Online graphic designer
You can spend years becoming a graphic designer. I did. You can invest a lot of money to go to school for a degree in Graphic Design. Did that too.
When you're done you should be able to look at an image and predict what parts of it will draw the attention of the viewer. More importantly, you should know how to make it so that people look at exactly what you and/or your client consider important.
Or you can skip the years of experience and the college education and simply subscribe to 3M's online Visual Attention Service.
This video gives an overview of what it is and how it works. It's pretty amazing, really, and not cheap.
Watch the second video below for a case study of how it works with a web page for a specific product. The colorful "heat map" that shows where people will look is useful. More important, in my view, is your ability to get specific recommendations on how to improve the performance of a particular area.
I'm not concerned that VAS will replace graphic designers any time in the near future. In fact, I think it could be a great teaching tool. For better or worse, I'm pretty sure that students will give the VAS "opinion" more credibility than mine. After all, I'm a mere human.
I wish the pricing was more affordable so that I could give VAS a try in the classroom. $12 per image seems pretty steep.
Have you heard of VAS? Used it? Do you think it will put graphic designers out of business or be another tool in our toolbox?
Add your comment below.
