Granitos de grano medio, biotíticos-moscovíticos,

Covering letter and participant consent form

A covering letter and participant consent form were sent to all

prospective participants of the study. These read as follows.

Master of Design Thesis

Enhancing the Communicative Potential of Colour

Dear _______________________ I am writing to ask if you would be willing to participate in a small informal study concerning colour- blindness.

I am undertaking a Master of Design within the College of Creative Arts at Massey University. My major is illustration, which falls within the wider discipline of visual communication design, or V.C.D.. V.C.D. encompasses any

design artefacts that communicate information visually, for example signage, packaging, logos,

illustration, advertising and even emergency vehicle livery.

The project will investigate the use of colour in V.C.D. and how such use affects colour-blind people. Previous investigations (mine and others’) have suggested that awareness of the visual needs of colour-blind people is generally inadequate among both professional and amateur designers.

My previous work has also indicated a potential role for a visual system designed to enhance the communicative properties of colour.

My work in this area is focused on two research aims. The first is improving general awareness of

and sensitivity to the visual needs of colour-blind people. The second is creating a visual system whereby colour can be made equally visible to colour-blind and non-colour-blind people.

I would be very grateful if you would agree to assist with these aims. This would involve providing feedback about a number of images (twenty to thirty) that illustrate the visual system mentioned; I would send these to you through the post. The images would be accompanied by a short questionnaire in which you could record your responses to the images.

I would be keen to follow up the questionnaire, with one or two participants who were agreeable to it, with a face-to-face interview.

This would be valuable in revealing the ‘personal’ side of this issue. Being able to include personal anecdotes in my research would add tremendously to the likelihood of engaging the intended audience. Michael Q. Patton, the author of Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (1990), states that ‘the intended users [of the research] ... must be interested in the stories, experiences, and perceptions of program participants.’ Elsewhere he notes that evaluation case studies ‘have all the elements of a good story.’ These interviews, which would take place face-to-face, would be kept to a minimum of twenty to thirty minutes unless participants agreed otherwise. They would be digitally recorded to ensure accuracy of transcription.

Your responses would be used to analyse the effectiveness of the visual system under study. These responses would be treated as confidential, and would be presented anonymously in the thesis. They would not be used

for any other work or publication without your consent. Each participant would be identified in the thesis by gender and age, e.g. ‘M, 38’. The data gathered would be stored securely, and would not include any identifying details other than the initials of each participant’s name and his or her age.

If you took part in the study, you would have the right to refuse to answer any particular question, and to withdraw from the study at any time; you could also ask any questions about the study that occurred to you during your participation. My contact details and those of my supervisors are below.

I am hopeful that this work will enhance knowledge of the visual needs of colour-blind people, and lead to greater sensitivity on the part of those who create visual communication materials.

One of the final outcomes of the research will be a children’s picture book. It will be designed both to demonstrate the visual system

developed during the project and to enhance public awareness of the visual needs of colour-blind people. Once it is complete, I would be happy to provide you with a CD- ROM copy should you wish to see it.

(My contact details and those of my supervisors were included here.)

Committee Approval Statement

This project has been evaluated by peer review and judged to be low risk. Consequently, it has not been reviewed by one of the University’s Human Ethics Committees. The researcher(s) named above are responsible for the ethical conduct of this research.

If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research that you wish to raise with someone other than the researcher(s), please contact Professor Sylvia Rumball, Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor (Research Ethics), telephone 06 350 5249, email [email protected]

Enhancing the Communicative Potential of Colour

Participant Consent Form

This consent form will be held for a period of five (5) years.

I have read the covering letter and have had the details of the study explained to me. My questions have been answered to my satisfaction, and I understand that I may ask further questions at any time.

I understand that I have the right to withdraw from the study at any time and to decline to answer any particular questions.

I agree to provide information to the researcher on the understanding that my name will not be used without my permission. The information will be used only for this research and publications arising from this research project.

I agree to participate in this study under the conditions set out in the covering letter.

Signature: Name: Date:

The following pages show the results of the tests into the effectiveness of patterned colour.

The test images were bound into A4 booklets and posted to the six people who had agreed to participate. They were asked to describe what they saw in each of the images, if anything, and in some instances to compare pairs of images and decide whether one of the two was more effective in conveying colour information.

The cover of the booklet carried the title of the study and the words ‘The images are intended to be looked at in the order they occur in the booklet, and ideally not to be compared to one another.’

The participants replied by post, and their responses were entered

into computer files. The results were analysed to discover whether embedded pattern aided identification of certain colours in the test images.

Figure 75 shows a sample page from the booklet of test images.