within the application itself, however. Likes accumulate and fade away but never amount to the delivery fo total satisfaction.

She concludes “information/persuasion is not an “either/or” choice, but rather an “and/also” interaction between communication modes” and there can be “a complex interaction between the sender’s intentions, message content, the audience/user’s motivations, the communications context, and the designer’s strategies.