• Getting The Right Feel … The Riddle Of Texture

What is texture?

By Ziggy Nixon

Part 1 – Needed: Texture Engineer for Design Projects, Apply Within

What is texture?

Please understand I'm not being flippant with that question, it truly is vexing me right now. It all started when I was asked to put together some text for designers about given product groups for a new web-feature. [Editor’s note: coming soon!]

"Make sure you address the issues from a designer's perspective," I was told. "Don't focus on too many technical details. Be sure to describe the important factors of color, the visual effects that can be created and the impact a given product can bring ..."

Okay, I thought, that should be pretty straightforward. Then came the real killer part of the assignment:

"… oh and don't forget to add something about the texture given by the products, again especially from a designer's perspective."

Wait a minute, I thought, what exactly does that mean?

That evening I drove home trying to convince myself that I knew what texture meant (if you noticed someone driving down the highway rubbing various parts of his car interior, that was me), but with little luck.

© Ziggy Nixon

The next day, I stopped by our Editor's office again, to explain my difficulties. As any good Editor would, he referred me back to an article we had run some months ago on XYMARA.com, on "Getting the Right Feel ... The Riddle of Texture", which described the intriguing work of Dr. Henfeng Zuo, from the Southampton Solent University, U.K. This article revolved around Dr. Zuo's ongoing collaboration with designers, engineers, psychologists and multimedia specialists to create a "common language" for texture:

"Texture matters; which is why people still willingly pay more for leather rather than vinyl car seats and wood floors rather than linoleum."

There's another great quote in this article that described my dilemma well, namely:

"Think of, say, the clinging, slightly damp, elastic yet silky feel of the inner skin of an onion: how would you describe that to a process engineer?" (emphasis mine)

Suddenly, I wasn't feeling as, well, alone as before. Even at the simple levels of differentiating texture between its macroscopic and microscopic properties, Dr. Zuo points out that we have to "go beyond geometrical dimensions to define texture in the way we actually perceive it."

In his correspondence with our Editor, Dr. Zuo had indicated that he had been just about to release a new website, which is now up and running (www.material-aesthetics.com). It's really a fascinating place to visit ... and not only because you find yourself confronted by "The Matrix" from the first page.

To allay any concerns you may have that you've stumbled across a site on the well-known futuristic movie with the elaborate special effects and state-of-the-art slow motion sequences; in this case the Matrix "illustrates the interrelationship between the factors that influence and present a direct picture of the subjective-objective dialogue between materials and human response."

© Ziggy Nixon

The site then takes the visitor through a brief overview of human sensation perception characteristics, material categories, sensory properties, as well as physical and environmental parameters – both on sensory and also emotional levels. I had the feeling that the definition of texture was entering into new dimensions as even time – or perhaps, better said, my age and even my past experiences (including spending a large portion [100%] of my life being male) – was also a key factor in the ultimate understanding the Matrix could provide.

Dr. Zuo and his team's site goes certainly into much more detail than provided here and even offers two brief but interestingly designed case studies. I can highly recommend a visit. But despite finding this expert advice, I still had this nagging feeling that I needed a better definition for texture for my own journey.

The next day I figured I'd do what any honest "reporter" might and consult the dictionary (which, I would note, I kept open for most of the time I was writing this article). The various definitions of “texture” can be summarized as follows:

1. something composed of closely interwoven elements; specifically a woven cloth; or the structure formed by the threads of a fabric;
2. the essential part (substance) or identifying quality (character) of an object;
3. visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something, for example, the texture of a painting or sculpture;
4. a composite of the elements of prose or poetry; also a pattern of musical sound created by tones or lines played or sung together.

Hmm, well, that's nice but it really didn't bring me much further along my quest than before. So instead, I decided to go one step further into the powerful world of the INTERNET and consult an on-line encyclopedia ... at no charge mind you.

More on this in Part 2.