Identifying Communication Design

This is an example of effective communication design. As we know, it is the Google search home page. Obviously, the goal of this design is to let people search what they want. This clear design emphasize Google’s searching function by putting the logo and the search box right in the center, leaving elsewhere blank. The page is designed in a pretty clean way without any redundant content people do not need to know for searching. Also, all the elements work nicely together on this page. For example, the shape and the line. The icon with a round shape on the right top corner make users easily log in their Google account. Besides, the line on the top makes a clear separation from bookmarks and search area. Last but not the least, the characters “Google” is designed with bright colors that can impress users.

This is an example of ineffective communication design. This Windows dialog box is to send a failure message to the user when an error occurs. However, this communication is not effective in this context, as it does not clarify what the error is, why it happens and most importantly, how to fix it. It seems that the only choice given to the user is to click “Close”. So this design only communicates a message to user that there is an error with a mysterious number 1142, but does not have any clue about the next steps in terms of how to fix it. Also, I think there should be some highlighting on “Click Close to exit the program” so that there will be some scaling or contrast as a necessary action for user to take. Other than that, the red color in this design works okay as an alert to people to notice.