Design and Surprise
Author of this post: Brockett Horne | About Blog Authors »
Judith Uzcategui’s banner design for the Baltimore Urban Forest project
Surprise is the most magical element of birthdays, holidays, and vacations. When asked what gift I might like for a special occasion, I usually say “surprise me,” to maintain the amusing belief that something unusual can happen. The experience of not knowing what to expect is just as welcome a gift as an object like a book, new sweater, or fancy dinner out. Indeed, one of my best birthday parties featured all my favorite people hiding behind the couch in my living room and screaming “surprise” as I opened the door.
Just like the most desired gift is selected, the best designs are created with a keen comprehension of the recipient and with a desire to please, surprise, and delight. Experiencing suspense, spontaneous joy, and unexpected outcomes make users highly value the products they use. Judith Uzcategui’s banner design for the Baltimore Urban Forest project employs suspense and ultimately, surprise with repetition of words and a rhyming poem. Using repetition, out-of-context images, unusual visual devices, unconventional materials can surprise and delight our viewers. This masthead for beatbots website, designed by Oliver Munday, features wacky faces popping out of letters, eliciting surprising shapes and characters. Unexpected emotions result as the characters become animated in the viewer’s imagination.
Oliver Munday’s masthead for www.beatbots.com
Just as delivering the punch line makes or breaks a joke, managing surprise can help us more effectively engage our users. It must be challenging, then, to deliver something that even the user is not expecting. As a strategy, designers must think well around the problem to deliver a surprise for our viewers, even while aiming to elicit a targeted response to what we create.
Even in conceptualizing my work, I value the surprising parts of the design process. I enjoy it most when things do not turn out exactly as a planned (for the better, of course), when an idea comes from nowhere, or when I develop a new way of working. I often try to translate this joy into the final piece. In this way, both the designer and the receiver enjoy surprise.
