About This Training

This session is meant to provide starting points for thinking critically about imagery and visualisation.

This session covers:

• The visual tradition and the use of images

• Representation considerations

• The use of text with images

• Levels of instructional design complexity in use of imagery and

visualisation

As with all my other stuff: please feel free to use, reuse, adapt – and pretty please? - spread the love by sharing your improvements!

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Imagery and Visualisation

Instructional Design Training

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Activity:

What visualisation would you use for these?

• Legacy Code• Poverty Index• Breakthrough in Wall StreetVisualise This

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Activity:

• Does this image ‘work’?• What has the creator done right?• What has the creator done wrong?• What concepts has the creator brought together

in the image?Critique This

Source

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Activity:

• What fundamental good assumptions do you make about the audience?

• What fundamental bad assumptions do you make about the audience?

• What’s your personal blind spot in representation considerations?

• Do you know which countries have troubled associations with which symbols?

Write This

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IMAGERYStarting Simple:

WS Merwin – about 50 years agoYour absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.

Chempulappeyanirar - 2000 years agoWhat could my mother be to yours? What kin my father to yours anyway? And how did you and I meet ever? But in love Our hearts have mingled like red earth and pouring rain.

The Appeal of Imagery

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Words and Scripts

• How did this wondrous thing – the written word - evolve?• What is so wonderful about it?!

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The Tradition of Using Visual Representations

• Words came from pictures• The oldest pictures were of

things we saw.• Eventually, the pictures evolved

into complex symbols.

)

:)

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Sumerian Cuneiform

Contemporary Symbols

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Simple

Combined

Abstract

Evolution of a stylised script from a basic symbol

When do you use an Image?

• When it adds value – It actually (really!) clarifies the topic– It adds ‘local flavour’– For a subtle whammy

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Literal vs Metaphoric Representations

Literal Metaphoric

Source

Exercise object

Learning object

Activity object

Source

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Remember:

• Metaphoric images are usually more interesting

BUT:

1. Metaphors can get confusing2. Metaphors have to be chosen carefully3. Metaphors mustn’t limit or distort the message

Literal vs Metaphoric Representations

Representation Issues

Subjective or Skewed Focus• The effect of an image

(sometimes) is that it caricatures elements and distorts proportions.

Johnny BravoCopyright: Cartoon Network

What the Energy Bill Really Means for CO2 Emissions

Source

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Representation Issues

Bias• An image can project very strong

bias/ uphold very negative stereotypes because of its ability to make an implicit statement.

Copyright: India Today group

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Copyright: India Today groupCopyright: www.allposters.com

Representation Issues

BiasBeware of ‘cute’ images:

• They are the visually vacuous equivalent of saying 'cho chweet‘.

• They can be masks for extremely derogatory attitudes.

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Copyright: Hutch India (defunct site since Hutch became Vodafone)

Representation Issues

Multiculturalism• Encourage new, positive ways of

looking at cultures.

Source

Clichéd?

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Striking!

Source unknown: please supply if you know!

Representation Issues

Multiculturalism• Use diverse art styles and forms

of pictorial representation.

• Think of the native art forms of the country of your target audience.

• Avoid imagery that upholds cultural hegemony/ stereotyping.

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Source

Aboriginal Dreamtime Art, Australia

Graffiti: Contemporary Subculture

Source

Representation Issues

Expressiveness

• Respect for other forms of life doesn’t mean dry, textbook style representations.

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Customer Experience:

SCORM Metaphor:

Representation Issues

Uncertainty• Visuals are a kind of

‘commitment’.

• You can write that you are unsure or that something is inexplicable – but it’s very hard to draw such abstractions.

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Other Considerations

Cognitive vs Emotional Interest

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Source Source

Other Considerations

A Sense of Wonder!

• See if you can convey a sense of possibilities and wonder with your image selections. It greatly influences the audience's perceptions of the topic as well.

Source

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TEXT AND IMAGESThe Next Level of Complexity:

On the Nature of Information

• Information varies on a continuum from low to high in terms of interactivity of the elements to be learnt.

• Each element of low-element interactivity material can be understood and learned individually without consideration of any other elements.

• The elements of high-element interactivity material can be learned individually, but they cannot be understood until all of the elements and their interactions are processed simultaneously.

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Functions on the MS Office 'File' menu

Preparation of a Gantt chart

Simple information Complex information

‘Visualisation and Instructional Design ‘ – John Sweller

When do you Need Visualisation?

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• When the information is split between two (or more) elements that must be 'mapped' mentally and associated with each other to be fully understood.

Diagram: <BAC = 60 degrees<ACB = 40 degrees

Text:<ABC = 180 – (60 + 40)

<DBE and <ABC are vertically opposite angles and are therefore equal.

‘Visualisation and Instructional Design ‘ – John Sweller

The Recommended Use of Text and Image

• The objective is to provide all the information in one place and not distract the learner by scattering the information.

• In the diagram below, the information is now integrated in the visual, but is still scattered within the visual.

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Other Notes

• There is such a thing as an overkill! Providing multiple representations (e.g.: textual, auditory and visual) of the same information actually reduces the overall learning.

• Given that a learner has the knowledge necessary to process all of the required information,

learners who are encouraged to imagine a procedure learn better than learners who are just given conventional instructions.

Imagination can act as a practice tool during the learning, making the learner increasingly comfortable with the information.

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Ways to Think About Graphics

Also think of this when you are designing or conceptualising graphics:

1. Nature of information2. Existing metaphors/ examples3. Graphical elements to tweak

The Standard Toolbox

• Pictures• Cross-sectional pictures (mine shaft structure)• Juxtaposed/ split pictures (lung and alveoli)• ‘Mapped’ pictures (engines)• ‘Mapped’ text – flowcharts, timelines, tables• Interactive picture + text

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LEVELS OF INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN COMPLEXITYUsage of Imagery and Visualisation

Considerations

Level 1

• Does the image support the primary textual intention?

• Are the basic representational issues thought of?

Level 2

• Does the image support and supplement the primary textual intention?

• Does the image create partial value in itself?

• Are the basic representational and interactive/ user experience issues thought of?

Level 3

• Does the image convey the subject/ topic correctly? Is text/audio needed to support the imagery?

• Does the image contribute to the creation of the learning environment and experiences?

• Does the image contribute to the creation of an immersive user experience?

• Is the imagery representative of the subject and audience profile complexity?

• Does the imagery evoke a sense of self expression in the audience?

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Still image

Animated image

Interactive image

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TAKE STOCKReconsider Your Starting Points

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Activity:

• Legacy Code• Poverty Index• Breakthrough in Wall Street

Visualise This

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Activity:

• Does this image ‘work’?• What has the creator done right?• What has the creator done wrong?• What concepts can you identify from the image?

Critique This

Source

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Activity:

• What fundamental good assumptions do you make about the audience?

• What fundamental bad assumptions do you make about the audience?

• What’s your personal blind spot in representation considerations?

• Do you know which countries have troubled associations with which symbols?

• Diamonds to an African audience• Eagles/ swastiks to a German audience

Write This

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GO READ!Food for Thought

Recommended Reading

• Robert E Jacobson – Information Design • John Berger – Ways of Seeing • EH Gombridge – The Story of Art

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Recommended Googling• Intelligent colour choices for colour-blind audiences• Stereotyping

o Heteronormativity and essentialism o Gender issueso Ableismo Racism and privilege

‘White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack’ by Peggy McIntosho The concept of the Other and ‘Other-ing’

• Colonial discourse analysis• Media critiques and film studies• Representation ethics• Colour theory

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And That’s All,

Folks!