Psychology is an integral part of human life. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that knowing and understanding the psychological effects of design gives designers an advantage.
In Web Design, colors, fonts, graphics, and spacing, all impact the way people view the website. These factors determine the way users feel about the content, and consequently, how they view the company whose website they are navigating through. Therefore, it is important that designers are conscious of the psychology that the color, font, graphics, and spacing they use will have on their users so they can design their website to match the company’s brand.
To learn more about the psychology behind web design visit the link below.
Big companies are often criticized for their lack of involvement when it comes to efforts following a natural disaster, and their philanthropic efforts are many times mainly to shed a good light on their companies. TechCrunch tackled this topic following the Coronavirus pandemic, and how it not only has effected these companies, but how Big Tech has been using their resources to help those feeling the effects of Coronavirus.
In this article, it is obvious that the tech world has been affected through the countless events and seminars that have been cancelled or postponed due to the virus. E3, F8, and WWDC have all been cancelled following the world’s response to COVID-19 and the advice to self-quarantine. Additionally, many heads of companies have donated tests, resources, and preventative measures such as masks in response to the backlash many are facing for not doing their part.
With the threat of coronavirus causing widespread panic, the tech industry has been working around the clock to make it possible for the general public to self quarantine while continuing with daily life. Developers are currently making use of existing technologies to adapt to the needs of quarantined individuals. With the progression of the virus and with time, it is expected that new technologies will come from this event largely for the betterment of society.
In this Forbes article, some examples of current technology being used in new ways is laid out clearly. For example, AI has been used recently to help healthcare workers diagnose the disease without coming into contact with infected individuals. These innovative technologies have helped prevent the spread of Coronavirus to many individuals who have compromised immune systems.
It’s no surprise to me that online hate speech has been at a steady increase worldwide. Incidents have been reported on nearly every continent as more and more people move online. As online presence continues to increase globally people are far more likely to aim towards racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Societies confronting the issue must deal with questions of free speech and censorship on widley used tech and social media platforms.
Many social scientist have been looking into different social media post that can potentially inspire acts of violence. In Germany, “a correlation was found between anti-refugee Facebook post for Germany party and attacks on refugees”(Laub 2019). Sri Lanka has also had post online spreading rumors targeting Tamil Muslim minority. There has been many debates on how countries plan to regulate hate speech online. For example, the U.S. social media platforms have broad latitude, each establishing its own standards for content and methods of enforcement.
Founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma pledged to donated two million protective masked across Europe in response to the Coronavirus epidemic. A cargo plane with over 500,000 masks and test kits landing today in Italy and Belgium – with more flights due to arrive in the coming days. In addition to the supplies being shipped over to Europe, Ma will also donate 500,000 Coronavirus skits and a million masks to the United States. Read more about Ma’s donation here: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/jack-ma-donates-two-million-masks-for-coronavirus-crisis-in-europe-12538652
Artificial intelligence is not new to biases. In fact, these machines typically can become more biased than humans themselves, and at a much faster rate. Many companies have learned this lesson the hard way.
It came to knowledge that most of Amazon’s hires were men. Amazon uses an artificial intelligence machine to scan resumes and searches for specific word types that the company is looking for in a candidate. When studied, it came to be known that Amazon’s AI had been scanning for more aggressive words that were typically used by men – and because of this, the machine then came to teach itself that men were the preferred candidate, and thus, explains the gap in men vs. women hired for Amazon.
On the other end of the spectrum, AI can increase a turnover rate of more engaged employees when engaged in the actual workplace versus in the hiring process (which comes down to the difference of AI being correctly and incorrectly implemented).
Humu Inc. is an AI machine that is being used to change employee’s behaviors without taking away their right to choose – it sends out ‘nudges’ as emails to employees suggesting small behavioral changes in a way that makes it seem like making it their idea, not a judgmental message from one’s boss. This behavior change, or nudge, is then supposed to increase the amount of engaged employees. Engaged employees in the workplace are happier, and then go on to perform better work because of this nudge given by the AI in the form of an automated email.
When implemented correctly in the workplace, AI can really be helpful – however, figuring out what is appropriate or inappropriate for AI to be involved in, especially in the workplace, is a very thin line.
From an article titled, “Designers should avoid pure black typography — but which dark gray should we use?” I expected that the article would talk a lot about grays, but that was not my experience. The first three paragraphs spoke about a company and how excited the author was to design for this company. I think this is misleading and an attempt to redirect the reader to the website to check the design. Talking about redesigning a website could simply be sufficed as “this is what I learned while redesigning a website” without going into detail about what the website is. The author got way too personal while writing the article – there wasn’t enough advice to justify writing it. It was about the process and every thought the author while designing it… without actually saying anything. I did not think this was informative and it really did appear as an advertisement because of how periodically the company who was redesigned came up. It appeared not only at the beginning, but throughout the article.
Public health crises like the Coronavirus have many other subtle and less-noticed effects. We are also facing a war on privacy currently. Civil liberties and digital privacy is at risk due to new legislation that could ban encryption, authorize searches and surveillance, and much more. While everyone has their attention focused on the public health emergency and other issues, we may be less likely to notice government efforts and legislation that infringes upon our privacy and security. Times like these are perfect for a governmental agency looking to crack down on privacy and surveil citizens even further. Keep watch for bills being passed that have anything to do with these topics. Shady legislators may even try to combine privacy and rights-violating components with other, more unsuspecting bills. Actions being taken by authorities for “betterment of public safety” or “public health” are often in violation as these terms are used to justify actions like unconstitutional surveillance, and more.
In the future self-driving cars will be all over the place. Creating new algorithms to help these cars navigate is important. This technology will make self-driving cars much more safe. With less opportunities for these cars to have accidents people will also feel more comfortable with the idea of self-driving. I can’t wait to see what is coming in the future! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200224152700.htm
Kevin Roose from the New York Times thinks working at home is overrated. He tells us this while working in sweatpants and eating his emergency rations.
Many people during this time of the coronavirus are being sent home, students included. Even those of us here at FSU are being shut down for a while after Spring Break. This has caused problems for lots of people. Travel is restricted, everyone is worried about their health, the economy is tumbling. We are heading toward a future with no offices, no classrooms. And that is not a good thing.
Many places will have to adapt very quickly to a new environment. Classes that were not offered online now need to be. Work that previously put off hiring remote workers is now scrambling to set up remote access.
I can dig sitting at home. Shorts, sweatshirt, home-cooked ramen (I’m a college student), not spending any money on gas, no guy next to me tapping his pencil the whole lecture, work at my own pace. Sounds great. Or is it?
We need social interaction. Daily. We need a creative outlet, and that is other people. Barring the world going 28 Days Later on us, we need to interact with each other.
While we may be more productive at home without distractions, we miss out on creativity. We don’t want to be lonely. According to the article, Silicon Valley is even demanding that workers showing up.
Steve Jobs said that people work best when they can bump into each other randomly. You hear about other people’s ideas and it spurs you to do the same.
We thought we were going to love working from home, but further understanding of the nature of us, as humans, points to not working at home if needed. We get bored at home, we need to see other people. We want to create, we want the hustle and bustle.
While the school is going to close and some of you may cheer it, just wait till spring break ends and after those first few extra days off, you’ll be wishing they open school up soon.
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 