An Eye for an Egg

Where is the egg?




For my egg project, I decided to conduct an experiment. My experiment was to place the egg into a natural setting where it somewhat blended in. When I had the egg in place, I showed the image to two people. The first person had no design experience. I told the person to find the egg in the picture. After nearly a minute the person could not find the egg. They then asked me if there was even an egg in the picture. After about a minute and a few clues, the person found the egg. The second person that I had look at the picture had some design experience. When the second person looked at the image, they were able to find the egg within about 10 seconds.

My theory and point is the following:

First of all, this experiment proved that people with design experience have a better trained eye and know where and how to look. I was able to watch both test subjects and each person's eye moved quite different. The person with less experience almost read the picture as if it were a book. Their eyes moved left to right. The person with design experience however, was much different. Their eyes did not move in a pattern. They were very still but their eyes slowly moved to where the egg was located as if they were soaking in the whole image.

Second of all, was the issue with the egg color. The person with no design experience confessed after the test that not only did they have trouble finding the egg, but they were looking for a "white egg" . When I had said the word "egg" they immediately started looking for a white colored egg. This distracted them from merely looking for an egg. They had already had a mind set that the egg was a certain color. On the other hand, the person with design experience did not make the assumption of only looking for a white egg. When I said the word "egg" to the second person, they explained that they were looking for an egg of any size and color.

In conclusion, this experiment showcases the fact that people with design experience have learned how to search for certain items or aspects in an image. They are not locked in the regular day to day mental imaging that automatically sees an apple as a red fruit or in this case, an egg with a white shell.