Orientador: Dr. Omar Khouri / Banca: Dr. Milton Sogabe / Banca: Dr. Julio Mendonça / Resumo: O propósito desta pesquisa é analisar, focalizando na trajetória do designer e artista concreto Alexandre Wollner, a relação com as cores na formação do design visual, processo que ele define como "metamorfose evolutiva". Da revisão histórica do design, destaca os componentes dessa relação que contribuíram para o desenvolvimento da atividade na Europa nos séculos XIX e XX. Acompanha sua assimilação no Brasil, em meio à revolução cultural na década de 1950, analisando a atuação dos artistas concretos, responsáveis por integrar a arte aos processos industriais e aos meios de comunicação, dando início à nossa cultura do design. Percorre a experiência de Wollner, cuja intensa participação o coloca como principal referência na formulação dessa cultura, e discorre, por meio de seus relatos sobre a contribuição do concretismo paulista para a formação do design visual brasileiro / Abstract: The purpose of this research is to analyse, focusing on the trajectory of the designer and concrete artist Alexandre Wollner, the relationship between the arts and the creation of visual design, process that he defines as "evolutionary metamorphosis". From the historical revision of design, he highlights the components of this relation that contributes for the development of the activity in the Europe in XIX and XX centuries. He follows its assimilation in Brazil, during the cultural revolution in 1950's, analysing the concrete artists performances, responsible for integrating the art to the industrial processes and the medias, creating our own design culture. The research covers the experiences of Wollner, whose intense participation places it as main reference in the training of this culture, and analyses, based on his reports, the contribution of the São Paulo's concrete art moviment for the creation of brazilian's visual design / Mestre

This thesis presents the design and implementation of Abstractocyte, a system for the visual analysis of astrocytes, and their relation to neurons, in nanoscale volumes of brain tissue. Astrocytes are glial cells, i.e., non-neuronal cells that support neurons and the nervous system. Even though glial cells make up around 50 percent of all cells in the mammalian brain, so far they have been far less studied than neurons. Nevertheless, the study of astrocytes has immense potential for understanding brain function. However, the complex and widely-branching structure of astrocytes requires high-resolution electron microscopy imaging and makes visualization and analysis challenging. Using Abstractocyte, biologists can explore the morphology of astrocytes at various visual abstraction levels, while simultaneously analyzing neighboring neurons and their connectivity. We define a novel, conceptual 2D abstraction space for jointly visualizing astrocytes and neurons. Neuroscientists can choose a joint visualization as a specific point in that 2D abstraction space. Dragging this point allows them to smoothly transition between different abstraction levels in an intuitive manner. We describe the design of Abstractocyte, and present three case studies in which neuroscientists have successfully used our system to assess astrocytic coverage of synapses, glycogen distribution in relation to synapses, and astrocytic-mitochondria coverage.

Across domains, researchers, engineers, and designers are faced with large volumes of data that are heterogeneous in nature - including spatial, abstract, and temporal information. There are numerous design and technical challenges when considering the unification, management, and presentation of these information types. Most research and applications have focused on display techniques for each of the information types individually, but much less in known about how to represent the relationships between information types. This research explores the perceptual and usability impacts of data representations and layout algorithms for the next-generation of integrated information spaces. We propose Information-Rich Virtual Environments (IRVEs) as a solution to challenges of integrated information spaces. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the application requirements and foundational technology of IRVEs and articulate crucial tradeoffs in IRVE information design. We will present a design space and evaluation methodology to explore the usability effects of these tradeoffs. Experimental results will be presented for a series of empirical usability evaluations that increase our understanding of how these tradeoffs can be resolved to improve user performance. Finally, we interpret the results though the models of Information Theory and Human Information Processing to derive new conclusions regarding the role of perceptual cues in determining user performance in IRVEs. These lessons are posed as a set of design guidelines to aid developers of new IRVE interfaces and specifications. / Ph. D.

The field of document design has gained considerable attention over the past couple of decades. New technology has drastically increased the design possibilities for writers, and researchers are gaining greater insight into the way that readers interact with the visual elements of their texts. This has led to an explosion in the availability of guidance on document design, but there are still areas where the research is incomplete. One of these areas concerns a common but important type of document: the proposal. There are numerous guides on proposal writing, but most of them are concerned with content and give little attention to document design. Since successful proposals are crucial to both the business and non-profit arenas, it is important that the documents are accessible and make a good impression on reviewers. Good document design can help. In this study I took the existing research on document design and developed a set of questions meant to address the different elements of document design. I tested a sampling of both grant proposals and contract proposals using those questions with a system of scoring based on Likert scaling. I combined the quantitative results with qualitative responses from interviews in order to gain insight regarding the overall effect of visual design elements in proposals. The results of this study showed that there are certain elements of document design (such as layout or contrast) that are important to proposals, but that non-design factors (such as cost or experience) usually outweigh the design for evaluation purpose. / Master of Arts

The majority of Web site design literature mainly concentrates on the technical and functional aspects of Web site design. There is a definite lack of literature, in the IS field, that concentrates on the visual and aesthetic aspects of Web design. Preliminary research into the relationship between visual design and successful electronic commerce Web sites was conducted. The emphasis of this research was to answer the following three questions. What role do visual design elements play in the success of electronic commerce Web sites? What role do visual design principles play in the success of electronic commerce Web sites? What role do the typographic variables of visual design play in the success of electronic commerce Web sites? Forty-three undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory level MIS course used a Likert-style survey instrument to evaluate aesthetic aspects of 501 electronic commerce Web pages. The instrument employed a taxonomy of visual design that focused on three dimensions: design elements, design principles, and typography. The data collected were correlated against Internet usage success metrics data provided by Nielsen/NetRatings. Results indicate that 22 of the 135 tested relationships were statistically significant. Positive relationships existed between four different aesthetic dimensions and one single success measure. The other 18 significant relationships were negatively correlated. The visual design elements of space, color as hue, and value were negatively correlated with three of the success measures. The visual design principles of contrast, emphasis radiated through contrast, and contrast shape were negatively correlated with three of the success measures. Finally, the typographic variables of placement and type size were both negatively correlated with two of the success measures. This research provides support to the importance of visual design theory in Web site design. This preliminary research should be viewed as a realization of the need for Web sites to be designed with both visual design theory and usability in mind.

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis focuses on the genre of municipal documents (application forms) and the variety of written and visual languages that make up their corpus to reveal the various lexical semantics used in the forms as communication tool between individuals and the larger organisations. It was important to review not only how other researchers have dissected such documents, but also what they have used to study their corpus. The thesis also provides a thorough overview of literature pertaining to forms from the municipal and governmental sector as it relates to social semiotics, genre, corporate identity, branding and multimodality. As there was not enough empirical data or research from the African or non-European perspective, a wider literature review was needed to enable me to use a number of complimentary models that could fit the study area. Drawing on a theoretical framework based on the fields of Social Semiotics (Kress 2010; 2014), Applied Linguistics (Brumfit 1996) and Visual Communication (Tam 2008) as well as analytical tools like the genre and multimodality model (GeM), as described in Bateman (2008) and the grammar of visual design (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006), branding and language ideology, the study offers an analysis of the language of particular forms used widely by the City of Cape Town (CCT). The language of forms in essence is as unique as a dialogue held between two people to obtain information. Misunderstanding and communication can easily occur if the questions and sections are not formulated correctly. Although both the textual and visual modes were investigated, the aim was to uncover the corpora used on forms with which a basic set of standard words, phrases and sentences could be designed. If the language of forms in a particular organisation like the CCT can be standardised, the amount of effort on the language practitioners will decrease, and the textual components can be made available in all three of the official languages (Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English) in as simple a language structure as possible.

Masters Research - Master of Design (Research) / This study explores the development of patterns for the visual design of interface elements within a virtual environment. The document will outline the process for this study and will formalise an approach for future research. Commonly, existing interface systems allow for the representation of data storage, manipulation and navigation via two dimensional structures. With the emergence of virtual reality systems in medicine, military and entertainment there becomes a need to transform this limited two dimensional representation into one that best facilitates the new environment. The proposed model will incorporate application menu systems and the modes of manipulation of data in specific applications. The framework for a prototype of the interface has been produced as well as a structure for assessment via user interaction and response. This framework will provide a template for understanding the base interaction with the operating system, that is, how to organise files and initiate software, as well as the operation of a simulated software package. If the prototype were built then it would be viewed as a virtual environment and the interaction could take place via the use of either mouse (or similar prop) or data-glove. Future study could include the actual building of each of the interface variations and putting the series of users through the prescribed experiment procedure. Applications of an interface resulting from testing such as this could be found within a range of fields. Military training currently makes use of virtual simulation and this could provide access to information needed within operational procedures. Similar technologies could be adapted for pilot control systems within a visor display. For medical research, where virtual surgical techniques are being used, information could be accessed within the operating environment that had otherwise been contained in adjacent systems outside immediate reach. Real world application of these models would be limited at this time by the use of the appropriate computing power, however, the future use of this study could have broader application within the development of game technology, internet access and data mining. The proposed experiment requires the development of interface variations based on a predefined pattern structure that informs the design of certain elements and of the tasks to be performed. The patterns included in this study form the initial set from which a library could be extended and developed upon. While these pattern definitions are crucial to the execution of the experiment, they have been presented here in Appendix A to preserve flow and readability of the document. The review of the current literature within this study covers a range of publications related to the development of virtual and augmented environment interfaces. A summation of the tools, devices, techniques and constraints which affect this area of development has been included. The review is presented to provide broad background information for the reader, building a context through which the experiment should be viewed. The purpose of this study is to provide a method through which the visual representation of an interface can be more consistently assessed. This will be achieved through the use of a pattern language for a development framework, providing interface consistency in structure and principle. This is significant to the field as currently the assessment of visual representation is conducted across projects without a consistent framework and the subsequent learning is not readily transferred across applications.

The primary objective of this research is to develop a visual design process for gear trains with multiple stages of reduction and varying configurational architectures. One of the main challenges in the design of such gear trains is in the sizing of the individual gears such that high levels of performance are obtained in spite of constraints due to different gear configurations. Formal design procedures that successfully meet this challenge are developed. A key contribution of this research is the utilization of these design procedures to create sets of three-dimensional design maps. The design procedures help a designer manage more than 20 design parameters in designing for a broad range of gear train requirements (Rated torque capacity, Volume, Weight, Inertia, Responsiveness, Torque Density etc.) while accounting for assembly constraints. Each set of design maps corresponds to a given set of design parameters, some of which are held fixed and some of which are put in the hands of the designer. The latter set of design parameters are termed in this research as design knobs. They can be ‘tuned’ by a designer in order to generate new sets of design maps. The idea is that a designer, using the design information conveyed to him/her graphically through a given set of design maps, is able to then tune the design knobs to generate an updated set of design maps which reflect design solutions that are more desirable in terms of the application requirements. By adjusting the design knobs and looking at updated design maps, a designer is able to quickly assess the effect of his/her design decisions. The end result is that a single designer is empowered with the ability to quickly arrive at a preliminary design of a gear train that satisfies the design requirements. This preliminary design would be a good starting point for more detailed design development. / text

As artes sequenciais (AS) ou narrativas gráficas (NG) são uma modalidade de expressão híbrida (multimodal) composta de texto imagem e texto palavra. Ao longo de toda sua história, as NG têm enfrentado diversos desafios na academia e no mercado, e, mesmo sendo um assunto de complexa multidisciplinaridade, é objeto de poucas pesquisas no design visual, que possui amplo conhecimento em metodologias projetuais e características intrinsecamente multidisciplinares, além de expertise técnica em comunicação visual. Esta pesquisa busca analisar os princípios metodológicos de projeto visual e o processo de produção das narrativas gráficas partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, fazendo uma análise etapa a etapa de metodologias selecionadas nas áreas de Design Generalista (MUNARI, 2008; BAXTER, 1995), Design Visual (FUENTES, 2006; DENARDI E GERALDES, 2016; MAYA, FRANCESCHI E NEROSKY, 2016; HALUCH, 2013), Narrativas (BEREITER E SCARDAMALIA, 1987; INGERMAN, 2014) e Narrativas Gráficas (LARSON, 2014; SALERNO, 2011; MOORE, 2003; BYRNE, 1999; MATEU-MESTRE, 2010). Utilizando bibliografia sobre projeto visual, imagem, linguagem visual, narrativas e narrativas gráficas como base para a construção de conhecimento teórico, as etapas são segmentadas em fases, utilizando como base as metodologias projetuais generalistas, mostrando que existem benefícios para os profissionais produtores de NG em utilizar as metodologias projetuais do Design Visual como linha projetual para a produção de HQ. / The sequential arts (AS) or graphic narratives (NG) are a modality of hybrid modality (multimodal) composed of image and word. Throughout its history, NG has faced several challenges in academia and in the market, and although it is a subject of complex multidisciplinarity, it has little research in the visual design field, that has ample knowledge in design methodologies and characteristics intrinsically multidisciplinary, as well as technical expertise in visual communication. This research seeks to analyze the methodological principles of visual design and the process of production of graphic narratives, making a step by step analysis of selected methodologies in the areas of General Design (MUNARI, 2008; BAXTER, 1995), Visual Design (FUENTES, 2006; DENARDI E GERALDES, 2016; MAYA, FRANCESCHI E NEROSKY, 2016; HALUCH, 2013), Narratives (BEREITER E SCARDAMALIA, 1987; INGERMAN, 2014) and Graphic Narratives (LARSON, 2014; SALERNO, 2011; MOORE, 2003; BYRNE, 1999; MATEU-MESTRE, 2010). Using bibliographic research on visual design, image, visual language, narratives and graphic narratives as the basis for the construction of theoretical knowledge, the steps are segmented in phases, using as base the generalist design methodologies, showing that there are benefits for the professional producers of NG to use the Visual Design methodologies as the design backbone for NG production.

As artes sequenciais (AS) ou narrativas gráficas (NG) são uma modalidade de expressão híbrida (multimodal) composta de texto imagem e texto palavra. Ao longo de toda sua história, as NG têm enfrentado diversos desafios na academia e no mercado, e, mesmo sendo um assunto de complexa multidisciplinaridade, é objeto de poucas pesquisas no design visual, que possui amplo conhecimento em metodologias projetuais e características intrinsecamente multidisciplinares, além de expertise técnica em comunicação visual. Esta pesquisa busca analisar os princípios metodológicos de projeto visual e o processo de produção das narrativas gráficas partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, fazendo uma análise etapa a etapa de metodologias selecionadas nas áreas de Design Generalista (MUNARI, 2008; BAXTER, 1995), Design Visual (FUENTES, 2006; DENARDI E GERALDES, 2016; MAYA, FRANCESCHI E NEROSKY, 2016; HALUCH, 2013), Narrativas (BEREITER E SCARDAMALIA, 1987; INGERMAN, 2014) e Narrativas Gráficas (LARSON, 2014; SALERNO, 2011; MOORE, 2003; BYRNE, 1999; MATEU-MESTRE, 2010). Utilizando bibliografia sobre projeto visual, imagem, linguagem visual, narrativas e narrativas gráficas como base para a construção de conhecimento teórico, as etapas são segmentadas em fases, utilizando como base as metodologias projetuais generalistas, mostrando que existem benefícios para os profissionais produtores de NG em utilizar as metodologias projetuais do Design Visual como linha projetual para a produção de HQ. / The sequential arts (AS) or graphic narratives (NG) are a modality of hybrid modality (multimodal) composed of image and word. Throughout its history, NG has faced several challenges in academia and in the market, and although it is a subject of complex multidisciplinarity, it has little research in the visual design field, that has ample knowledge in design methodologies and characteristics intrinsically multidisciplinary, as well as technical expertise in visual communication. This research seeks to analyze the methodological principles of visual design and the process of production of graphic narratives, making a step by step analysis of selected methodologies in the areas of General Design (MUNARI, 2008; BAXTER, 1995), Visual Design (FUENTES, 2006; DENARDI E GERALDES, 2016; MAYA, FRANCESCHI E NEROSKY, 2016; HALUCH, 2013), Narratives (BEREITER E SCARDAMALIA, 1987; INGERMAN, 2014) and Graphic Narratives (LARSON, 2014; SALERNO, 2011; MOORE, 2003; BYRNE, 1999; MATEU-MESTRE, 2010). Using bibliographic research on visual design, image, visual language, narratives and graphic narratives as the basis for the construction of theoretical knowledge, the steps are segmented in phases, using as base the generalist design methodologies, showing that there are benefits for the professional producers of NG to use the Visual Design methodologies as the design backbone for NG production.