"The Medium is the Message"

"The Medium is the Message" is a phrase by Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan was known to speak about technology and communication even before it became popular and relevant in society.

After reading this article I have begun to understand the overall meaning of this phrase, which is essentially that when designing, designers should look past the technical standpoint and focus on the design from an mental and psychological standpoint. Back during the times that McLuhan lived in the "medium" consisted of television, print, film and radio; now we also have the Internet which has taken communication to the next level and sometimes making it harder to understand the overall concept because of the many things that can be created.

When reading information from print, to web and to film, this article breaks it down the when communicating this to the reader or user, the information has to be sections, or displayed differently in all three mediums. In print you may be able to section information on the same page and also be able to include more content and visual references rather on the web because users seem to scan more when reading content online so it has to be broken down. And in film there are little or no text involved so the viewer has to conceptualize the entire concept by paying attention from beginning to end.

Even though the content put on web sites have to be brief and segmented. The information displayed can be reachable across the world. This form of medium is far more grater than print, television or radio. Web Designers and analysts today utilize these tools to their advantage. Especially since it is easy to edit their visual references and information in a couple of seconds compared to the other forms or mediums.  It seems with print, television, radio and film it is sometime easier for their audiences to pay attention more because these forms have been used in society for a number or decades now.

What I have taken from this article (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/07/04/the-medium-is-the-message/) is that the medium is whatever message you want to put forth should be simple enough that it could be scannable but complex enough that you have to take a second look because of the realization that there was something you missed at first glance.