Master of Science by research
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/22454
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- item: Thesis-Full-textLocal crafts and design business strategies : with special reference to batik craft practice at Aluvihare Heritage Centre (AHC)(2023) Jayamanne JMDKP; Senanayake R; Daswatte CThe aim of this research was to investigate the key business strategies employed by Ena de Silva, a renowned artist in the field of Batik craft, at Aluwihare Heritage Centre (AHC) in Matale, Sri Lanka. Craft producers often face challenges in successfully marketing their products due to limited access to markets and lack of demand. To address this, the study employed naturalistic, shadowing, covert, and participatory observation, as well as narrative approach interviews to identify the business strategy practices and challenges faced by the Batik craft business in marketing their products. By observing the contextual factors, resources, and attributes that influence the business, the study revealed that contextual factors have contributed to improving the quality of the products by constantly enhancing existing designs and preserving the essence of the craft. Craft manufacturers perceive their products as unique and of superior quality. However, small businesses encounter obstacles in generating demand and identifying target customers. Therefore, it is crucial for craft manufacturers to identify their target market and understand customer needs in order to develop an effective business plan. The study also discussed the involvement of designers or creative individuals in the knowledge management process for creative products, with specific reference to AHC..
- item: Thesis-Full-textSinhala display typefaces; visual classification of Sinhala book title(2023) Gunawardhana PHSD; Samarawickrama S; Dalvi GThis thesis is a systematic documentation of letterform variations in Sinhala display typefaces through a visual classification in early Sinhala book titles. The research primarily focuses on documenting and classifying letterform variations of Sinhala book titles used in early printed books in Sri Lanka (from 1890 to 1960). Historical research and documentation is essential for the growth and development of any subject domain including design. Under the major subject domain of graphic design, Latin typography has a long history in its historical studies. As a result, the subject has grown to a substantial level. Since design education in Sri Lanka is nearly two decades old, subject areas such as graphic design and typography lack documented knowledge of early Sri Lankan typographic practices. The historical data that contributes to these subject areas are found at archival locations in Sri Lanka. In Colombo National Museum Archive, we found a collection of early Sinhala book cover design as primary data for historical studies in graphic design. Some of these data have been already lost due to inadequate preservation, conservation procedures, and lack of interest in preserving graphical material. Therefore we identify the research gap as the need of documenting primary data for graphic design; typography in Sri Lanka. Thesis introduces classification as a method of systematically documenting the primary data. It investigated Latin and Devanagari typographic classification systems and confirmed the importance of the variables for classifying data. We identified variables and values for the main study by conducting a literature survey on display typefaces and classification systems. We selected a random sample of early printed book covers from the Colombo National Museum Library and scanned a total of 1,410 book covers published between 1872 and 1960, along with their meta data including cover size, publisher, author, and so on. We uncovered 17 categories (variables) and 77 subcategories (values) under the visual variations of Sinhala book titles in early printed book covers in Sri Lanka. We v classified all the book cover titles within the variables. We conclude the research by presenting the findings and interpretations in a series of tables and graphs. This thesis primarily contributes towards fulfilling a key requirement for the development of the subject of typography and graphic design in Sri Lanka: the documentation of historical data.
