The project I chose to analyze is “Malperception”, found in the Perception issue. Here, project designers, , question human visual perception by looking at visual disorders to reveal knowledge about how our visual system and the brain work. It is generally known that we see and perceive as an interaction of light waves and our optical system and neurons in our brains. However, sometimes we see things that are not there – these experiences are often thought to be hallucinations. But are they? Some people do not see as most conventionally do, and these differences can help us evaluate the human visual experience. The authors discuss the importance of our visual system in terms of evolution given the current digital age, where media often exploits our visual perceptions, making us perceive images and films as real, when they are not.
The navigation of the site is quite easy and intuitive. Actually, the way it’s set up really reminds me of a very basic course website page that a science professor would have: There is a menu bar on the left side of the screens with three main tabs are Malperception, Disorders, and Commentaries. Underneath each tab are sub-tabs, so there is no “hover over to get a drop-down list” option which we often find on more contemporary website designs. The aesthetic of the website is very classic and simple: the designers achieved a nice balance of colors, text, and images. Each disorder contains no more than one-page description that is well-written and easy to understand, with key concepts bolded in red. There are about 2-3 related images on each page.
The website overall is not that interactive, but it does have such an option, which is conveniently located at the bottom of each page: a tab called “Visual Demonstration”, which opens a new window with that is supposed to visualize how a person with the disorder sees the world. Some of these are loop-images, some are videos, some are graphics. There is also a voice-over recording of the project developer explaining the disorder, and a recording of a person with the disorder describing his/her experience. These visuals are actually quite interesting and not as grotesque as one could imagine. Trying to simulate those experiences in their visuals, the developers obviously used photoshop and video-editing techniques, and their edits were actually done quite skillfully.
The authors’ own description of the website project admits that because of the very topic of their project – visual misperceptions – they may be trying to accomplish something self-contradictory: “visualizing breakdowns in visual perception”. They do admit that their visualizations and presentations are somewhat fictional and speculative, but they should be given credit for constructing these complex visualizations based on the knowledge that the science of malperception has generated. This is actually why I think this project is very important and cool because it uses digital tools to convey ideas that cannot be experienced in real life, and cannot be as effectively communicated through traditional oral or written communication. By providing this visual element, it brings the audience to a common level of understanding.
Overall, I would say this project was very successful in getting its point across. I think it’s interesting to note that the “visual demonstration” tab is all the way on the bottom of each page rather than on top or on the side. It makes me wonder: Was this intentional? Did the website developers put it there so people would read the description first and only then click on the visualization? If so, it definitely worked on me. Plus, considering that the descriptions were no longer than a page (with large text size), reading actually didn’t feel like a burden. Thus, the interface was smartly designed to really educate the audience about the project’s content and also engage them with interesting visualizations.
The website was made in 2007, and I think today, it could actually use some “modernization” to be made more interactive. For example, instead of containing that static webpage design, the project could start up with a short clip of one of the visualizations in order to grab the viewer’s attention (that is, to have something for users to look at while the website is loading). The website should still keep its side menu though because it seems highly intuitive despite it being somewhat “old school” in terms of digital visual projects. Finally, I would make the “Visual Demonstration” button that’s on the bottom a little bigger and brighter, because an average user (who is typically in a rush to scroll through) may not even notice it; thus, it should be made more conspicuous.