Research

How do people interpret design? How does design affect human behavior? It turns out that the visual system interprets incoming signals (and therefore, visual design) through the emotion centers of the brain. In fact, the system is so efficient that we interpret the visual scene even without paying attention. An ongoing curiosity about these subjects and desire to understand the design roots of visual literacy are the bases Koch’s current design research activity: She is currently investigating how people interpret typestyles. Her research seeks to understand the underlying structure of visual language; her study of typestyles exposed the design features that people respond to emotionally. Her article “Emotion in typographic design: An empirical examination.” was published in Visible Language 46(3), in 2012. Koch has taught and spoken internationally on topics including emotional effects of typestyles, effective design for interactive learning, international packaging design, and design education. 
2012 IVLA Gender+Type Presentation
 2012 SOTA TypeCon Presentation
2011 Koch_IVLA Presentation Slides
2011 Human Emotion Response to Typographic Design: PhD Dissertation
2010 UCDA Koch Slides
2009 iDMAa Conference IDEAS2009 Art Book
2008 AIGA Design Educators Massaging Media 2 Koch Abstract
2008 AIGA Design Educators
2008 Symposium of The Preservation of Cultural Heritage Abstract
2008 Turkey PreservationDesignTools
2008 Turkey Student Presentation Design Directions
2008 New Views2 Koch Abstract
2006 Exploring the affective nature of electronic learning environments: MFA Thesis
2005 Designs on e-Learning Abstract
2005 Designs on eLearning Paper
2005 Business Use of The Internet ITAA Article