Shannon&Weaver brought up a few good points to keep in mind about visual communications:
- Level A: Technical
- How accurately can we communicate our message?
- What system should we use to 'encode' and 'decode' our message?
- Is that system universally compatible or does it require special equipment or knowledge
- Level B: Semantic
- How precisely does our choice of language. symbols or codes convey the meaning we intend?
- How much of the message can be lost without the meaning being lost as well?
- What language should we use?
- Level C: Effectiveness
- Does the message affect behavior the way we want it to?
- What can we do if the required effect fails to happen?
The designers role is mainly the semantics of a project. Needing to communicate the message with out changing it or adding to it.
The technical level of design is often done prior/without the designer, which can be a fine thing or sometimes a bad thing. Figuring out which mode of communication can often make or break design. If your target audience is senior citizens who, for the most part, stay away from internet, and you create a website, you've completely missed the mark as to what would be the best mode of communication.
Feed back is a must in any good design. If you design something you think is brilliant and award-winning but never get any feed back it will more than likely bomb like no other if you dont treat it with the utmost care.
Noise is a rather big thing to keep in mind when it comes to design, and the successfulness of it. Noise, in this reading, is broken down into three levels. Level A are the obvious problems, printing smudges, spelling errors, etc. Level B noise is the receivers cultural background as well as their social group(s). Level C noise is, essentially, being able to pick it out from everything else. The overall effectiveness of the design. Noise can also be caused by excessive aesthetics applied to a message, thereby blurring what the actual message is behind unneeded and maybe even confusing aesthetic choices. However, if used right, aesthetic choices can actually help reinforce and reiterate. Redundancy adds context and aids understanding, and offers an "error check.
