Interactive Representations of Information and Knowledge

Information: Visual Displays & Visual Explanation

“.. reproduction of images is increasing not only in volume, but format: from television, to cinema, advertising, and the web – we are being buried in optic input…”

Yes, we are. Let’s take a 10-minute MTR trip as an example. Can you count how many images – static or moving – surrounding you all the way through from going down to coming up the stations?

MTR passengers are always in a hurry and, very likely, occupied with something in their mind too. So the adverts in the stations have to be very, very communicative – here, images come into play – in the shortest time and in any possible space.

“… we have learned to decode [the images] by enculturation. We can experience it, but we have not learned how to reflect on it – to analyze it, or to create our own vision.”

Yes, being reflective and we have to be selective too. That’s critical thinking.

“… an education in decoding and creating imagery – to move from simply receptive to active – will not only be beneficial, but necessary.”

Active decoding and creating imagery? This has already begun.

We have the popularity of digital cameras, the mobile phones that can take pictures and the ICT technologies. The new generation is more apt in computer games and web-surfing – which contain large volume of images – but poor in language skills. I predict that the future will be more of visuals and audios.

But, will there be enough critical thinkers to reflect, create and re-create? An education in visual literacy is indeed needed.

What makes an effective visual display?

First of all, visuals are only means for communication. For effective communication, its audience and purpose must be clearly identified. Then, we can come down to questions regarding information such as what and how much is needed. Only after these two steps that we may decide how to display the information – visually and verbally.

Hence, I would judge the effectiveness of visual display by whether it has achieved its purpose of communication. And to judge that, I’d like to suggest these three criteria:

☑ Eye catching – e.g. layout, color scheme, novelty etc.

☑ Interest sustaining – e.g. appeal to curiosity or needs etc.

☑ Information strength – e.g. relevant and sufficient etc.

For the third criteria, I didn’t put down correctness of information, for this may not be necessary, especially for the images (and words) in the adverts. Such examples are posters for movies, travel and tourism or, the realty.

Instead, retention of information and action upon information may be more appropriate to add.

I am going to try out what I preach here on my subsequence course assignments.

And, of course, I didn’t forget the good example of Minard’s Map, which:

• captures of multivariate complexity
• contains high quality content
• has smallest effective differences (e.g. avoid distracting labels or scales)

Filed under: Refelctions and Dialogues and