HARTS visuals

Coffeemaker Instructions

Dishwasher Instructions

Emergency Contact Poster

Kitchen Map

HARTS Floor Plan

HARTS Entrance

Trash Photograph

Our seven graphics for this assignment used visuals to convey meaning through symbols and color (like in the keys for both floor plans), color contrast (in the photographs of the trash and main entrance locations), icons (like the phone in the emergency contact sign), and visuals of individual steps (in the dishwasher and coffeemaker instructions). Because of the desire of our client to have mainly text on the instructional posters (we did condense the text by about 2/3 on each poster from their current instructional posters on-site), we kept text but used color and photographs to show the steps as well. The floor plans are likely to support learning because they clearly show locations in the kitchen and site overall which are necessary for volunteers to know. The color contrast through saturation that the two photographs have, show the exact locations of where to enter the church and where trash needs to be taken out. By looking at these photographs, the viewers eyes are drawn toward the color portions, which include the vital information.

In terms of PARC (proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast), we tried to create repetition with colors throughout all seven graphics to convey that the images belong together. Because the color portions of the two photographs focus on red and green, we decided to incorporate these two colors into our visuals. We also used consistent body text font throughout and kept the colors of font and backgrounds mainly black and white, per the clients request. The graphics on both instructional poster had the cutout effect applied in Photoshop so they were more visually appealing and consistent. Both photographs utilize the same effects. Both maps, although the have 2 separate functions (emergency/convenience) so they look different, they both use the same font, color echo, and black rectangles to show locations. The three posters also have repetition so they fit together. The appliance instructions are for general use in the church so they are slightly different than the emergency poster which is used only for HARTS (it has the logo and a different heading). We did repeat the font and font colors for the body text and added borders around each sign. For proximity, for each graphic, we attempted to group like pictures and text together through alignment and the bolding of text. We did keep alignment in mind most of the text was left aligned, except in the emergency contact poster, which is right aligned. The two photograph visuals use contrast between the colored portion and the grey-scale portions to show importance, while most other contrast are between the white background and black/colored fonts. Although contrast is not particularly vivid, it is distinguishable enough to easily read font and view pictures.

Through what our client described as their main needs (finding locations and having instructional posters) these graphics do meet their needs. After showing the posters to our client last Thursday, they were very pleased. Our client wanted very simple graphics that would approved for use in the church, for this reason we did not add too many effects or colors. The visuals are clear and color-coded, so volunteers should be able to use them easily and efficiently. The graphics contained in each visual have a purpose and, therefore, are not distracting but helpful to the learners. 

Clarity: Our overall message is to provide information about our site, although each visual serves a different purpose, they all fall under this message. They are meant to provide simple instruction about the site. Because the visuals were kept simple per the client's request, there are not elements that are fighting for attention, but instead they are supporting each other, like the text and color-coded graphics on the instructional posters.
Audience:  The target viewer are the HARTS volunteers, although the audience is also the church Parish, since the designs must be approved by them before being hung in the church. Our client described the older population of volunteers as being comfortable with the worded instructions that are hung above the appliances now, for this reason we simplified them significantly and added graphics to support the instruction, but we did keep words. Because it is mostly an older, more traditional demographic we relied heavily on the primary colors. If these graphics were people, they would act knowledgeable but simple.
Purpose: These pieces are meant to inform the target audience of church locations and appliance instructions. Our client does know the purpose of our visuals.

These visuals were created by April, Charity, and Katie