Day: May 10, 2020

The science of visual communication

In my job I conduct a large amount of research, and but also create plenty of presentations. To help design good research, we have access to hundreds of published research on research papers. Yet when it comes to designing presentations or using any form of visuals, we have to rely largely on gut instinct and experience to evaluate what works best. There are plenty of well-established working practices and graphic design experts who are exceptionally good at what they do, but very little research to help us to understand the impact of different graphic design techniques, certainly in the market research arena.

Perhaps one of the reasons is that that graphic designers and market researchers don’t encounter each other very often.

A joint quest: researcher and graphic designer

Last year part of the Guardian’s digital graphics unit responsible for creating some of the most famous infographics circulated online, formed their own company, the Graphic Digital Agency and happened to move into the same offices as our research team in Westminster and we got talking about infographic design and the lack of research to understand how it works. I was curious to know what they knew about the science of design and I found out they were as curious as me.  So we though, using our experience in conducting research on research and their skills in graphic design to produce the source material this represented a very good opportunity for us to work together to do some experimentation.  We sent out on a joint quest to try and learn more about how visuals really work.

Why do we rate everything 7?

Have you ever thought it odd why when we score thing we have a tendency to disproportionately use the top end of the scale?  When you ask people to rate something on a scale of 1 to 10 the average person in most countries tend to score things 7.

Now if we lived in a logical world you would have thought average score when we rate things on a scale of 1 to 10 should be 5.

So why do we over score average?  Well forget acquiescence bias, I have decided to blame it on our teachers!

For most of us the first exposure we get to scoring is at school, when we get our work marked.  I am sure nearly everyone can remember those anxious feelings as the teacher handed out the homework in class and you opened your homework book to see what mark you got.

In Indian schools we tended to get marks out of 10.   If I got 8, 9 or 10 I was happy, that was what I was aiming for.  A mark of 6 and below was a disaster as far as I was concerned and 7 seemed to be what you got most of the time. 7 was what I perceived  as average.

7 being use as average is irrational of course.  Children across the spectrum of a class should be as likely to get a score below 5 as above 5 if the process of marking was done totally rationally.

Yet when I think back I am not sure in my whole early school life did I ever get a mark less than 5  even in English and god have you seen my spelling!

The whole processes gets corrupted by the natural eagerness of of teachers to encourage us , so everything gets shifted up a few notches from reality to make us feel good.

As you progress through schooling system they start to use another marking system called grades and that is even more irrational as it has a built in scale heavily weighted to the positive.  Instead of being graded A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K  They used this more euphemistic version: A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-,  C+, C, C-, D, E.   Where a B could actually mean you really got a mark 5 off the top score.

I think that teachers in their efforts not to disappoint us all have totally infected up our natural internal scoring mechanism…And it’s us researchers are the ones that have to deal with the consequences of all this later in life.

These experiences of being marked have anchored a scoring systems in our psyche that is near impossible to shake clear of in later life when we dish out marks ourselves in surveys.    It badly scars how we mark.  If you ask people to rate brands on a scale of 1 to 10 they nearly all get 7.  If you ask people to rate ads they get an average of 7 if you ask people to rate films 80% of score are between 3 and 4.5 stars = 7.

We so often mark things as 7 where in truth we don’t mean it, or rather when we cannot be bothered to think about it or when an experience is un-contextualized.  This means we have to do a lot more work to actually find out the truth sometimes.

Why am I interested in sustainable living?

Firsty I will introduce myself. I have qualifications as a scientist (MSc Zoology) and an educator Dip Teaching (tertiary) and am finishing a Doctorate in Education in Information and Communications Technology.I have studied the ecology both of both land-based ecosystems and fresh water systems. I also have a 30 year love affair with environmental and human rights issues. I would love to do away with money and exist in a place where the community exchanges and shares skills and support.

I presently work as an Educational Developer in the Educational Development Centre. I have been interested in environmental issues since the 70s when I lived in London for five years and Switzerland for six months – they were recycling everywhere, in the community and in the hospital I nursed in. You could pick up free furniture every month off the street when it was put out for collection. The reason for the activity – their country is too small to fill it up with junk. There is more about how I got to this space on my blog and I would feel privileged if you took the time to read about my background in sustainability.

While in London i rode a bicycle constantly, and used public transport because it wasn\’t practical to use a car even on long journeys. There was too much traffic; it was exhilarating to weave in and out of the cars and buses, and the fastest way to get around. I ate organic food which was very easy to get. Every time I washed my hair the water was black with soot. It was a very polluted city, and the water we were expected to drink had been recycled eight times by the municipal council.

Living there made me very aware of the issues facing the planet. I recall asking a chemistry lecturer about global warming, and the idea was poohooed as pollycock. I also recall asking questions about the safety of nuclear energy in a meeting with nuclear energy official representatives. They were adamant that alternative energy sources would never see the light of day and that nuclear power plants were 100% safe. The most fascinating trip I ever made was to Macynlleth in mid Wales where alternative energy centre was being set up – Centre for Alternative Technology – they had created a fully sustainable house and community from a bare quarry. Today it is a thriving magnet for all sorts of people wanting to learn about alternative energies and sustainable ways of living.

I joined a group of protesters one time and our efforts to get to to Greenham Common via train and bicycle were blocked by the authorities. we were protesting the nuclear weapons held there by the US. I was also closely involved with an urban regeneration group and we replanted wastelands and areas near abandoned railway tracks. My interest in the environment and sustainable ways of living has always been from a scientific angle as well as from a sociological stance. I just want to see people and the earth treated justly.

I would like to see Otago Polytechnic modelling sustainabiity in everything we do. Not just the everyday practical things which relate to energy use and recycling but also that we ensure we purchase good only from reputable sustainable companies, and that we provide sustainable educational choices for the community.

You may be interested in the following local organisations:
1. Sustainable Dunedin Network at: http://www.dect.org.nz/
2. Sustainable Dunedin City Society at: http://www.sustainabledunedincity.org.nz/

Here is a video clip on the Channel 9 website of an interview about the Dunedin City Council Annual Plan with members of Sustainable Dunedin City Society

\”The newly-formed Sustainable Dunedin City Society are arguing that the DCC\’s annual plan shows no sign of dealing with issues concerning climate change.They\’re concerned if the council doesn\’t rethink their current plan, Dunedin can kiss goodbye to a sustainable city and environment.\”

First of all we need to communicate openly and discuss the ideas around the Key Performance Indicators for the Sustainability plan. We would also benefit from having information added to a Wiki so it can be dynamic and readily updated by all interested staff at OP. That way people will feel involved and will be more likely to contribute and collaborate as well as cooperate. otherwise we may get into the same ole ways of working where we are being told what we have to do, rather than taking responsibility for doing what is right because we feel passionate about being a sustainable organisation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Creating illustrations and infographics for ELT tasks

Draw.io is one of my favourite tools and the one I use most for creating graphics and infographics. As someone who doesn’t draw very well and has only limited design abilities it has really helped me out a number of times and enabled me to produce professional looking illustrations, product mockups and teaching materials.

How it works
When you go to the Draw.io site you can either open an existing diagram or create a new one.


Click on Create New Diagram and you will have the option to either choose from a number of templates that you can edit or use a blank template.


Once you open a blank template you see the canvas in the centre and on the left of the screen there are a number of shapes and a search engine. If you scroll down the categories on the left and click on them you’ll see a vast range of shapes images and icons any of which you can use by simply dragging them onto the canvas.

The canvas appears to be A4, but to can drop images and shapes anywhere around it and it will expand in any direction to accommodate your graphic.

If you want something specific you can type a key word into the search engine and you’ll see images related to the word.

All shapes and images can be resized, dragged around and have text and colour added once they are on the canvas.



Going to the insert menu also enables you to add images from URLs or search Google for images to add to your graphic.

Once you have finished creating your graphic you can export it as an image or save it in a number of different format types including PDF, PNG, SVG and HTML. You can also save an XML file of the graphic and then open it at a later date or share it with someone else to edit it. This is a really useful if you spot an error or typo at a later date.

The files can be saved on the device you are working on or on Google Drive or DropBox, so they are easy to share with other people.

How to use it

Create time lines
Time lines are great for helping students to understand the concepts and time relationships in various statements. You can use the timeline to map out the events in the sentence and illustrate the order in which they happened. draw.io can help you to quickly produce visually appealing timelines with images to help illustrate the sentences.


Flashcards
Creating flashcards can be time consuming, especially if you can’t draw. You can very quickly create your own flashcards using the images from draw.io and add text or phonemic script (You can copy paste the phonemic text from: http://www.photransedit.com/Online/Text2Phonetics.aspx ) or you can find and add the images on Google Images.

Create infographics
Infographics are a great way to convey dense statistical information in an accessible way for the computer screen. draw.io is a great way to create your own infographics for students or you can get students to create the infographics themselves. draw.io makes it easy to add images and colour to the graphics.


You can find lots more tasks and suggestions for exploiting infographics in my ebook.


Process maps
draw.io is great for creating process maps students can create these to demonstrate their understanding of the processes described in a text or you could create them to show students different process, such as visually explaining a the writing process.

Mindmaps
Mindmaps are a great way to support memory and show connections between different topics. They are also great for helping students to remember and review vocabulary. draw.io makes these very easy to create and you can also add images to illustrate them. If you save the xml file created by draw.io you can also share it so that others can edit it and create their own version.

Grammar summaries
You can use draw.io to create illustrated grammar summaries or get students to create them. You can have a section for meaning, form, pronunciation and appropriacy and use icons or illustrations to help clarify and make the summaries more attractive and memorable.

Conversation/ dialogue maps
Many transactional conversations follow very similar patterns. You can use draw.io to create dialogue maps to illustrate this for students or get them to map out a conversation themselves. They can use the dialogue map to show the purpose of each part of the conversation.

Visual story summaries
You or your students can use draw.io to create visual summaries of stories. These can show the characters and the main events in the plot. For longer stories, students can build the visual as they read each section or paragraph. This is a great way to get students to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Lifeline maps
Students can create lifeline maps of themselves showing the main events in their lives. These can be really useful as prompts for speaking activities and to help students get to know each other better. They can also create lifelines for famous people or historical figures or events.



Illustrations for materials
If you create your own texts or worksheets you can use draw.io to add illustrations graphs and images to them to make them look a bit more attractive and professional.

What I like about it

  • It’s free and runs in the web-browser so no need to download anything.
  • Great selection of images and icons to add to illustrations
  • Great to be able to save to Google Drive and share with others
  • Great range of formats for download
  • Love the unlimited canvas space
  • Doesn’t require any login or registration
  • Quick to learn so usable with students
  • Great that photographic images can be imported in too


As a tool for creating graphics, infographics and illustrations there isn’t much that can be improved. I guess some people might prefer a freehand creation tool but I’ve personally never had much success with these. For me draw.io is great the way it is. I hope you and your students find it useful too.

Related links

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1