Research Task: Instructions

Looking at a variety of different safety, most illustrations use levels (starting at the higher part of the paper) to indicate the start of the instructions; it flows down to the last instruction. In most instances, illustrators and designers use red to indicate important/crucial points in their instructions and can be used as arrows for direction.There is a limited amount of colour and line work is simple, lots of contrast between thin lines and solid shapes.

I'm going to break-down these images found from Pinterest and then pick the best one and the worst!

1. First up is this plane instructional leaflet, at first this leaflet comes across as a little busy. For every section there is a instruction for a different emergency, like putting a seat-belt on is on section, same for a mask a such forth.

There is a limited palette, however with the placement of the "key" of illustrations signalling what each small diagram means distracts the whole thing, I personally feel like getting rid of it could help bring more attention to focus of it.

2. Next up is another airplane leaflet, and this one is better than the previous one, however two illustrations seem a little confusing without text but apart from that the colours bring attention to the important items with arrows indicating directional importance. The varying line weights help us focus box by box, and the red for instructional is very effective.

3. Yet another airplane instructional illustration, with key lettering about each instruction helps break apart different part; bold line work indicates key moments (such as landing and taking off, etc); red arrows and circles to indicate importance again.

4. A different instructional illustration, done by importance and using text to help drive the illustration forward, using the word PASS to making it easy to remember; use of bold shapes to show us what's going on, simple and to the point. Two colours to keep our eyes focused on what's going on.

5. A comedic useful illustration for some of those dog owners that don't pick up their dog poo, showing a comedic dog diagram of the body- the food entering the body and out as poo. Then using arrows and text to indicate the illustration with a man doing that action. Simple text at the right size and a simple colour scheme makes it really stand out, a lovely touch at the end of the illustration about showing the great deed they've done for the neighborhood.

6. A more detailed version of the previous airplane demonstrations, this one is of how to your the mask and disposal of a cigarette (though now smoking is not allowed at all). The illustration is detailed technically, limited colour palette and a good use of red arrows; lack of text to keep it very simple.

7.Another airplane instructional illustration, very similar to the first illustration (and done by the same airline as a previous illustration) but without a key on the side, it's very simple and easy to read. Starting from top to bottom and using bold line work to indicate events, limited colour palette to keep focus and only a small amount of text to show which instruction goes for each event.

Bonus Illustration

This comedic but surprisingly important illustration, just simple line work illustration and with red text and icons to show the wrong and right. I feel like the 'Right' or the 'Do' should be bigger to show the hierarchy of the illustration, it's simple and important and comedic because with common sense these can't happen.

Reflection

The best illustration is fire extinguisher, it's the most memorable to me and it's easy to remember the 'PASS'. The illustration is simple black and white, with red showing the importance and a nice bold (easy to look at) illustration to grab the attention.

The best airplane illustration is the KLM illustration, it uses three key colours and uses red to highlight key points (and for text), yellow indicates important hardware needed to be used in case of emergencies. The blue boxes help draw your eyes to each one, and with red arrows to show directions.

The worst image has to be the first illustration, with how busy it looks and distracting it can be to look at- I wouldn't really go for this.

If I had to change it, I would alter this, this way:

I added a thicker line weight to the box and made them red to fit the them (that or black), I got rid of the key bar on the left hand side and moved the no smoking notice at the bottom since it's the biggest on the page but the instructions I preferred would go first.

Original vs. My Version

This research task has been really insightful, when ever I look at instructions I don't tend to think about how it's made and the importance of it. I've noted that red arrows, limited colour palette, varying line weights to create levels of importance and direction.

I feel like by altering the worst one I was able to gather a even more insight as I thought what I would as a passenger prefer and also bearing in mind the client and their needs (colour scheme and such).