- item: Thesis-AbstractLegibility study on Sinhala typeface for directional informative sign boards in Sri Lanka(2021) Eramudugolla LS; Samarawickrama S; Dias GABSTRACT Sri Lanka is a multilingual country; Sinhala, Tamil and English languages are communicated by its representative scripts among various communication tools. Directional informative signboards (DISB) are a tool that assists in road safety and efficiency in driving. DISB in Sri Lanka communicates the destination through the three scripts, the distance through numerals, and direction through arrowheads and other icons. These signs guide the driver to take instant decisions within a short period while operating the vehicle. Therefore, the typefaces, numerals and icons on these boards need to be legible. Legibility and its’ practices are discussed in this research. And highlight the importance and need of a unique typeface for DISB to achieve better legibility performance. Thus, this research examines the Sinhala typeface currently used in DISB of Sri Lanka, required type personality traits for DISB and anatomy as key contributors to increasing legibility performance. Available data on the history of road signs presents the technological development, material (surface) improvements and elaborates on applying scientific methodologies specific to legibility performance. It is relevant to different scripts of different countries. Whereas within the context of Sri Lanka, discussed in the background study and literature survey, the Sinhala typeface used for DISB is a common typeface (DL-Araliya). It was mainly designed to communicate information through printbased material. Further, it was also noted that the typeface was not scientifically tested for the legibility performance of DISB. But DL-Araliya is adopted promptly based on its common usage and the country’s rapid development of roads, expressways and national highways (after the end of the Civil war). Thus, the research addresses this gap and the need to identify the most suitable legibility test method, required personality traits for DISB within Sri Lanka. And its application to a Sinhala typeface and its anatomy (required typeface features for the proposed typeface) increases legibility performance. The research presents the solution within the domain of typography. The literature survey on existing readability and legibility test methods identified the Reader’s preference test (RPT) as the most appropriate legibility test method to identify the most suitable typeface features according to the personality traits of DISB. RPT incorporates the importance of having specific typeface personality traits for a specific purpose (communicating directional information). Thus, it also underlined the role of the anatomy of the typeface to enhance type personality and its’ legibility. As a result of the literature survey, two variables were identified for the overall research—dependant variable; required typeface features for DISB and independent variable; required typeface personality for DISB. Thereafter the methodology was structured to identify required Sinhala typeface features for DISB. The research experiment was based on RPT and tested six Sinhala typefaces, including DL-Araliya, the currently used Sinhala typeface. The type personality traits were obtained as the findings of the literature survey, and they were based on Latin script. This was because a large amount of research was done within Latin script, and it was the only script discussed on road signs. Thereafter, stimuli were used for the experiments, which contained the six selected typefaces with adjective pairs, required type personality traits and city names where respondents marked their preference on a five-point Likert scale. The results were analysed on SPSS to confirm the size of the sample group. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse the mean value of the most significant personality traits of sample typefaces. Three out of the six typefaces that scored the highest were visually analysed under 33 anatomical features relevant to Sinhala within a set of 26 sample letters. This process was then drafted with the required typeface features and presented as a proposed typeface to increase legibility performance in Sri Lankan DISB. This draft typeface and the methodology of achieving is the main contribution of this research. Thus, the research presents typeface features for DISB to contain large counter spaces, establish a monolinear stroke width, and maintain an equal size ratio for ascender and descender, equal height with the width, to maintain vertical or horizontal terminals and to maintain a closed eye feature. However, since this research contains a one-way experiment test method and selected letters need to be tested on its legibility performance—the suggested test methods are the ‘distance study method’ and ‘short exposure test method’. Even though there are two other scripts, numeral and icons, used on DISB, this research limits the Sinhala typeface. It focuses on legibility performance within the scope of typography research and typeface design.
- item: Thesis-Full-textSinhala typeface features to optimize readability for small scale digital device screens(2023) Subasinghe R; Samarawickrama SThe widespread use of digital devices for reading and communication has highlighted the need for optimized fonts for small-scale digital screens. This need is particularly important for languages with complex scripts like Sinhala, which require specific features to ensure readability. Unfortunately, the lack of digitally optimized Sinhala fonts is a major issue in the Sinhala typographic industry, prompting the need for research in this area. This thesis aims to identify the specific features of Sinhala typefaces that optimize readability on small-scale digital devices. The study has two objectives: first, to identify the role of general anatomical features of a script in designing a font for a particular purpose, and second, to identify the anatomical features of Sinhala typefaces that contribute to optimizing legibility on small-scale digital device screens. The thesis discusses the challenges posed by small digital screens and the importance of legibility, as well as the research gap in Sinhala fonts designed to optimize legibility on small digital screens. A visual experiment was conducted to identify the most appropriate Sinhala font for the research based on legibility, and Noto Sans Sinhala was selected. The experiment identified the anatomical features that contribute to letter misidentification, and a visual survey was conducted on the most commonly misidentified letters in the selected sample font. The purpose of this experiment was to identify the impact of legibility on Noto Sans Sinhala through changes to its anatomical features. The thesis discusses the differences between the Distinct Visual Features and the anatomical structure in Sinhala letters, how the legibility of a font is directly affected by anatomical changes to their Distinct Visual features through similar letter misidentification, and the anatomic features that need to be considered when designing a Sinhala font centered around increasing legibility for small digital screens. The practical implications of this research are significant for designers seeking to optimize legibility and reduce similar letter misidentification in Sinhala fonts on small-scale digital device screens. By manipulating the visual parameters of each anatomical feature, designers can make specific changes to the DV features of letters and improve the legibility of Sinhala fonts on digital platforms. This research contributes to the field of Sinhala typography and legibility on digital screens by providing a deeper understanding of the specific features that impact legibility and similar letter misidentification, enabling designers to create more effective and legible Sinhala fonts for digital devices, improving the user experience and enhancing the communication of messages in Sinhala.