Summary
The author in this paper introduced an advanced graphic design technique which combines two objects or concept in a novel and meaningful way in conveying a message symbolically. To achieve this, the author presents a tool, VisiBlends, a flexible hybrid system that facilitates the generating of visual blends based on an iterative design process. The author first introduces and defines the problem of vidual blends and then decomposes the process of creating visual blends into sub-task. The baseline of this iterative design process is that let users brainstorm first regarding the concept and then find certain relevant types of images. Then the user annotates images for the convenience of the system automatically detects which images to blend. Finally, users evaluate each blend and decide whether or not iterate the process. To find out whether the system could support decentralized collaboration and co-located teams generate the visual blend, and whether this system would help novices create blends efficiently, the author conducted three user studies. The study results indicate that both decentralized groups and co-located groups can generate visual blends to express their messages efficiently. Further, the system VisiBlends indeed helps novices generate visual blends.
Reflection
I really like this paper, and I even want to try the system. Create something novel out of thin air is always hard. Therefore, people are continually looking for tools that can stimulate creativity and brainstorming, hoping that these tools can inspire us. The paper we discussed last week, which presents a tool to help find analogy from papers also trying to do the same thing. This really shows the essence of creative inspiration.
It really enjoins to see the study process, especially study 2, group collaboration on blends for messages. They discovered many constraints, but they also solved these constraints cleverly, such as focusing on the images of the other concept to increase the chance of finding a blend when the image of another concept is limited. I particularly like the example of women + CS. Workers were trying to avoid gender stereotypes, even though it’s tough to think about the creative way. Thus, the author concludes that it’s hard to meet all the constraints, and we have to decide where to compromise.
The human visual system inspires me of a way to create a database of visual patterns. Since human tends to recognize an object based on its 3D shape, silhouette, depth, color, and details, we could let a group of people identify a blurred shape, which contains certain features but does not clear enough to recognize the actual object. Then we can base on participants’ visual perspectives to perceive the user perspective of the metaphor of this shape.
For the third study, there is an interesting phenomenon pointed out by the author. Participants who saw VisiBlends first then removed VisiBlends have much worse performance than a participant who did not see VisiBlends at all. This reminds me of the participant in one of the previous papers said they are afraid to be spoiled by the automatic system leads to no active thinking. So I think this might be one of the cases.
Questions
- Do you think this system would help you generate a visual blend? Will you use the system to help with your design?
- It is mentioned in the paper that sometimes we need to compromise to achieve our goals, what do you think about this perspective? Can you think about the examples of this situation?
- What is the essential tool for you when you are trying to do the brainstorm?
- For the iterative design process described in the paper, which part is the most significant for you? Which part you think could be replaced by an automatic machine.
In response to your second question, I think that this is a great piece of advice. You can never make anything perfect. When you’re working alone, there simply isn’t are enough resources (be they time, money, or motivation) to build exactly what you want. Beyond that, I find that my own tastes change as I work on a project. What I thought I wanted last week now looks ugly this week. So, we need to compromise with ourselves to get anything done. The problem gets even bigger when we start working in groups, something that is very common in real life. Everyone has a different opinion of what a system should look like and what it should do. So, even if you had infinite resources and could exactly produce one person’s vision, others in the group would still not think it was perfect. All this is to say that it’s impossible to make things perfect. We need to compromise or we would never get anything done.
Hi, for your first question, I think the introduction of brainstorming can help me inspire inspiration and clarify the goals of my work. At the same time, the iterative method can continuously obtain better results. So I think the system can help me complete the task of visual blends, but I hope that in the process of using it, I can control the details of visual blends, I think this is important in creating a image.