Identifying Communication Design

Ineffective Communication Design

The above picture portrays an emergency safety sign in the event of a fire. It is situated in Doherty Hall, and tells the students and faculty members of Carnegie Mellon to use the stairways instead of the elevators during a fire. Although the sign’s purpose is clear, the design is ineffective. The size of the sign is too small, and so makes the sign hard to see from afar. In the event of a fire, the sign would lose its purpose because no one would be able to see it in the dark or the frenzy. The designer could also have placed more emphasis on not using the elevator instead of distributing the space with the other texts. Since the sign is seen next to the elevators, a picture that places emphasis on not using the elevator during a fire seems more appropriate. Logically, the person should be going up the stairs because this was found in the basement of the building.

Effective Communication Design

The above picture depicts the home screen of Apple. The purpose of this screen is to show the website visitors the company’s products, and market those products to the visitors. Apple is known for its simple and sleek design, and the home screen substantiates that claim. Majority of the space consists of the high definition photo of the iPhones, and the balanced distribution and colors of the iPhones makes the photo more attractive. There is a clear black and white theme in the site, and provides good contrast so that visitors could see the texts. When describing its product, Apple simply uses much numbers and as few words as possible. In return, the home screen highlights the strong specs of the product whilst not boring the visitors.