Exercise 9

Part One

Philip Thiel (Visual Awareness and Design: An Introductory Program in Conceptual Awareness, Perceptual Sensitivity, and Basic Design Skills, 1981) suggests that

By means of this problem we propose to further illuminate the subject of visual expression and to involve you in the critical issue of 'visual integrity' or the matter of the 'wholeness' or 'honesty' of the relationship of form and function.

Take a word from the following list. Determine the meaning (or one of the meanings of this word). Convey that meaning of the word using only typographic forms, as lettered in an easily readable form and format, which in and of themselves graphically convey the idea or concept...in short, your design should both 'say' the word and 'be' the word.

Pointer widgets/clip art are easy to find and come in a wide variety, for example:

The challenge is to convey complex orientation information without words. Consider the following mapping of a web site:

Suppose your client gave this sketch to you as indicating the relationships among the various pages of his web site. An interpretation of this sketch: The start is the opening page; by clicking an icon you shift to the A page, by clicking another icon you move to the B page. From the B page you can click one icon to return to the Start page, or another icon to move to the C page. On the C page you can click an icon to move to the D page. From the D page, an icon will take you back to the start page.

Another way of indicating the relationship among the contents of the pages would be an outline form:

	Start
		1. A page
		2. B page
			2.1 C page
			2.2 D page
	

Build a website with the indicated pages. You can populate the web pages with any content you like. Design nonverbal directional icons to guide surfers around among the pages. Nonverbal means that you cannot use any alphabetical characters or words (i.e., you cannot use the word "start", "next", "back", "home", etc.), and you can't use a map to indicate position.