Say it in Pictures: Visual Literacy for Business and Technical Communication  

Today’s communication media demand more than just words. Producing effective documents, training materials, and Web pages requires the ability to understand, think, and communicate graphically' to be visually literate.

Horton, William K. III. STC Proceedings (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Seeing is Believing: Communicating Information Graphically  

Diverse work situations and varied skills, abilities, and motivation affect how users handle documentation to do their jobs. Communicating graphically challenges the communicator to 1) select illustrations that orient users ana' 2) use dynamic arrows to show the motion required. The communicator then 3) shows the order of steps within a task by using numbers with 'numberness.' Users' eyes seek information dynamically: help them find needed i$ormation by 4) keeping tasks within eyespan on a page. Then 5) use a grid to consistently layout an interesting page.

Lisberg, Beth Conney. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs

Seven Things You Should Know About Data Visualization  

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information. Information technology combines the principles of visualization with powerful applications and large data sets to create sophisticated images and animations. Representing large amounts of disparate information in a visual form often allows you to see patterns that would otherwise be buried in vast, unconnected data sets. Data visualizations offer one way to harness infrastructure to find hidden trends and correlations that can lead to important discoveries. Visual literacy is an increasingly important skill, and data visualizations are another channel for students to develop their ability to process information visually.

Educause (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric

Some Graphic and Semigraphic Displays

Graphs and semigraphic displays are made for purposes. Different purposes usually call for different graphs.

Tukey, John W. Edward Tufte (1972). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs

The Sound and Motion of Color

Can sound and motion illustrate the personality of color? The Animation class at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design set out to discover the answer.

AIGA (2005). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Storytelling Photos

Anyone can relate the facts of an event, just like anyone can hold a camera up to a scene and document it. But bare facts and badly composed images make for poor communication. It takes skill and talent to write a good story, one that will inform and entertain. The same is true for photography. Images have always been storytellers. A good image can relay large amounts of data in a format that is pleasing and quickly absorbed by the viewer. That makes photos potentially more influential than a massive amount of words.

Salvo, Suzanne. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Photography>Visual Rhetoric

The Successes and Challenges of Visual Language  

Discusses efforts to create manuals that rely entirely on pictures for communication.

Hofmann, Patrick. Intercom (2004). Design>Document Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Talking with Virginia Postrel

Postrel's new book, The Substance of Style, explores the economic, cultural, social, personal, and political implications of the growing importance of aesthetics in business and society.

MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Cultural Theory>Visual Rhetoric

Theories of Visual Rhetoric: Looking At The Human Genome    

For too long, journal articles and textbooks on scientific and technical discourse have adopted a positivistic approach to visuals. Unfortunately, this approach is problematic. It ignores that visuals are constructions that are products of a writer's interpretation with its own power-laden agenda. For example, in representing a tamed and dominated nature, visuals become instruments of patriarchy. Reading them responsibly requires that we uncover some of the values attached to the strategies of creating visuals and to the objects created. This article reviews the current approach taken by composition scholars, surveys richer interdisciplinary work on visuals, and-- by using visuals connected with the Human Genome Project--models an analysis of visuals as rhetoric.

Rosner, Mary. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Toward Consistency in Visual Information: Standardized Icons Based on Task    

Argues for continued work on developing standards for icon design. Suggests that icons should be standardized not just within products, but across applications. Suggests that icons be standardized based on the complexity of the task represented.

Gurak, Laura J. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Towards a Rhetoric of Tactile Pictures  

This paper offers a first step towards a rhetoric of tactile pictures by applying the visual framework developed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen to a tactile alphabet book. After a brief review of tactile research, this paper explores the ways in which tactile pictures represent objects in the world and the stategies the pictures use to enact interative-represented participant relations. These explorations demonstrate that Kress and van Leeuwen's framework offers valuable insights and a sound basis, but their framework must be adjusted to the semiotic codes used in tactile pictures. It is hoped that this essay will encourage interest and research into tactile rhetoric. Such research would benefit both those who rely on tactile pictures and those who study rhetoric in its many manifestations.

Wiest, Carol. Enculturation (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

typographic

An interactive experience informed by type and typography, which aims to illustrate the depth and import of type, and to raise relevant questions about how typography is treated in the digital media, specifically online.

typographic. Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Typographical Design, Modernist Aesthetics, and Professional Communication    

The technology of in-house publishing is radically shifting the responsibility for document design from the graphic specialist to the individual writer. To apply the new technology, professional communicators need to understand the principles underpinning typographical design and their origin in the functionalist aesthetics of modernism, particularly as articulated by the Bauhaus. While some of the key concepts of modernism--strict economy, universal objectivity, intuitive perception, and the unity of form and purpose--are well-suited to business and technical documents, these concepts are bound to an historical and intellectual milieu. By understanding the influence of modernism on typographical design, professional communicators equipped with the new technology can adapt design principles to the rhetorical context of specific documents.

