InfoD-Cafe: Designers' criticisms to the design of experimental material

[Rob Waller]

The paper Paul is referring to is Macdonald-Ross M. and Waller RHW  
(1975), 'Criticism, alternatives and tests: A conceptual framework  
for improving typography?', Programmed Learning and Educational  
Technology, vol 12, 75-83. It was part of a special issue on  
typographic research, and urged researchers to respect the tacit  
knowledge of expert designers.

You could also look at pages 193-3 of Waller RHW and Macdonald-Ross M  
(2000), 'The Transformer revisited', (232kb), Information Design  
Journal, vol 9, 177-194.

This includes a description of the experiment published by Madeleine  
Vernon, a leading psychologist of her day, in her popular 1963  
Pelican book on The Psychology of Perception, in which she shows that  
what she claimed were 'Isotype' charts do not work. But the actual  
chart she tested was a hopelessly amateur version. We asked Marie  
Neurath to redesign it, and our own tests (unpublished) found it to  
work well.

__________________________________

Rob Waller
Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
University of Reading
T +44 (0) 118 378 6411
M +44 (0) 7850 665933
r.waller at reading.ac.uk


On 26 Jun 2008, at 10:50, Paul Stiff wrote:

> Michael Macdonald-Ross and maybe also Robert Waller ...
>
> I may be able to find examples, but can't stop at the moment
>
>
> paul
>
>
> On 26 Jun 2008, at 10:20, Jose de Souza wrote:
>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> I need your help once more.
>>
>> One of the criticisms made by designers in relation to the  
>> validity of
>> empirical research comparing "equivalents designs" for a given
>> information problem
>> (e.g., visual instructions, diagrams etc.)
>> is that these designs (experimental material) are per se badly
>> designed or amateurish.
>>
>> Do you know any written example (i.e., paper or book) of such
>> criticism?
>> Who are the authors of such criticisms?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -- 
>> José de Souza
>> PhD Student
>> Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
>> The University of Reading
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>
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>
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