Aesthetics

UXD 60001: Principles & Concepts

Reflective Journaling Week 7

I can’t believe this is the final week of my first class on my journey to a Masters in User Experience Design at Kent State University. It has been a great week of refreshing my brain on the design principles that relate to aesthetics, like color, texture and pattern, and how they impact visual communication, legibility, and usability.

While the lectures and readings were refreshers for me, the one part of the lectures that stuck with me was the LinkedIn Learning Module on How Color Shapes Meaning. There was one moment in the learning when Mary Jane Begin discussed how red and white in particular can have vast different meanings in different cultures. While my brain immediately thinks that each color has a different meaning, I didn’t immediately think about the cultural differences. It will now be something I think about sooner rather than it being an afterthought.

Each week we have to collect pins for a Pinterest Board to share with our class mates. While I focused on articles and pieces of information as it related to design aesthetics, a lot of my colleagues chose to focus on the homework assignment and find persona examples and what makes a good persona. This was also something that I enjoyed this week. Looking through all their pins on personas was a great way to get the creative juices flowing for the homework this week.

Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash