Little effort, mental or physical, is needed to use the “virgin polypropylene” Pipee stacking chair (image 1). As it is extraordinarily light (Lifetime Industries website, 2015) this chair fits the “kinematic… performance load” description (Lidwell, Holden and Butler 2003) . The chair design is so familiar, so usable, that the makers can rely entirely on retained, long-term memories. The chair complies with “cognitive… performance load” – and the Lidwell, Holden and Butler “usability” criteria. As this is one of a set of four identical chairs it somehow fits these writers’ “consistency” definition. While touted as durable, ‘recycle’ appears nowhere on chairs or website. Aesthetics appears an alien concept, and Stahel’s (1982) “cradle to cradle” care and thought is probably unheard of .
Image 1. Pipee chair. S. Harford personal image, 2015.Image 2. The Green Dot. S. Harford personal image, 2015.
An enigmatic Green Dot Symbol (2015) is in evidence (images 2 & 3) on the backs of three slightly-different-but-same and-performing-the-same plastic bottles of water. Symbols such as the Green Dot function like a logo – they carry a certain message. These messages are always “perceived” – correctly or incorrectly – in a certain way. So this small symbol lightens, (for better or worse), “mental … cognitive… performance load” (Lidwell, Holden & Butler, 2003).
Image 3. The Green Dot Symbol, 2015.
Image 4. Mauritius vongole. S. Harford personal image, 2015.
Image 4 shows is the former house of a most delicious creature. Always recognisable, all the same shape, colour and texture. The seeker’s performance, or cognitive load, is lessened, as, once seen and enjoyed they are forever recognisable. Regarding performance or kinematic load, again little effort is required. Although these creatures may vary slightly in shape, all fit beautifully into the palm of a human hand and can easily be gathered into a bucket, and quickly pried open to eat, raw. Kinematic -performance load can be further reduced if steamed. Then all open obligingly – for ready access to their tasty meat.
Lidwell, Holden and Butler (2003) state consistency can be achieved amongst various commodities when the same component, or components, are used in each of the products. Then a component looks the same, or similar, and operates similarly. This strategy is an “elaborate and systematic plan of action” (Princeton University, cited by Butler, 2012) with potential to make commodities easier to identify and use. Then one component and the associated knowledge may be consistently applied to all types of objects, in diverse circumstances. Lidwell, Holden and Butleridentify four types and provide examples: aesthetic, functional, external and internal consistency.
A key to achieving consistency is the aesthetics of an object or image (Crouch, 1999). This is a subjective idea, a vital “intellectual thread” about how objects appear to the viewer or user. Aesthetic consistency is potentially in conflict with “sudden chang[es] in technology” ((Butler, 2012) like “the first successful synthesis of three distinct types of devices”. This might lead designers to load “content into impenetrable shells”. Crouch (1999) says, when designing or creating an item to
understand how… [an audience’s] culture works in order to
communicate successfully to… [that] audience. Unless those
engaged in acts of communication, in this case visual, understand
the expectations of their audience, unless they have carefully
considered who their audience might be, unless they are aware that
they have… created a complex dialogue, then the objects they create
will have resonance for themselves but not necessarily for others.
Conversely, the function of an object or image Crouch (1999) says is based on an objective idea. It is the “practical aspect of an object or building”. These “can be tested [in a practical manner] against a reality”. Crouch also explains that the “designer works primarily in the economic base [of a culture], designing or making objects which can be commodified”. A functionally consistent, commoditiy is emergency housing like that recently designed in New York: “prefabricated walls… to customize or expand dwellings… not site-specific.. easy to move” (Denhoed, May 14, 2015).
Internal consistency, which develops trust (Butler, 2012), is a balanced combination of an object’s aesthetics (or form) and its function, and allows the user to focus on the task. This commonality is then, diversely, extended outwards to other, similar and diverse, systems of external consistency. .Lidwell, Holden and Butler (2003) recommend the use of established standards where available. Usability expert Jakob Neilsen recommends “recognition over recall” for game theory (cited by Minor, 31 January, 2012), and consistency or “modularity” shows in the extraordinary, only 3-component Bosse interior fitments and furniture range (Bosse, Acrchitonic, 2015).
These aims all comply with the modernist aim of simultaneous “uniformity and collaboration… [with] dialogue between the individual and the universal” (Crouch, 1999) as one type of component, and/or commodity, design (similar in aesthetics and function) is applied to a number of items in a system
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2003). Aesthetic-Usability Effect. Universal principles of design. Massachusetts: Rockport. Retrieved from Learning Portfolio Module 2, S1, 2015.
In 1973, the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Uni scanned a cropped 512 x 512 pixel image from a current Playboy magazine (Matthews, 11 May, 2015). This (image 1) relied on “aesthetic consistency to establish [its] unique identit[y] that can be recognized” (Lidwell, Holden and Butler, 20013). Matthews (11 May, 2015) says with “a resolution of 100 lines per inch, the resulting image was the perfectly cropped head and shoulders image 512 x 512 in size”. This image was/is consistent and “simplif[ies] usability and ease of learning” (Lidwell, Holden and Butler, 20013). The image has “variety” and “composition” (Evans & Thomas, 2004, p. 5), its details, “colour, focus, textures, reflections and flat regions… [which make] it amenable for testing a wide range of image processing algorithms” (Matthews, 11 May, 2015). In a huge, global marketplace this image, now one of the most viewed in the world, is aesthetically and functionally consistent.
Image 1. The original Lenna test image from the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Institute. SIPI image Database – 20150507. (Matthews, 11 May, 2015).
Today many consider this image sexist and offensive. Yet, in its aesthetically consistent original form this image delighted and amused many women. At that time women refuted the novel and functionally consistent Playboy magazine’s sexist underpinnings. What they did accept was that, in an era when relaxed censorship allowed women’s beauty to be celebrated Playboy (Image 2.)
Image 2. Playboy Magazine, December, 1953. Huffington Post, May 23, 2015.Image 3. Playboy logo, Google search, Screen shot, 2015.Image 4. Playboy T-shirts, Brelhan, 12 February, 2009, Pitchfork.
also showcased her rights, her independence, her sexual liberty, and her brains. (personal experience and conversations, 1970s-2015). Playboy’s Bunny “logo” (Image 3, Designboom, 2000), succeeded in signaling fun and personal liberty – aesthetic consistency (Lidwell, Holden & Butler, 2013). Now more than 60 years continuously published, Playboy’s famous logo (Image 4, Brelhan, 12 February, 2009), and magazine, are still successfully functioning consistently (Playboy Enterprises, 2015). From Image 5, through to Image 1, and today, Playboy continues in the: “elaboration of functionally complete objects for the sake of visual pleasure”Trilling (2001). By this process Playboy is still aesthetically consistent in “raising eyebrows, changing history and innovating style” (Playboy Enterprises, 2015).
Now, another aesthetically and functionally consistent logo and product. Peaceful Sleep’s (image 4) consistent approach ensures it is an un-forgetable product. Consistent shapes, sizes, and mechanisms (Lidwell, Holden & Butler, 2003) are already long familiar: the roll-on deodorant and shaving stick; squeeze tube sunblock and antiseptic creams, and spray cans of many previous insect repellents. Internally, the consistent creams and sprays look and feel attractive and reliably repel biting insects. – in any environment (Fodor’s Travel, 2015).
Image 4. Peaceful sleep. Personal image, 2015.
Great packaging restful blue and clean white colour contributes to the message. They demonstrate Evans’ and Thomas’ (2004, p. 26): “colour heightens the emotional and psychological dimensions of any visual image”.
Google Search. (2015). Screenshot of Playboy logos. Retrieved from s613photobucket.com
Harford, S. (2015). Image: Peaceful Sleep. Personal Image, 2015.
Huffington Post. (23 August, 2013).Image from: What the first issue of Playboy looked like.[On-line Newspaper]. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/playboy-first-issue_n_3803465.html
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2003). Aesthetic-Usability Effect. Universal principals of design. (pp. 18-19). Massachusetts: Rockport.
susanneah 