Skip to page content or skip to Accesskey List.
Search evolt.org
evolt.org login: or register

Work

Main Page Content

Outdesigned by your computer?

Posted on September 02, 1999

in Visual Design

by Martin Burns (MartinB)

Rated 3.78 (Ratings: 2) (Add your rating)

Log in to add a comment
(4 comments so far)

Want more?

 
Picture of MartinB

Martin Burns

Member info | Full bio

User since: April 26, 1999

Last login: October 04, 2009

Articles written: 128

A study published in Science magazine claims that trained computers make better designers than untrained humans in producing creative adverts.

The study found that computers programmed with procedural rules of cognative psychology produced adverts which were consistently rated by a team of experts as being better than those produced by non-professional designers.

Before you get worried and change career to merkin combing, the authors also note that ads produced by professional designers were better than computers, and that the very best creativity involves a spark of randomness which cannot be built into procedures.

There's more at the BBC.

Martin Burns has been doing this stuff since Netscape 1.0 days. Starting with the communication ends that online media support, he moved back through design, HTML and server-side code. Then he got into running the whole show. These days he's working for these people as a Project Manager, and still thinks (nearly 6 years on) it's a hell of a lot better than working for a dot-com. In his Copious Free Time™, he helps out running a Cloth Nappies online store.

Amongst his favourite things is ZopeDrupal, which he uses to run his personal site. He's starting to (re)gain a sneaking regard for ECMAscript since the arrival of unobtrusive scripting.

He's been a member of evolt.org since the very early days, a board member, a president, a writer and even contributed a modest amount of template code for the current site. Above all, he likes evolt.org to do things because it knowingly chooses to do so, rather than randomly stumbling into them. He's also one of the boys and girls who beervolts in the UK, although the arrival of small children in his life have knocked the frequency for 6.

Most likely to ask: Why would a client pay you to do that?

Least likely to ask: Why isn't that navigation frame in Flash?

4 comments on this article. Log in to add your comment | Rate this article: Rate this node 1 star.Rate this node 2 star.Rate this node 3 star.Rate this node 4 star.Rate this node 5 star.

Submitted by damclean on September 3, 1999 - 10:53.

I thought there was some code for that. Be creative computer. Oh sure, computers can do anythig by the book, but they cannot perform the unexpected. But is it a dangerous trend? Are we teaching our computers to do to much? Do we really want computers to think for themselves? Are we part of the Matrix, and if so is it based on the code for Windows 2000? Scary thought.

login or register to post comments

Submitted by gampid on September 3, 1999 - 11:52.

This seems obvious. There are certain aspects of design that are just rules to follow. People who have never thought about design tend to be pretty bad. A program can easily get the basics but understanding how a layout will look given the larger cultural context is a much fuzzier problem.

login or register to post comments

Submitted by MartinB on June 9, 2000 - 15:56.

The study proved that a computer provided with a template, based on ads developed by talented people, could out perform people with no guidence or training. The important "discovery" of the study is demonstrating how constraints an limitations help the creative process. Something anyone faced with a deadline already knows.

login or register to post comments

Submitted by erika on August 22, 2000 - 00:35.

x Maybe the people at Science can have a computer design their site. It couldn't hurt, and might help. Speaking of which, what means, "better?" As in the computer's work was "better." Did they do usability studies? What criteria were the team of "experts" using? I suppose I'd know the answer if the Science magazine were better designed. My brother has an old poster for a Jimi Hendrix show in Stuttgart 1969. Jimi's image is done in black and white, colorized slightly, with all kinds of colored cords coming out of his hair, and there are switches in his neck. All the information is there, but the image is fantastic. Computers are programmed by humans. Humans are programmed by the Creator. The Creator is Creative.

login or register to post comments

The access keys for this page are: ALT (Control on a Mac) plus:

evolt.orgEvolt.org is an all-volunteer resource for web developers made up of a discussion list, a browser archive, and member-submitted articles. This article is the property of its author, please do not redistribute or use elsewhere without checking with the author.