AHFE Open AccessHuman Factors in Communication of Design
Editors: Amic G. Ho
Topics: Communication of Design
Publication Date: 2025
ISBN: 978-1-964867-53-3
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005988
Articles
Exploring the Influence of Pantone Color Trend Report on Design Communication in the Fashion Industry: a Long-term Comparative Study
As a significant factor influencing markets and consumer choices, color occupies an essential role in the fashion world. While Pantone’s seasonal color forecasts for New York Fashion Week claim growing industry influence, existing studies lack long-term analyses of their effectiveness across color categories. This study aimed to address this gap by adopting a long-term perspective and comparing the prevalence of Pantone colors in Vogue garments over time from 2015 to 2023. Employing big data techniques, the study was conducted in three phases: (1) extracting and filtering relevant images from Vogue’s official website using algorithms like YOLOv3; (2) isolating garment regions through clothing segregation and summarizing garment colors into five-color palettes using the k-means clustering algorithm; and (3) applying the CIEDE 2000 color-difference formula to measure the discrepancies between Pantone’s representative colors and garment color palettes from Vogue. Key findings reveal three insights: first, there are no consistent pattern of Pantone’s colors influencing the fashion colors of the same or subsequent years, with significant discrepancies observed in several instances. Second, the overall adoption rate of Pantone colors in Vogue declined over time, suggesting diminishing influence. Third, the percentages of color usage of Classic Colors is higher than these of Fashion Colors. These discrepancies suggest limitations in Pantone’s trendsetting role, potentially attributable to designers prioritizing uniqueness over standardization and audiences favoring stable Classic Colors. Methodological constraints—notably the exclusive focus on Vogue US—may further explain weak correlations. This study underscores the need for forecasters like Pantone to adapt strategies to evolving industry dynamics, balancing standardization with designers’ demands for differentiation. For practitioners, it highlights the growing divide between commercial color democratization and haute couture’s emphasis on exclusivity.
Yixuan Shao
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Interaction Modes and User Experience in Generative AI-Based New Media Art
This paper aims to explore how to utilize Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) to empower new media art creation that relies on different interactive modes, thereby bringing users new artistic experiences in the context of AI development. Presently, significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have had a profound impact on social development. Particularly, after the emergence of generative large models such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, GAI technology has more widely penetrated into various application scenarios, and it is redefining innovative pathways in artistic creation.Therefore, to better grasp the new media creation methods based on GAI, this paper primarily employs case analysis. Within the theoretical framework, we analyze the feasibility of combining new media art and GAI based on their developmental trajectories. Furthermore, we conduct an in-depth analysis of GAI new media artworks that rely on different interactive modes, exploring the specific applications of GAI in the field of new media art creation and the different experiential effects produced for users.Subsequently, the research results indicate that GAI can not only expand the creative dimensions of new media artists but also, by leveraging various interactive modes, provide users with more intelligent and multimodal artistic experiences. This aligns with the inevitable trend of artistic creation in the digital age. In conclusion, GAI is reshaping the creative paradigms of new media art. In this paper, we have provided new design strategies and creative methods for GAI-based new media art, clarifying the application value of GAI in new media art creation that relies on multiple interactive modes. From a design perspective, we offer new insights into how artificial intelligence can better enrich human artistic experiences, thereby providing new research perspectives and ideas for the development of art and technology.
Zi Han Mei, Yi Fei Feng, Zi Xuan Zhang, Jia Wang, Yu Run Han, Zi Ling Wang, Ying Long
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Can stylized pale-toned public health and safety graphic signs become the mainstream of design?
As visual identification symbols, graphic signs can help viewers quickly identify and perform relevant emergency actions. This study aimed to content analyze the style and color characteristics of appropriate public health and safety graphic signs, and summarize the current design mainstream. A total of 245 samples were collected from the Getty Images’ collections covering diverse materials and graphic signs released from 1995 to 2023. The results indicate that the most common style in the public health safety graphic signs was "abstract symbology", characterized by geometric lines and the absence of textures and shadows. Additionally, the color tone with the highest proportion was "pale", a more white shade of pure color.
Regina W Y Wang, I Ning Liu, Jiacheng Wang
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Cultural-to-Modern Design Translation: A Study on Canal Transportation Map Using SWOT & KANO Models
Objective To address the issues of scarce Chinese canal - culture CC products, shallow cultural exploration, and lack of emotional expression, we take The Supervision of Grain Transport along the Grand Canal as a case. Using SWOT and KANO models, we construct a design - translation process to guide practice. Methods First, SWOT analyzes the traditional - cultural - element design in CC products within competitive environments. Then, a KANO questionnaire is created and data is collected. Next, the KANO model filters the results, determines user needs, and classifies them. Results The map is presented in a contemporary style. CC - product design meets user needs, expresses traditional culture, and promotes canal - culture inheritance. Conclusion SWOT and KANO models are applicable to traditional - culture CC - product design. They clarify user demands, facilitate canal - culture promotion, and offer new ideas for the inheritance of other regional cultures.
Shuying He
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Emotional Impact of Typeface Design on Communication Design
This study examines the emotional impact of typefaces on communication design, with a focus on digital interfaces and advertisements. It aims to understand how lettering styles affect emotional responses and consumer experiences. The research aims to analyse users' emotional reactions to different typefaces and formulate guidelines for typeface selection that elicit specific emotional responses. A theoretical model encompassing typography, emotional design, and user experience is presented, focusing on font psychology and emotional responses associated with specific typography characteristics. Despite ongoing debate, empirical evidence linking typeface design to user emotions is scarce. The research uses a mixed-methods approach, including surveys, semi-structured interviews, and eye-tracking studies. Surveys utilise PANAS scales to assess emotional responses, while interviews offer qualitative feedback on initial perceptions. Eye-tracking technology enhances understanding of visual processing and reading speed. The study concludes with key findings and implications for designers and researchers, as well as potential limitations and recommendations for future research, particularly regarding the influence of culture on typeface perception.
Amic Ho, Ruth Chau
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Improving Watching Comfort of Live Free Viewpoint Video by Catch-Up Playback
This paper proposes a method to improve watching comfort by catch-up playback to fill the time gap that occurs when observing free viewpoint video (FVV) in live. Live FVV in live sports events becomes to attract significant popularity and attention. Developing interfaces for observing FVVs is a critical research issue to further provide viewers with comfortable observation. FVV users can freely switch viewpoints during live streaming without pausing playback. However, simultaneous video playback and viewpoint switching make it difficult to observe key moments from multiple angles. So, it is necessary to temporarily pause playback when switching viewpoints to observe key moments such as a soccer shot or a baseball swing from various directions. On the other hand, pausing playback causes a time gap between the progress of live event and the video play. The sense of sharing and unity in real time, as well as the emotion and excitement of each moment, is a major significance of live events. The video delay is a serious problem that detracts the significance of live events. To address this issue, we propose a catch-up playback method to recover delays caused by the observation of key moments. This research aims to recover the delay as quickly as possible while maintaining the watching comfort of the video. This paper proposes three types of catch-up playback methods. The first method is Skip Playback, where the video instantly skips forward to the live point immediately after resumption. The second one is Constant-Speed Playback, where the video resumes at a constant high-speed playback until catching up to the live point. The third one is Accelerated-Decelerated Playback, where the video gradually accelerates towards the live point and then decelerates back to normal speed. These methods, which dynamically adjust the playback speed according to the delay time, aims to both maintain watching comfort and recover the delay. Subjective evaluation experiments to verify the effectiveness of each method are conducted. In the experiment, we prepare a FVV of a soccer game that had been previously recorded, and apply “video stop”, “viewpoint switching”, and “the three types of catch-up playback” processes to the video. After participants viewed the three types of videos, SD (Semantic Differential) questionnaire surveys with 12 items are conducted to evaluate impressions of each method. Factor analysis reveal that participants evaluate the videos on two evaluation axes: comfort and dynamism. Results show that Constant-Speed Playback achieves the highest comfort ratings. Constant-Speed Playback significantly outperforms the other two methods, particularly in terms of "ease of viewing." On the other hand, Skip Playback receives the lowest comfort ratings. Accelerated-Decelerated Playback is rated significantly lower than Constant-Speed Playback in terms of "ease of viewing" and "pleasantness." These results suggest that Constant-Speed Playback recovers the delay in live FVV without compromising watching comfort compared to Skip Playback and Accelerated-Decelerated Playback. Additionally, it can be considered that continuous speed changes during catch-up playback negatively impact watching comfort.
Taisei Kudo, Chun Xie, Itaru Kitahara
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Design model of museum IP special exhibition: Standardization of workflow
With the development of big data, the Internet and digital technology, the development of mass communication has been accelerated, and the audience needs of museums have also been different. The expansion of the culture and museum consumer market and the support of the policy environment have promoted the self-innovation of museums, and the intellectual property of many museums has participated in the development of cross-media, creating more forms of products and services. The museum's special exhibition on intellectual property is a branch of the museum's cultural creative derivative works. The special exhibition of intellectual property in the museum is to develop the typical cultural relics resources collected by the museum into products with cultural communication and exhibition. (Jiang Lu, 2017) Compared with museum thematic exhibitions, the development process of museum IP special exhibitions has the characteristics of easy identification, easy communication and easy link, and is held in the way of product development. When the museum's special exhibition of intellectual property is exported as a cultural product, it must be production-oriented in the development process.This is when the designer changes from an executive role to a system architect. The most important characteristics of the production of museum intellectual property exhibition are: production standardization, process specialization and intellectual property classification, only the establishment of exhibition production system standards and processes can be called production. Just like the industrialization of movies, it is necessary to establish a set of industrial assembly lines similar to Hollywood, so that the creation and production of movies into the process, the division of labor refinement stage, and the corresponding industry standards for regulation. Production standardization refers to the development of a museum intellectual property special exhibition, it is necessary to develop a set of development processes in line with the design and construction of the exhibition, and quantify and standardize things that are not easy to quantify. Process specialization refers to the specialization of workflow, each workflow is refined and divided, and different professionals work together to design the museum's thematic exhibition of intellectual property. (Item, 2017) Standardization of the process of museum IP exhibition is the key.
