IXD104 – Week 5 – Illustrating Interfaces

This weeks lecture focused on how we can illustrate and hone in on improving our interfaces in a range of ways. We were shown a range of previous examples of travel app interfaces which I found very helpful for my process of creating interfaces. In particular the slides showcasing skylines of San Francisco and New York gave me ideas that I can incorporate into my designs. The Skate and Locate app screens impressed me especially in regards to the colour scheme and Logo-mark which gave it a bright and unique touch. Being reintroduced to the Material Design website and the Figma design pack which I used and redesigned some elements from in my own interface work.

We were shown the essence of illustration and how it aims to clarify, to make clear by giving or by serving as an example or instance, to provide with visual features intended to explain or decorate and to show clearly. The segment about sketching I found very useful as its a part of the design process I sometimes struggle with but the tips on how to become a better sketcher helped me a lot. Seeing how using a thicker pen, being thoughtful about colour, being thoughtful about colour and timing yourself gave me a boost about how I can make my sketches much better in the future.

After todays lecture I can see now how illustration should be a range of things; meaningful, recognisable, clarifying, attractive and Harmonic and corresponding with general stylistic concept. My favourite examples of Illustration in UI were the mascots and characters, vectors and iconic.

Seeing the process of workflow introduced new ways of researching to me including using Pinterest and brand guidelines to generate new designs.