Visual rhetoric is the study of how document design (including the use of illustrations, charts and graphs, typography and layout) communicate, as opposed to aural or verbal messages. Visual rhetoric examines also the relationship between images and writing.
#34663
User interface experts are often suspicious of the role of visual aesthetics in user interfaces—and of designers who insist that graphic emotive impact and careful attention to a site’s visual framework really contribute to measurable success. Underneath the arguments, I see a fundamental culture clash.
Lynch, Patrick. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>User Experience
#34669
Review: Page Layout and Design Tips from Jean-luc Doumont’s Trees, Maps, and Theorems
Given the engineering audience, one can’t hope for too much style and flair in the prose, but it reads like a college textbook, outlining basic principles in a flat way. It is too focused on “clarity, accuracy, correctness, etc.” (p.79) to make for a fun or engaging read.
Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Reviews>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric
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Visualization Can Help Improve Writing
This exercise of increasing diagrams and illustrations to assist visual learners could potentially help me increase the clarity of the text in any deliverable so that it benefits any who take the time to read or at least scan. At the very least, asking myself whether I could easily illustrate or visualize the text may help me write more clearly.
Minson, Benjamin. Gryphon Mountain (2009). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
#34881
Making the Strange Familiar: A Pedagogical Exploration of Visual Thinking 
Scholarly conversation within the field of professional communication increasingly has focused on the practice, research, and pedagogy of visual rhetoric. Yet, visual thinking has received relatively little attention within the field. If our programs produce students who can think verbally but not visually, they risk producing writers who are visual technicians but are unable to move fluidly between and within modes of communication. This article examines the literature and pedagogical practices of visually oriented disciplines to identify strategies for helping students develop the ambidexterity of thought needed for the communication tasks of today's workplace.
Brumberger, Eva R. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric>Cognitive Psychology
#34981
Eleven Ways to Use Images Poorly in Slides
As digital cameras have become ubiquitous, and cheap (or free) photo websites plentiful, more people than ever are using images in presentations. Images are not appropriate for every kind of talk, but even when images are appropriate (such as keynote/ballroom style presentations), people are still making the same common mistakes. So here are some things to keep in mind if you use images in your next talk.
Reynolds, Garr. Presentation Zen (2009). Articles>Presentations>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#35094
Copywriting or Design: Which Gets the Best Results?
Designers believe that if something isn’t working well, and it comes down to changing the copy or the design, it’s always the copy that should be changed, reduced or sometimes nearly completely eliminated. How can I convince my designer co-workers that succinct, simple and memorable words can be just as important as the visuals?
Chartrand, James. Men With Pens (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Writing>Visual Rhetoric
#35187
Are you aware that PDF documents are readable by your computer? You can listen to any PDF instead of reading it!
CyberText Consulting (2009). Articles>Accessibility>Visual>Adobe Acrobat
#35273
The Social Life of Visualization: Part 1
In 2009 we are in the midst of an interesting era for data visualization, particularly as it becomes coupled with the social web. Increasing processing speed, bandwidth and storage capacity are making it relatively simple to render and access visual representations of data. Developers have released libraries of code so we can easily create our own visualizations; and access to all kinds of data is becoming incredibly standardized, particularly through the use of APIs. So as visualization becomes much more straightforward to integrate into online environments, it makes sense to rethink how it can best be used in this setting.
Yuille, Jeremy and Hugh Macdonald. Johnny Holland (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs
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Visual Design for the Non-Designer
What can a non-designer do to harness the power of visual design without calling professional help? Quite a lot, says internationally-regarded visual designer Dan Rubin. We called Dan to talk about what design techniques are accessible to mere mortals.
Spool, Jared M. and Dan Rubin. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Podcasts
