Project One

Effective Design

This iOS app is an example of effective design for various reasons. McMaster is a company that supplies tools and parts for mechanical projects. They have designed their app to help customers find what they need quickly. They begin the search with a simple graphical grid of icons that are categories, and because they have graphics it is easy to start at a category if you don’t know the name of what you’re looking for. The way the app works is that after you tap an icon, you get to another grid of icons that further narrows your search. The customer keeps doing this until he or she has found the product they are looking for. The price of the product and other details are shown only at the end of the search. This is also effective because the text is minimal and only essential text is shown. There are no ‘Sponsored’ listings or ads or other non-essential items shown.

Ineffective Design

This newspaper ad is an example of ineffective communication design. If you are looking for something from Big-Five, you will have a hard time finding it. Although there are graphics on the page, the graphics often have repeated items that are overlapped or are crammed right next to each other which makes them difficult to see. There is too much text on the page which varies from being too big and ‘in your face’ and too small and barely legible. Also, there is much distracting information such as the specifications of the product or deal-related information such as ‘Sale’ or ‘special price’.