Recently
I’ve been reading a lot about cognitive psychology and the way we can be primed
to make decisions based on certain cues. One of these is colour. In an
experiment people were asked to fill out a survey with either an orange or
green pen. They were then asked to pick an object from a large selection laid
out on a table. Some of these were orange. Some of these were green. But there
were a lot of other colours too. Low and behold those who’d used the green pen
picked a green object and the same happened for orange [Berger, J. &
Fitzsimons, G  2008]. Scary stuff. I
started to think about whether the same thing could be said for shapes.

We
learn to recognise shapes at an early age. You’re probably familiar with the
wooden box game where a toddler has to fit the cube through the square hole and
the cylinder through the circular hole and so on. I remember it was pretty satisfying
when you got it right. In this experiment it turns out young kids
actually find circles and squares much easier than triangles and rectangles.
Points are confusing. It doesn’t really say why a rectangle is harder than a
square, maybe it’s something to do with proportions and symmetry. In any case shape
recognition stabilises at around 6 years old but we’re still fascinated by them
as we get older. For instance studies have shown that men prefer women with a
waist to hip ratio of 0.7 (Waist Measurement ÷ Hip Measurement = Ratio), and women prefer men
with broad shoulders and a skinny waist that creates a V shaped torso. So this
is why superheroes have ridiculously tiny waists the diameter of my right
thigh. 

Shape
can also help the way we live, and not just by making things ergonomic. It’s a
way of categorising stuff. Take this innovative design by student Amanda
Savitzky. Her brother has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This condition makes
a hectic space like the kitchen a crazed sensory minefield.  He couldn’t cook for himself and was missing
out on the pleasure the rest of the family got from creating meals. So what’s
big sister done? She took the concept of some fancy French way of cooking
called ‘mise en place’ (which is a way of organising all your ingredients
before starting to cook) and used shape to make cooking steps accessible. Each
of the different shaped pans below is actually a measuring cup.  She then took lots of common recipes and
broke them down into cups. A red pentagon is one cup. A yellow square is half a
cup. Again colour is working with shape to help create a code. The recipes are
available on a specially designed app so her
brother could follow a guide step by step. It’s really snazzy. 

So
shape can make something useful. It helps us make the best use of a product. It
can also just make a product stand out. Take Toblerone. You could remove all
the text and branded colours on the bar below and you’d still be able to guess
what the object was. You’d know it was a Toberlone and not any other chocolate
bar. 

Shapes
are the perfect signals. Sexy shapes, solid shapes, see-through shapes, they
all help guide us, both as conscious tools and subconscious frames of
reference.

[Thoughts
from Planning newbie Alexa]