The Shannon-Weaver Mathematical Model 1949
Shannon and Weaver employed to do research by the American army to make their communication systems more efficient.
Mainly radio and telephone communication.
Initially limited to that but has now been taken as communication in a visual sense.
They believed we need to understand each stage, as each stage breaks down the process.
When relating the model to graphic design:
- Information source - Client
- Transmitter - Designer
- Channel - Media
- Receiver - All audience
- Destination - Target audience
When relating it to graphic design it is never going to fit properly but it is a good way to understand the model.
What things would happen at each stage that would effect communication?
1. Information source
- Misinterpreting the brief
- Not enough information
- Inadequate research
2. Transmitter
- Misinterpreting the brief
- Doing whatever you want
- Talent or skills of designer
3. Channel
- Put in wrong format
- Wrong message
- Inappropriate place
- Printing problems - Technical
- The limite - Wrong medium
4. Receiver
- Doesn't illustrate the message
- Audience doesn't understand it
- Little context to understand
- Has to be functional to decode
5. Destination
- Inappropriate
- Wrong format
- Didn't reach them
- No interest
Design has to be encoded correctly for it to be decoded successfully.
Design is about understanding each stage and being audience centred.
For Shannon and Weaver noise can get in the way of any communicative act.
Eg - Telephone call - Noise on the line (can't hear everything being said)
Design
Noise -
1. Information source
- Readability
- Too much information
- Stress from higher authority
- Working in a team (conflicting views)
2. Transmitter
- Tools break down
- Broken software
- Wrong place
3. Channel
- Could be drowned out by architecture/surrounding art
4. Receiver
- Actual noise
- Context - Attention span
5. Destination
- Audience detests the product - Bad mouthing the product to others
- Other rivalry products/campaign/adverts getting in the way
- If you get bombarded with a large quantity of information (eg. emails) then you get desensitised
Communication Problems
Level A - Technical Problems
- How accurately can the message be transmitted?
Level B - Semantic Problems
- How precisely is the message conveyed?
Level C - Effectiveness Problems
- How effectively does the received meaning affect behaviour?
Level A - Technical Problems
- Computer not working
- Not having right equipment
- No access to software or facilities
- Software not working
- Designing in wrong place
- Print difficulties
Solution
- Get a better printer
- Back up work
- Choose other methods or production
Level B - Semantic Problems
- Misinterpreting the brief
- Context and content of message
- Readability and legibility
- Typos
Solution
- Spell check (proof read)
Level C - Effectiveness Problems
- What surrounds it
- The volume
- Rivalry companies
- Receiving loads of one thing
- How many people respond to your design (eg. flyers)
Success of this process (+/-)
- Graphic design isn't linear whereas the model is. We get feedback along the way.
- Very top down model as it measures effectiveness communication on whether B has done what A asked for.
+ Interesting and applicable.
Noise
- Unintended things that create communication breakdown.
- Zines - Becomes an aesthetic of the design - becomes communicative in its own self.
- Sometimes noise is a desirable outcome.
- Billboard graffiti.
Redundancy
High predictability
Low information
- Not to be confused with being let go
- The path of least resistance
- A redundant telephone line is what we are aiming for
Entropy
- Moments of bleeding out the line
Redundancy is always totally predictable, conventional, understandable, low amount of information.
Eg.
- Putting hand out to shake
- Predictable gesture
- Widely understood
- Contains low information
Entropic gesture would be to shock the person with an electric shock passed through the hand shake.
- Unexpected
- Highly informative
- More information carried
Redundancy is how we organise our society.
- Toilet symbol is redundant
- The audience aims for redundancy
- The stylist graphic designer aims for entropy - Less interested in communication
What type of designer am I?
Language is almost entirely redundant - Language is 50% reductive - Still get the idea.
Reduction in this sense is entirely conventional - reiterate previously agreed conventions.
- Perpetuate stereotypes
- Hawaii bar example: skirts etc
- They want to conote in already agreed understanding
Entrapy - Hawaiin bar with Helvetica bold used on logo.
As designers we are audience centred. We need to be aware of entropic moments. With noise it may sometimes be desirable. Sometimes we may want to challenge a system. Entropy could be used to make people take notice as a tactic.
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