Huang Xinran
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Dynamic Narrative Frameworks: Merging Creativity and Logic through systematic Card-Based Interactivity
Narrative is central to the design of creative writing support tools, enhancing immersive cognitive experiences and fostering creativity. Traditional single-line narratives excel in coherence and emotional depth but limit creative freedom, while multi-line narratives offer flexibility yet risk losing consistency and pacing. This study proposes a dynamic card-based narrative framework that integrates key event nodes to balance logic and flexibility. Experimental results show improved user immersion (8.4/10, p < 0.01) and creativity (7.9/10, p < 0.05), with 90% of participants praising smooth transitions between main and side story lines. The framework holds potential in education, cultural communication, and hybrid reality applications, supporting narrative design in digital platforms and AI-integrated tools. Future work will address complexity and broaden applications through AI-driven optimization, advancing sustainable and immersive storytelling experiences across virtual and physical domains.
Yaojiong Yu
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
From Data to Insights: Perceiving Museum Experiences Through Natural Language Processing of Social Media Corpus
In the context of the experience economy era, museums have evolved from static exhibition spaces to multidimensional cultural experience hubs. Social media plays a crucial role in evaluating public satisfaction. This study aims to examine public perceptions of museum experiences, focusing on thematic content and overall emotional trends toward museums. While natural language processing (NLP) models have been widely applied in the field of computing, their use in museum experience design, particularly in the Chinese context, remains limited. This study employs the pre-trained model in NLP for BERTopic modeling, this research analyzes 14,800 recent online reviews (dated January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024) from China's top 10 most-searched museums on Dianping. Generating three core topics: technological applications, cultural immersion, and service quality. Within these themes, several conflict issues emerge, such as difficulties in ticket reservation systems, the fragmentation of experiences due to digital technology, and the tension between artifact display technologies and the commercialization of cultural products. Sentiment analysis using SnowNLP indicates that while architectural design, exhibition content, and technological applications generally elicit positive emotions, satisfaction with ticketing systems and service efficiency remains low. Additionally, immersive experiences show high levels of visitor engagement, but concerns arise regarding the excessive complexity of technology, which affects the balance between technology use and historical-cultural appreciation. These findings provide valuable insights for improving museum experience design, particularly in enhancing service quality, balancing technological applications, and preserving cultural heritage.
Xueqi Liu, Zhiping Qu
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Exploring Generative AI Empowerment in City Brand Building from a Human-Factors Perspective: An Empirical Study Based on Wuhan City Emoji
The application of generative AI in enhancing the cultural identity of cities within the context of urban branding presents a novel perspective. Emojis, as vivid, engaging, and easily disseminated communication media, have become a crucial means of interaction in contemporary society. This study, based on a human factors engineering perspective, takes the design of Wuhan city-themed emojis as an empirical case study. Initially, a comprehensive literature review and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect diverse data from Wuhan residents, tourists, frequent emoji users, and design experts, aiming to gain in-depth insights into the cultural essence and symbolic imagery of Wuhan. Subsequently, grounded theory was employed to perform a three-level coding process, leading to the development of an initial theoretical framework. The Kano model and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were then integrated to classify and prioritize user needs through a systematic weighting analysis. Finally, based on the priority of element weights, Midjourney was utilized for design practice and iterative optimization. The results indicate that generative AI can stimulate creativity and foster emotional connections in city-themed emojis, meeting the diverse needs of various application scenarios and enhancing the digital dissemination of Wuhan's city image. This study provides a novel creative approach and theoretical model for city-themed emoji design, offering valuable insights for other cities in digital branding and cultural communication.