Kostelnick, Charles. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1990). Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Verbalizing About the Visual: Visual Analysis Tools for Design Evaluation and Group Communication  

While technical communicators are increasingly involved in visual design, they frequently have difficulty communicating verbally about the visual, and, therefore, contributing effectively to design development. A five-step visual analysis tool provides a common framework and language for design evaluation and group communication.

Keyes, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization

Visual designers working on the web need an understanding of the medium in which they work, so many have taken to code. Many have entered the usability lab. But what about the other side? Are developers and human factors professionals immersed in literature on gestalt and color theory?

Wroblewski, Luke. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Communication: The Expanding Role of Technical Communicators  

Visual communication no longer refers only to illustrating verbal information but to all aspects of designing documents. To be effective as information architects, technical communicators must understand the opportunties and limitations of developing technologies, the basics of communication in general and of visual communication in particular, especially the principles of selection, design, positioning, production, and cost of graphics.

Rainey, Kenneth T. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Graphic Design>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Literacy Crash Course  

Today, communication requires more than just pages of printed words. Producing effective documents and training requires the ability to understand, think, and communicate graphically-to be visually literate. This demonstration shows how to communicate almost anything graphically. Through creative brainstorming you will start to think visually and to translate text into graphics. By looking at numerous examples of what works and what doesn’t, you are going to learn valuable principles that you can use back on the job to refine your own graphics.

Horton, William K. III. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Proofreading

We hear a lot about proofreading. And, although it is a vital part of any publication, there's another kind of proofreading that can make as much (if not more) difference in the success of your publication. Note: This is part four in a continuing series about the creative processes involved in designing a publication. I was prompted to begin this series by the discussions and questions asked by attendees of my Newsletter Design workshop recently in Dallas.

Design, Typography and Graphics (2000). Design>Graphic Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Visualizing Information: An Overview of This Special Issue    

The guest editors offer a brief history of visualization, discuss the present state of the art, and explore the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. They then discuss the contents of this special issue in terms of the trends in visualization theory and research. They conclude by observing that technical communicators must respond to the challenges presented in the content of this issue, both by using the methods presented and by performing the further research the authors call for. Additionally, researchers must incorporate the results of inquiry in the related fields.

Gribbons, William M. and Arthur G. Elser. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration

Visually Speaking: Adult-Only Publications

Corporate photography was once the realm of adults only. Just a few years ago, it was surprising to see a picture of anybody under 40 years old in an annual report or capabilities brochure, much less someone under the age of 12. But nowadays, photos of children are showing up more and more often in all kinds of corporate publications, and as you might suspect, photographing children requires a totally different approach than shooting the CEO.

Salvo, Suzanne. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Design>Graphic Design>Photography>Visual Rhetoric

viz.

The goal of this site is to explore the ways in which rhetoric, visual culture, and pedagogy interact with and inform each other. In keeping with this mission, the viz. blog is a forum for exploring the visual through identifying the connections between theory, rhetorical practice, popular culture, and the classroom.

University of Texas. Resources>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Blogs

Why Illustrations Aid Understanding  

A small collection of illustrations is provided to show some of the diverse ways illustration may aid understanding. The display of parts and assemblies often relies on techniques such as explosions and canonical views to communicate the global structure and relations of a system that may have hidden pieces. Book illustrations exemplify specific visions of described situations and allow readers to save memory and summarily review potentially complex descriptions. Visual proofs abstract from details and embody reliable metatheories that provide semantic guarantees for inferences. And conceptual illustrations when effective rely the logical method of universal generalization to help viewers grasp general ideas.

Kirsh, David. IWM-KMRC. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric

I Love Typography

iLT is designed to inspire its readers, to make people more aware of the typography that is around them. We really cannot escape typography; it's everywhere: on road signs, shampoo bottles, toothpaste, and even on billboard posters, in books and magazines, online...the list is endless, and the possibilities equally so.

I Love Typography. Resources>Graphic Design>Typography>Visual Rhetoric

Stepping into Oz: Managing and Delivering Successful Visual Design

How can design teams get to a successful visual design with their clients? Getting to the right visual design can be the trickiest part of a design project. One of the key reasons is that some clients have a hard time saying clearly what they want from the visual design.

Houck-Whitaker, Julia. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>Management>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric