Illustration can be used within UX to help explain difficult ideas, or to make a more engaging user experience. The are many different styles this can take, from realistic illustrations to simple vectors, and can be a great addition to a UX project. This was interesting to me as I had never really considered how impactful illustration can be in UX, but when I when I thought about it I realised how much illustration is featured in UX and that it really does create a more enjoyable experience.
I found this article detailing the reasons to use Illustration in UX which I found really interesting and useful. IN particular, I found the point about humans responding to images much quicker than words really interesting and helped me understand why using illustration on an otherwise boring page can completely change the users experience. I also thought it was interesting how the article made the point of keeping illustrations visually harmonious with the rest of the project, and I would be interesting to see how this could be applied in my own project. For example, I think it could be interesting using a style of illustration that matches the icons of a project, so that the illustrations could be extensions of the icons. This has really made me realise the importance of illustration and has given me ideas for how I could use it myself.
Mascot illustration is often used in UX to make for a more personable and friendly experience. Illustrated characters can be an effective type of branding, however can be further utilised throughout user interfaces to make for more engaging experience. While I had been aware of the use of mascots before in UX, thinking about now made me realise what an effective use of illustration it could be, as it could really add personality to a project by having a character appear to be actually explaining something within a UX.
Using thematic illustration can help to engage the user in a visually harmonious manner. Using consistent shapes, colours, and imagery between the UI and the illustration within the UI can make for a more visually appealing UX. After looking at some examples I can see just how effective this type of illustration could as it makes the illustration really feel like part of UI. I definitely want to explore this sort of illustration for my project.
Icons by their very nature are illustrations, but there is definetly styles of icons which utilise more illustrative styles. This was an interesting concept to me as I had always considered icons to have to be as simple and geometric as possible. Seeing them in action, I can really see the usefulness of using more illustrated icons for part of an icon set, as it allows you to draw attention to certain features within a UI.
