Media Models

Designers can adopt "media models" that have been used in other situations to evoke responses similar to the ones they want the audience to have for their site. Media models are recognizable combinations of color, imagery, layout and graphical treatment that people are familiar with from advertising, television shows, movies, video games and other media. People associate different models with the messages they are used to getting in those forms. For example, black and white photographs accompanied by closely set text in narrow columns is a simple model associated with newspapers, so the use of these elements in combination may suggest journalism, accuracy of fact, realism and authenticity. See The New York Times Web site for an example of this particular media model.

People seek out different media models as cues to the experiences they will get, and they are not always in the mood to have the same kind of experience. An investment analyst may respond positively to the clean, open layout and rich accent detail in an expensive hobbyist magazine when she is pursuing her interest in philately (see the Swedish Stamps Web site). That same investment analyst may seek out soothing purple-and-pink color schemes accompanied by outsized, ornate fonts and baroque curliques when she is looking for an entertaining romance story to read over the weekend (see Romancing the Web).

Conversely, it is important that designers avoid using media models that do not provide the audience with the intended affective experience. The negative power of media models is illustrated by the experience of going to a toy store with most any 10-12 year old boy ... Like it or not, it is very difficult to get him to go down the "pink aisle" where all the dolls are displayed (see the Barbie Collectibles Web site), but he has an unerring eye for the strong color combinations typical of video game displays (see Engage). When planning the visual identity for a Web site, a designer can not afford to use a media model that inadvertently offends or disinterests the intended audience.

AMTEC 1997 Conference, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Elizabeth Boling, Barbara Bichelmeyer, Kurt Squire, Sonny Kirkley
Indiana University
Last updated 1 June 1997
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~iirg/RESEARCH/AMTEC97/mediamodel.html