Design

Design Choices. The site itself is an organizational application, and therefore is the emphasis of the entire program. The visual contrast between the site’s color pallet is not the best due to its subdued and overall light saturation. However, once interests boards are added to a user’s site, the board boxes themselves add contrast through separation. Proximity and alignment are incredibly important and utilized heavily because the site allows users to move their interest boards around so that they are positioned where they see best fit.

Modes of Communication. Of the five modes of communication – linguistic, visual, spatial, aural, and gestural – PearlTrees uses all but gestural. Of the four, visual and spatial are the key players in PearlTree’s design. PearlTrees is an organizational tool that does so visually, allowing users to adjust their interest boards to the order that best appeals to them. Users have the opportunity to upload personal or share other individual’s documents, stories, literature, etc. The aural mode of communication is demonstrated by the ability to upload and share video clips. Below is a shot of how linguistics are incorporated into the site’s capabilities.