I think someone here made a suggestion that it would be interesting to see how people responded to images based on the rules of aesthetics, or something like that, so a week or so back I knocked up a set of images of a jonquil flower on a black and a white background (to keep it simple) and popped them in a survey and sent the email to be distributed at a local university, a government department and on a local general newsgroup - the survey looks like this one: http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=txi1nje56tholtv323046 (maybe we want to do this one and see if our experinces cause us to respond to things differently?) It was as interesting excersize.. not sure what it reveals though! the results were as follows: 1. black background, white flower Average Score description 1 2.80 / 5 20 centred 2 2.30 / 5 20 top left 1/3 3 2.39 / 5 18 top right 1/3 4 3.53 / 5 19 bottom left 1/3 5 3.67 / 5 18 bottom right 1/3 2: black background, white flower Average Score description 1 2.55 / 5 20 bottom left edge 2 3.45 / 5 20 bottom right edge 3 3.40 / 5 20 centred 4 2.50 / 5 22 top left edge 5 2.95 / 5 20 top right edge 3: white background, white flower Average Score description 1 1.86 / 5 22 top left 1/3 2 2.90 / 5 20 top right 1/3 3 3.15 / 5 20 centred 4 3.55 / 5 20 bottom left 1/3 5 3.45 / 5 20 bottom right 1/3 Full breakdown - 1. (black background, images at 1/3's and centred) note that 'first' (below) means the first image etc, and the rating is the number of people who placed it first, so for the result below, 7 people placed the first and last image first and last, no one placed the fourth image fourth. Some seem to have rated a few images and neglected the rest.. so be it! :) For the third image (top right 1/3 - the traditional 'ideal' position), more people placed it second or third than first, in fact centred and top left third rated more preferable to more people.. 1 rating: first second third fourth fifth 7 4 2 0 7 2 rating: first second third fourth fifth 7 4 5 4 0 3 rating: first second third fourth fifth 4 6 5 3 0 4 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 2 4 6 5 5 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 2 2 6 6 2: (black background, images at edges and centred) 1 rating: first second third fourth fifth 8 3 2 4 3 2 rating: first second third fourth fifth 1 5 4 4 6 3 rating: first second third fourth fifth 4 0 7 2 7 4 rating: first second third fourth fifth 7 5 3 6 1 5 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 7 4 4 3 3: (white background, images at 1/3's and centred) 1 rating: first second third fourth fifth 12 5 2 2 1 2 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 6 5 6 1 3 rating: first second third fourth fifth 4 4 3 3 6 4 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 3 4 4 7 5 rating: first second third fourth fifth 2 2 7 5 5 Correlating examples 1 and 3 are interesting, since the flowers are in the same positions within the image, but the image arrangement differs and the background is white instead of black. arranging them so they correlate: 1 (centred image, black background) first second third fourth fifth 7 4 2 0 7 3 (centred image, white background) first second third fourth fifth 4 4 3 3 6 2 (top left image, black background) first second third fourth fifth 7 4 5 4 0 1 (top left image, white background) first second third fourth fifth 12 5 2 2 1 3 (top right image, black background) first second third fourth fifth 4 6 5 3 0 2 (top right image, white background) first second third fourth fifth 2 6 5 6 1 4 (bottom left image, black background) first second third fourth fifth 2 2 4 6 5 4 (bottom left image, white background) first second third fourth fifth 2 3 4 4 7 5 (bottom right image, black background) first second third fourth fifth 2 2 2 6 6 5 (bottom right image, white background) first second third fourth fifth 2 2 7 5 5 The respondents were also asked to state their nationality or the culture they most identify with, their age and whether they received formal training in art. The raw responses were: australia - 29 - no - Azebaijan - 89 - yes - italian - 555 - yes - Australia - 25 - no - Australia - 46 - no - Australia - 53 - no - Orstralia - more than 64 - you must be joking - australia - 44 - no - Australia-Poland - 23 - No - Australia/Western European - 40 - no - Australia - 30 - No - Aussie - 19 - no - Australia - 41 - no - Australian - 45 - yes - Australian - 33 - no - australia - 24 - residential building- design & animation, photography - Australia - 40 - No - Australia - 44 - no - Australia - 26 - no - Sweden - 28 - no - Brazil - 38 - no - Australia - 35 - no
