This week we looked at introducing illustrations into our interfaces as well as looking at why people use illustrations in their interfaces and most importantly how they can make data and information a lot easier to understand.
Many designers tend to use illustrations or images of some sort in their content as it is a lot easier for an individual to understand and digest the information as people can comprehend imagery faster than words and overall prefer looking at images than a huge block of text on their screen. Through illustration or imagery we can create evocative images which will create positive response to the work.
Illustrative work such as the illustrations used within the Uber app help us visualise ourselves in the situations and also provides us with information about the service. For example during COVID Uber used illustrations which demonstrated mask wearing in their vehicles and adapted their illustrations to reflect the current pandemic which was going on. I think this is not only good as it makes people feel more at ease but it also educates them to the changes Uber made towards the pandemic using a visual and easier to interpret way.
The word ‘illustrate’ means to give clarity and illuminate to individuals what you want to say in a clear way.
An example I though of was a Lego instruction book to build something. Lego use illustrations to explain to a person how to create the final product, breaking down where each brick goes and making it really easy for a person to understand how to build it without any problems. However recently my brother got a knock off Lego kit which came with instructions with very weak illustration or at some points no illustrations which made it a lot harder for him to understand how to build it and create the final product. This experience gave me a great understanding to why good illustration is so important because it allows a person to understand a task much easier and complete the task faster.
We can use illustration within our work to highlight certain features such as McDonalds using illustration in their app to display that they sell burgers and fizzy drinks and once the person is enticed into their brand, they will display them photographs of the actual products.
When using illustration within a user interface we must ensure it has meaning behind it, it is recognisable to people, it is somewhat straight forward looking to everyone and that it provides clarity to information. As well as those functional uses for using illustration we must also take into consideration how it looks on screen or in real life such as how attractive it is, is it harmonic, is it the correct size on the screen and does it help enhances a uses experience? All these points are so important when we use illustration in UI as if it is use incorrectly it could result in a bad user experience.
These are normally used as a way to represent a brand or product. An example I thought of was how Kellogg's use mascots for their different types of cereals.
We use these to tell a story to the user or visualise calmness through using simplistic line drawings. An example of this which we looked at was Meomi and how they have used illustration to turn the website into a little tree house.