Micro and Macro Design

It is amazing the way in which little details like colors and contrasts could make a difference in information design. After reading about micro and macro design and layering and separation, I am more aware of the effect of bad representations of data around us. I am also aware that some of the information displays that surround us, involve much more thought than they reflect, for example the maps and the train schedules described by Tufte.

Reading about the important role played by colors in design made me remember several articles that I read over the internet about color theory and the psychological meanings that these involve. For example, black represents elegance and sophistication, red represents passion, and white represents purity. I liked the examples that Tufte gave where he compared diagrams that used 2 colors or more, and diagrams that used 1 color and were confusing and monotonous.

I also like the idea of 1 + 1 = 3 or more, where a sense of 3 or more elements could be achived through geometries, colors, and contrasts, because we can add a meaning to the designs without making them too complex, or saturated of information. In the other hand, sometimes using these methods, and trying to keep visual representations simple, could have a negative effect in the representation of some types of scientifcal information and exact, specific information. An example could be a programmers interface for languages like C++ or Java, which involves some levels of intuition in actions like debugging, but are difficult to learn due to the huge amounts of libraries and fucntions available for the user. I read about a project at MIT in which they are trying to simplify programming interfaces, but I believe that this simplification could involve less flexibility and less control in the design of applications.