PENS PENCILS MARKERS HIGHLIGHTERS Black Ink Pen Short Pencil Black Thick Marker Yellow Highlighter Black Ink Pen 2 Short White Pencil Black Thick Marker 2 Blue-Yellow
Highlighter Black Ink Pen 3 No. 2 Pencil Black Thick Marker 3 Yellow-Pink
Highlighter Black Ink Pen 4 Purple Mechanical
Pencil Black Thin Marker Black Ink Pen 5 Red Mechanical Pencil Black Fine Marker Blue Ink Pen Black Fine Marker 2 Orange Mechanical
Pencil Blue Ink Pen 2 Red Marker Blue Mechanical
Pencil Blue Ink Pen 3 White Marker Purple Mechanical
Pencil White Ink Pen Brown Marker Red Ink Pen Green Marker Red Ink Pen 2 Clear Pen Clear Pen 2 Clear Pen 3 Black Push Pen Blue Push Pen Turqoise Body Push
Pen Purple Body Push Pen Summary of Process:
I chose the categories I did because there is a clear delineation between what is a pen, a
pencil, a marker or a highlighter. If each of the headings were to run across the header of a
website, then users should have a clear understanding of what is in store for them after they click
the mouse. By keeping it concise, I am able to avoid “clogging” the header with too much
information. This exercise didn’t call for it, but if I were going to design a header based on these
categories, I would use cascading menus that have sub-headings with colors or types of writing
utensil (push-pens, fountain pens, etc…).
One particular challenge I encountered was the duplication of some of the items. There
were a few pens or markers that seemed to match another item on the list so I made sure to not
put any duplicates in my table. At times, it was difficult to see determine what was a pen or
pencil, so I attempted to look at the properties of the image or bring my face close to the screen
to make a decision. Thinking of the “big picture” I would have a hard time dedicating a header to
highlighters as they only had three choices. Perhaps, highlighters could be a sub-heading under
Markers in a cascading menu? I’m hoping to explore these issues further.
In regard to scheme, I started with function, but seeing as pens and pencils are each used
for effectively the same purpose, I took a step further into materials (ink versus lead). Markers
and Highlighters followed as their functions are different from pens and pencils. After organizing
my rows, I started in on the columns. The pens were the most versatile so I started with color and
transitioned into style (such as capped versus push-pens). Lead is the same color, so for pencils I
started with size followed by usage (such as regular versus mechanical). Markers and
Highlighters followed the rule of color first, but Markers were slightly more versatile than
Highlighters so after color I noticed that the black markers had various sizes. I chose to break
down the black markers in size before starting with the various colors so users could stay in one
color area and not have to “hop-around” too much.