In Which a Concept Model Makes Me Giddy

Concept models aren't for everyone. When I show fellow designers these artifacts, I sometimes get "You show that to clients?" Like any deliverable, there's a time and a place for concept models. If you're anything like me, however, you think visually. Even if your models don't see the light of day, a good model can help you get a better grip on the problem, or lay some groundwork for your designs.

Brown, Dan. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Sitemaps

Do Screen Captures Still Make Sense?

Writing more simply helps keep content more manageable and can increase its usability. So why do we continue to litter content with screen captures, which can be difficult to manage and often duplicate what users already see in application interfaces?

Masalsky, Paul. Content Wrangler, The (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Spatial Descriptions by Children

Drawing a map is cognitively challenging. It requires you to do some abstract visualization.

Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Children

Analytics According to Captain Kirk

By seeing all of the available data in one chart, associations, patterns and conclusions can be drawn simply by comparing the relationships as they are presented. This is something that I learned from Edward Tufte.

Bailey, Matt. Lyris (2008). Articles>Web Design>Technical Illustration>Log Analysis

Screen Shots in Documentation

Just as I would with words, I'll cut out the obvious and whatever does not add value. I prefer an additive approach (put it in only when the words seem inadequate) over a subtractive approach (take it out if it seems superfluous). In other words, I'll be more open to screen shots in the future, but they have to work themselves into the document, not just be their by entitlement until expelled.

Hughes, Michael A. User Assistance (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

How To Use An Apostrophe

A clear, well-illustrated guide to when one should (or should not) use an apostrophe.

Oatmeal, The (2009). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Technical Illustration

Contemporary Educational Psychology: Cognitive Processes in Complex Science Text and Diagrams    

Ainsworth’s (2006) DeFT framework posits that different representations may lead learners to use different strategies. We wanted to investigate whether students use different strategies, and more broadly, different cognitive activities in diagrams versus in running text. In order to do so, we collected think-aloud protocol and other measures from 91 beginning biology majors reading an 8-page passage from their own textbook which included 7 complex diagrams. We coded the protocols for a wide range of cognitive activities, including strategy use, inference, background knowledge, vocabulary, and word reading. Comparisons of verbalizations while reading running text vs. reading diagrams showed that high-level cognitive activities—inferences and high-level strategy use—were used a higher proportion of the time when comprehending diagrams compared to when reading text. However, in running text vs. diagrams participants used a wider range of different individual cognitive activities (e.g., more different types of inferences). Our results suggest that instructors might consider teaching students how to draw inferences in both text and diagrams. They also show an interesting paradox that warrants further research—students often skipped over or superficially skimmed diagrams, but when they did read the diagrams they engaged in more high-level cognitive activity.

Cromley, Jennifer G., Lindsey E. Snyder-Hogan and Ulana A. Luciw-Dubas. Contemporary Educational Psychology (2009). Articles>Education>Scientific Communication>Technical Illustration

So What’s Up with Screen Captures?    

In this first column on media matters, Lee discusses screen captures, including quality, manipulation, file type, file size, and more.

Lee, Marc. Intercom (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Chart Junk? How Pictures May Help Make Graphs Better

New research shows that highly embellished graphs and charts may actually help people understand data more effectively than traditional graphs.

Science Daily. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs

Better Posters: Does Embellishment Improve Graphs?

It looks like the opening (quoted above) overreaches what the study actually does. The research only looks at backgrounds, but “chart junk” comes in many other forms: pointless 3-D effects, crazy colour schemes, excessive gridlines, cutesy cartoons, and more. The summary of this research in no way provides a scientific basis to argue, “I like the 3-D effect, and science supports it’s easier to read!”

Better Posters (2009). Design>Presentations>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs

Comic Relief

As part of a project I'm working on, we are going to develop a comic-style collection of user scenarios to help communicate best practices around a security service we are offering.

Hughes, Michael A. User Assistance (2009). Articles>User Centered Design>Technical Illustration>Personas

Visual Methods of Communicating Structure, Relationship, and Flow 

Many of us are more comfortable communicating in words than in pictures. For example, user assistance writers are by nature and training writers, so they understand words and are adept at using word processing and publishing tools. Writers use lexicentric tools not only for creating and delivering content, but also as cognitive tools—that is, tools that help them think more clearly and efficiently. Thus, a user assistance writer might create a user-task matrix or take advantage of a word processor’s outline view when creating or evaluating a document’s structure.

Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Workflow