Visual Practice
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Activity 1: Getting to Know You
Choose your writing implements:
- Any kind of paper/iPad
- Pens/Markers/Pencils
- online drawing programs like (no account needed to experiment):
- deviantART muro: mural-type drawings with various options - need to log-in to save.
- draw.to embeddable/saveable without login
- sketchy sketch
Instructions: How would you express your role at UBC visually?
What Is It?
"Visual language is emerging as any other language does by people creating and speaking it...it is born of people's need, worldwide, to deal with complex ideas that are difficult to express in text alone." Bob Horn (Visual Language)
- the practice of translating often complex ideas into a visual form to aid understanding.
- the use of images to stimulate creativity and critical thinking.
- the practice of connecting people and their ideas through images.
- ""circular breathing" of listening, synthesizing, and visualizing" - Craighton Berman
Why Is It Important?
- images are stored as coherent Chunks or concepts in long term memory - aiding retention.
- visual + oral communication is more effective than either on its own.
- images help translate complex ideas into a format that can be accessed by many.
- images can incite different ways of thinking about common ideas.
Examples
Presentation
Topic: Cell Phone Use Among Students
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Process Diagramming
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Infographics
Process
Start with a few questions
- What are you trying to convey?
- What response are you trying to elicit?
- What sorts of images might support your message?
- How might you use text, color, and other visual elements to create emphasis.
- What sorts of images will resonate with your audience?
- What sort of task are you engaged in (consensus building, note taking, data visualization, process diagramming, etc.)
- What are your constraints? (time, ability, interest, knowledge of tools, etc)
Process varies according to task
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Data Visualization
Elements & Techniques
| Text and Lettering | 
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| Symbols | 
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| Shapes |  |
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| Colours | 
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Tools
- mobile devices with drawing apps (Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, etc.)
- Mind mapping and concept mapping tools
- basic process graphing tools (Omnigraffle, Gliffy)
- data visualization: ManyEyes Free online data visualization tool.
Activity 2: Visualize A Challenge
Instructions:
- Find a partner, choose who will be the visual translator and the storyteller
- Focus on a challenge or issue that you've been thinking about related to your work
- Describe it your partner, who will listen and express it in some sort of visual form
- Share and discuss with the larger group your process and results
Tools: For drawing:
- deviantART muro: mural-type drawings with various options - need to log-in to save.
- draw.to embeddable/saveable without login
- sketchy sketch
For mindmapping:
Resources
- The Power of Visual Communication
- Infographics Showcase: Collection of some of the best infographics and data visualizations on the web.
- Cool Infographics
- Vector Tuts - tutorials and demos for Adobe Illustrator
- [1] book - The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
See Also
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