Qian Bao, Fangchao Yang, Pinzhe Zhao
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Let the Earth Warm Up at Most 1.5℃: The Application of Information Visualization Design in Climate Change Communication
This study proposes and implements an exhibition design project on the theme of “Let the Earth Warm Up at Most 1.5℃”, which is centered on the issue of global climate change. By integrating visualization design, spatial display and science communication, the project aims to present the global warming trend triggered by greenhouse gas emissions and its multiple impacts on the ecosystem in a visual and tangible way. The exhibition is based on the HadCRUT Global Surface Temperature Dataset (1860-2020), which is a multi-dimensional graphic based on scientific evidence, reflecting the trend of global average annual temperature change since the Industrial Revolution.The design covers a number of ecological tipping points in the context of climate warming, such as the melting of the Greenland ice cap, the degradation of the Amazon rainforest, the reduction of Arctic sea ice and the demise of coral reefs, etc. Through screen installations, multimedia interactions and information on display panels, it simulates the temperature rise scenarios and their chain of impacts on biodiversity. Among them, the “sensible” design is reflected in the integration of visual, auditory and tactile dimensions, such as the visualization interface, real-time feedback temperature measurement paper material and temperature rise simulation device, etc., so that the audience can perceive the real consequences of climate change in an immersive environment.At the same time, the exhibition extends to supporting design elements such as exhibition tickets, cultural and creative packaging, and the use of eco-friendly materials to stimulate audience engagement and emotional resonance.“Public Participation” is reflected through sustainable education modules and interactive feedback mechanisms, such as “Future Commitment Card” and “I will do something to reduce carbon emissions for the Earth”, which will guide the audience to the project's design logic is based on the concept of “Climate Action”.The design logic of this project is based on the path of “scientific fact - visual interpretation - public participation”, exploring the role of design in environmental communication and climate action. Through the construction of an interactive environmental education field, the project promotes the audience's understanding and emotional resonance of climate change issues, and highlights the potential and responsibility of design as a communication medium in social sustainability issues.
Yixuan Wu
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Interaction Design Strategies for the Preservation of Porcelain of the Liao Dynasty
This study explores the integration of interaction design with traditional handicrafts, focusing on Porcelain of the Liao Dynasty as a case study. Traditional handicrafts face challenges in preservation and inheritance due to outdated methods and limited engagement with younger generations. By leveraging modern technologies such as 3D modeling, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and machine learning, this research proposes a human-centered interaction design model to revitalize and popularize traditional crafts. The study identifies three levels of interaction—perceptual, behavioral, and abstract—to enhance user engagement and learning. Through user interviews, surveys, and design practices, the research highlights the potential of digital tools to bridge the gap between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary audiences. The findings demonstrate that interactive and dynamic media designs significantly improve user engagement and understanding compared to static methods. This approach not only preserves the cultural essence of Porcelain of the Liao Dynasty but also fosters innovation and sustainable development in the realm of intangible cultural heritage (ICH).
Yu Hu, Qiangqiang Fan, Xinyi Wang
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Empowering Asian Artists: The Art Futures Award Initiative
This conference paper introduces the Art Futures Awards Initiatives as an innovative framework designed to restore academic rigor to art award evaluation processes and empower Asian artists within the international art community. It systematically presents the literature review, methodology, framework design, scope of influence, assessment methods, outcomes, and data analysis, offering a comprehensive model applicable for art practitioners, artists, curators, and educators.Art awards significantly influence contemporary art by affecting artists' recognition, career development, and creative explorations. In recent decades, many major art awards have transitioned from academic partnership to private and corporate oversight, raising concerns regarding subjective biases, inconsistent standards, and the prioritization of commercial interests. In the meantime, despite their widespread importance, scholarly examinations of award evaluation processes remain limited. Addressing this gap, the Art Futures Award Initiative emerges as a collaborative effort between academic institutions and industry partners throughout East Asia.Concurrently, Asian artists have encountered marginalisation within the global art scene, often constrained by stereotypical cultural representations, restricting broader international exposure of their contemporary artistic practices. The Art Futures Awards Initiatives addresses these issues by creating an international exchange platform that recognise emerging Asian artists' creative excellence, enhances their international visibility, and emphasises their engagement with contemporary artistic practices beyond traditional boundaries.The initiatives devise a hybrid evaluation model that combines digital frameworks with traditional expert judgment. Art colleges and academies across Asia nominate outstanding graduates, whose portfolios are submitted via a digital platform. This platform uses remote evaluations through a standardised rubric that quantitatively assesses creativity, innovation, and technical skill by groups of International Academics, artists and curators. Then last panel of internationally renowned artists, curators, and academics provides on-site evaluations in the final stage that recognizes artistic merit. This integrated evaluation approach minimises biases while preserving the importance of expert judgement.The Art Futures Awards Initiatives provides an original contribution to both scholarly discourse and practical application by offering a replicable framework for art award evaluations that balances quantitative rigor with expert intuition. Preliminary findings demonstrate the model's effectiveness in reducing implicit biases and enhancing transparency, thereby establishing a fairer evaluation framework. Additionally, the initiatives actively promote inclusive representation, empowering Asian artists to express diverse cultural identities and ensuring their meaningful participation in global art discourse.
Man Yee Janet Fong, Jimmy Lee, Gloria Mak
Open Access
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