This weeks Lecture was about Illustration in user interface design.
Using illustrations in design is good, as images are understood more quickly than text. As well as this using illustrations save the designer from using more text on their website which also gives the user a better experience.
Illustrations can also be used to make things ‘look fun’ such as something boring such as Mailchimp. Mailchimp uses bright yellow with sketched illustrations which would make more people use it ‘as it looks fun’ while also giving the user a better experience.
Another example is Uber, which its illustrations explain ‘what Uber does’ which if the UI used all text it would not be as nice and friendly as using illustrations and possibly intimidate the user.
A unique type of illustration for a UI is a delighter, which could be something like a loading screen where usually it is boring making the user wait, where a delighter would incorporate a illustration into this to almost ‘cheer up the user’. Recently a app for a brand I like ‘RSVLTS’ got redesigned which they have updated their loading circle into a delighter which forms their logo. As well as this they constantly change their splash screen with new graphics relating to upcoming releases, this is something I want to try for my music player app project. The screenshot shows half of the glasses of their logo.
Good illustration also makes good sales. For example in the lecture drop box (2017) was mentioned showing their illustrations for their pro plan, compared to the standard plan. The standard plan was a small fishbowl, with a sad fish inside which the pro plan showed a luxurious castle with lots of room. Doing this pressured users into buying the premium edition which actually saved drop box lots of money.
From this I understand that illustrations are used to in light and explain ‘what it does’ to the user, illustrations makes things less threatening and softens things a bit and adds visual detail to a UI design making it overall more aesthetically pleasing.
There is a variety of illustration a designer can add to their designs such as mascots, thematic, iconic, diagrammatic, data visualization, hyper realistic, vectors and hand drawn.