Visual Lit in the Future

The more I thought about an intriguing article to blog about (one with horrible visuals or one with exceptional ones) I began to think about how visuals would look in the future. This thought reminded me of a few articles that I read in the January edition of Fortune Magazine about the office of the future. Although my initial interest in these articles was about the newest kinds of technology that will be available, after class I began to think of how these technologies would be designed. The first article discusses smart and rollable glass, Foursquare and Kinect for the office, hologram tables, and instantly translated and transcribed skype calls. These kinds of advances are great for those of us who are currently using the devices and applications that they emulate. However, the second article sheds light on the increase of the traditional retirement age. With the advances of the first article, there will have to be extremely user friendly interfaces with the technological office of tomorrow. Business men and women who are not a part of the generation of video games, "checking in," and casual video calls may not be comfortable with the changes. How do you think the seasoned CEO or leader will accept these changes? Will the ease of use have a bearing on their acceptance, or will the sheer joy of having the best of the best be enough?

The Office of Tomorrow

Older Workforce of the Future

Effective Instructional Images

When I began to look for instructional universal design, I can a cross several images that are used each and everyday, however many of these images presented limitations to the end user. The visual that I chose to use is that of a “redbox” machine. These machines are typically found all around town conveniently located outside of stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. The reason that I chose this image was due to the simple visual cues that it presents. As we can see, the DVD is marked with a large arrow pointing in the left direction. On the machine itself is also marked a corresponding arrow and image of the DVD being returned. Many performance instructional visuals require the user to recognize the symbol or sign used. Even if the user cannot read English, emulating the presented visual will allow the user to complete the task. This sort of visual crosses language barriers and required no prior knowledge. Even if all the words were removed from the visual, a user should still be able to effectively complete the task.

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our blog! This blog will be used to help you practice seeing and creating instructional images. Each week, one of the class members will post a main topic related to visual literacy, graphic design, the use of visuals in instruction, or the use of technology to create visuals. This topic will then become our weekly discussion topic.


Since this class relates to the effective use of images for instruction, please feel free to illustrate your post with images (with appropriate citations), links to other websites, links to YouTube, or attached files. Often the best way to explain what you mean is through the use of images, so feel free to use them!


I have been making images since I was in high school. I studied art in college and have worked in graphic design and illustration at different points in my career. Below are some examples of my artwork created in traditional media - NOT with computers! For the most part, these are acrylics on canvas. The one of the Old Well is pastels on paper.

My daughters, Alexandra & Annika

Painting of a Cardinal

Picture of Drew and Keenan

Painting of West Marin

An Art Promo Card for illustration work

Baby Levi

Baby Jude

The Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill