6 key design principles for creating ambient media — from Affordance through the Von Restorff effect, Storytelling, Interference and Form following function to Stickiness.
"The best designers sometimes break the rules. When they do, it is usually compensated by some kind of advantage. If we are not certain whether ignoring the rules in our design compensates for something else, it is better to follow these rules."
Advertising is increasingly dependent on other scientific disciplines — psychology, sociology or economics. Design principles are therefore a good guide for the creation of ambient media, whose authors are primarily designers. Not all principles can be applied to a single work — the goal is to select those that are most useful in a specific context.
Affordance expresses the relationship between an object or environment and an organism, offering the participant a specific possibility of action. As a relationship, it does not express the character of the object itself nor the participant — it offers possible actions.
In creating ambient media, the principle of affordance applies to interactive installations. The medium or installation tries to attract the recipient's attention through elements or processes the recipient knows — the interaction uses familiar mechanisms in a new context.
"You will always better remember something that attracts your attention in a way that awakens one or more of your senses or provokes your feelings." Simply put: we remember things that are extraordinary or unique — anything that stands out from the crowd stimulates our imagination.
In the media environment the Von Restorff effect is very well applicable. An ambient medium is one that is beyond the established types of media — TV, newspapers, radio, internet. The ability to differentiate from the classic media mix is a fundamental quality of ambient media.
Storytelling transcends the boundaries of graphic design, industrial design and other disciplines — it becomes an element of communication design. It is unique to humans, an original way of transferring knowledge from generation to generation and remains one of the most persuasive methods of conveying information.
Interference is generally a composition, crossing or mutual influence. In design: mental processes slow down and are less accurate due to competing mental processes. Ambient media use the interference effect intentionally, contrary to recommendations — they deliberately cause a pause in the recipient, resulting in deeper reflection and more intense attention.
In the case of ambient media it is apparent from existing examples that form substantially outweighs function — the execution must correspond to the purpose, which is usually the transfer of information to the recipient.
American architect Louis Sullivan (1896): "Whether it is an eagle in flight, an open apple blossom, a draft horse, a swan, a branching oak — form always follows function, and that is the law." Ambient media are usually designed so that form follows function. However, there are cases where the tendency is the opposite — and this seemingly illogical conflict is characteristic of ambient media and can be regarded as a competitive advantage.
Stickiness is the most fundamental building block of ambient media. Without this property it is practically impossible to create an ambient medium. It can be defined as the ability of certain ideas to penetrate general awareness.
Gladwell speaks of the so-called noise problem: the volume of all messages is so great that it is problematic for any message to "stick" with recipients. Ambient media are one of the key formats that can be considered sticky — precisely because of their properties.
// Virtually any ambient medium can serve as an example of the stickiness principle — stickiness is a fundamental principle of AM, meaning every ambient medium fulfills this principle. (Warc, ©2004)