Studio Practice: Book Structure Tests

Thinking back to earlier research about eye tracking on a screen, what did I learn from this?

1. Most valuable content should be at the top.
2. Headline size dictates where people look most (F shape studies).
3. Digestible chunks of info are best, people don't focus as intensely on long lines of text.
4. White space is important, allows for easier intake of info.
5. Left side of the page is dominant for screen but physical print it's central.

^ A lot of this is to do with hierarchy of a page, making the audience ready the page the way you (as the designer) want them to.

How does this fit within my project?
Wanting to bring attention to the body when interacting with art/design.
- So I could manipulate the hierarchy of a page to see the impact on the audience and how they read the page? Similar thinking to the poster task (which revealed most people looked more towards the top left on first glance, maybe because we're trained to do this?).
- Or I could have the page be designed to make it as easy to take the information in using basic hierarchy techniques and then placing in interventions to make the audience aware of how their body would naturally ready a page.

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Page One: Great Expectations
Seventy Graphic Designers

Remembered this publication, thinking of redesigning a piece of works about somaesthetics and then employing methods to disrupt the reading process to make you more aware of your body when reading the book.

Winterhouse

Tests of Layout

(1)Columned text with drop cap titles.

- Drop cap makes it seem very formal, looks a lot like a newspaper layout.

- Page is very full of text, maybe too full as audience won't focus on one area for long.

(2)Title placed alongside text.

- Here wanting to mess with the traditional hierarchy of the page by having the titles run alongside the text rather than be in the top left.

- Text is more centred to make it easier to read, still feels overwhelming as a piece of text.

(3)Same idea as before but with roman numerals.

- Looks very formal, boring potentially.

- Doesn't make you want to read it.

- Simplicity is nice, but needs to be more considered.

(4)Developing a more manageable piece of text.

- Smaller allowing the audience to focus on each paragraph without it being overwhelming.

- The eye will focus better on these pages than previous tests so any intervention (thermochromic paper) will be more successful at breaking a pattern, and therefore bringing attention.

(5)Paragraphed text with no cohesive structure.

- Makes the audience's eyes move most when looking at the page, as the layout isn't traditional.

- Still some structure as the pages read top left to bottom right still.

(6)Centred and paragraphed text.

- Taking into account the need for white space on a page.

- Small centred text works well for print as this is where people's attention is mostly focused.

- Basic structure, predictable, easy to read.

(Below) (7)Idea of having the text positioned on the page depending on what the text is taking about.

- Having little continuity, making you more aware of what your eyes are doing because the layout isn't predictable.

Think number (6) is on the right tract, with the intervention it seems like it is going to be the most successful.
(7) Is also a good test, having a more sporadic publication could be interesting to play with.

- However, with this idea it would be very much bespoke to this book only. It would be nice to see a more traditional layout with the intervention as the intervention will be more obvious when compared to a regular book.

I should look into other ways of getting people to move the books around, bringing their bodies into the way the publication should be read.

Ideas:

- Have each chapter begin with a series of prompts on how to read it

- Have the direction of the text change on the pages, making the reader have to turn the book around to read it.

Rotated text mock up: