Style refinement

I've been working to refine the visual style (and of course clarity) of the signs today. Keeping in mind both the pastel blue walls that dominate Gulfstream, as well as the use of red and yellow to attract attention in the shop, I created about 15 iterations. As I advanced through each version, I consulted with Lauren as well as student shop users for feedback.

I started by differentiating the elements using a warm color palette:



The variety of colors seemed a bit too high energy, so we decided to try something more subdued.



The hierarchy was less apparent with the green color palette, the contrast against the wall was lower, and the percieved importance of the information was compromised, not to mention the color-matching challenges when printing greens. I also pulled out some of the material and contact icons to get a feel for what it would look like. So ... we kept going.



A few interations later, we had this combination of the two previous ones, with the colors calibrated for CMYK printing. Some significant layout changes worth pointing out:
---In the Questions and Materials areas, placeholders are included. In previous versions, the blank spaces appeared incomplete, and the addition of the empty outlines indicates to the viewer that the options are not available (Materials) or are less preferred (Question) for this machine.
---The dark bar to the left and bottom of the two colored areas in the center of the main window were reduced in length - the lines appear more as an arrow and more easily direct the eye to the diagram.

We showed this layout to four students, and the consensus was that their eye went to the big black question mark 1st, the Band Saw label 2nd, and the big black Cleam label 3rd. We were headed in the right direction, but they felt that the light green bar on the bottom dominated their attention after the first glance - problematic. They all suggested the addition of red for the most important points, so we tried that...

And a few more iterations later we had a semi-final version:



Here, the green still attracts the eye, but the red asserts itself as 'safety information here.' The yellow is then one step below the red in the hierarchy.

Also, the proportions of the Materials and Clean panels were adjusted. This allows us to use the panels in a modular arrangement on the machines, adjusting for the different space availability at each machine or location.

Time to print it out, cut it up, and test it out!

3/05/2005