Erin Murphy-Creating Symbols

I choose to use Google Drawing.  I found the Photograph and the Illustration of the cup using the web.  I created the Graphic symbols using multiple shapes from Google Drawing. 

Main Blog Post: Rob Turner, Rob Morgan

Continuing where Rob left off, it can be very obvious if a visual aid, infographic, or media is poorly constructed.  Typically these products come with a set of prescribed expectations:

1.  Information that is presented is accurate
2.  There is a purpose to present information together
3.  A good visual informs a target audience

Depending on which type of visual one is designing, there are other expectations.  For example, an infographic is expected to present a set of data accurately, tell a story, and inspire learning or action.  Some of the most common signs that visual media has been designed poorly include not having an intended target audience, misrepresenting data, being too complex (not having a cohesive message), and not providing enough information to decipher the visual.

While human beings are arguably one of the best pattern recognition species on the planet, they still cannot decode messages that are not complete or organized.  In the case of Rob's chair, poor visuals led him to put a chair together the wrong way.  Other bad examples of visuals can be misleading!

While studying abroad in New Zealand I had to become acclimated to different visuals and ways of communicating.  One that perplexed me was the sign to a public restroom.  On the two bathrooms (one women's and one men's) in the bar I was (studying) at there were signs designating gender.  One had a picture of a Kiwi bird and the other was a chicken, possibly a rooster.  If I had felt strongly about the rooster I would have had no problem, however the problem was that the signs looked androgynous!  A similarly misleading situations is shown in the picture below:

When designing, what questions should you ask in order to confirm your visual is not misleading, poorly designed, or inaccurate?


Image Reference: Leucht, K. (n.d.). What's wrong with this sign? Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.leucht.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/02-strangesign-restroom.thumbnail.jpg

Main Blog Post: Rob Turner, Rob Morgan

For our main blog post the Rob's would like to discuss how poos visual imagery has negatively impacted you. For example, I was working on putting together a chair in my daughter's room last week. The chair was from ikea and there are no written instructions it is 100% visual. They had a graphic of a person inserting a washer onto a bolt. Next to the washer was a number, which admittedly I ignored, when I got to the final step in putting together the chair I realized that there were both metal washers and plastic washers and I had, of course, used the wrong ones. So...I had to take the chair apart and put it back together with the correct washers in the correct locations. I am not sure how they could have made it clearer to me so that I could differentiate the two washers (plastic and metal) perhaps by making one filled in and one an outline but regardless I spent a lot of time and energy because I was not able to "read" their imagery correctly.

What about you? Have you ever had a negative experience with an visual imagery?

Symbol Assignment- Rob Morgan

I was sitting in my office while doing this assignment and I saw my stapler so I decided to use that. I took the original photo from Microsoft Word online picture gallery. Then I tried drawing my illustration, I used the image gallery in Word again for the image related and drew the concept related myself using images. The arbitrary was used by combining two images in Word. The arbitrary for me was by far the most difficult and I am not sure I captured a stapler well. That is more of a staple to me but I guess they are closely related.

Symbol Assignment- Amanda Leech

For this assignment, I wanted to use my actual dog to get some practice editing photos in photoshop. For the photograph, I used one of my own photos and simply erased the background of the photo. The arbitrary image was made in pixlr with a couple of shapes, and the rest of the photos were found via google search. Here are the links:

Illustration: http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/206/c/e/free_pit_bull_line_art_5_by_silentlyscreamingout-d58ljwz.png

Image-Related:http://images.all-free-download.com/images/graphiclarge/dog_silhouette_54591.jpg

Concept-Related: http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/9cz/bLy/9czbLyocE.png

Concept-related was the most difficult for me to find as it falls in this in-between category of life-like and cartoony. There aren't a lot of simple ways to search for that in-between. All-in-all, I thought this activity was a fun way to learn the terminology behind symbols.

Creating Symbols by Kara Martinez

For this assignment, I first found the pictorial symbols using the Google search engine. In order to create the graphic symbols, I used both Google Drawing as well as the "Shapes" option in Microsoft Office Word. I actually enjoyed creating the simpler images, "Graphic Symbols," using Google Drawing. I also enjoyed being able to come up with my own idea of what some simpler images would look like of a lamp.



Lamp images citations:

Photograph: http://homes-kid.com/table-lamp-png.html

Illustration: http://debbieteakle.com/2012/01/table-lamp/

Caudill Symbol Assignment

Here is my symbol assignment, on the left I started with the most detailed image and then gradually reduced the detail in each image as you look to the right.  Finding abstract images of a Kangaroo was surprisingly more difficult than I would have thought, but after several searches through google, I think I found the correct images to represent each section.  All of these images where found via a google search.

Mariya Khan - Symbol Assignment

Here is my Symbol Chart for this weeks assignment. As I was reading the article, I looked up and saw a Starbucks cup, so I thought that it was the most convenient item to select for the assignment. I went from very specific (by using the Starbucks Company name) to extremely general (by providing simple, graphic symbols). I got the original photograph from Google Images but I created some of the symbols using photoshop and resized them to fit on the image.

Final Visual Resume

Here is the final version of the resume that I created.

Lauren Proctor - Creating Symbols

I created these symbols on Google Drawings.  The photograph was an image I found on Google and so was the illustration, but I edited the illustrated symbol slightly to fit with my concept.  I created the image-related, concept-related, and arbitrary symbols by combining several shapes. 

Jordan's Final Résumé

Amanda Leech Visual Resume Final

Here is my final visual resume. I incorporated a lot of Christy's feedback and feel like it really highlights my personality, skills and visual aesthetic. 

Rob Morgan Final Resume

I made a few changes to the visual resume. The site that I used does not have an easy way to download the resume as a pdf or image which is unfortunate. Although, I am wondering how often I would submit something like this as a hard copy rather than electronically. I think I would still prefer if they at least had that as an option.

http://re.vu/customtraining

Christy's Revised Visual Resume

Above is my revised visual resume. The quality is not as nice as the version I submitted on Canvas because I had to take a screenshot of the PDF to upload to this blog.

I didn't change the layout of my original resume very much, although I think this version looks immensely better. I spent a lot of time transferring my images from Publisher to InDesign yesterday afternoon and evening because I liked the program so much when I made the fractions poster. The extra effort was worth it to me, although I already see areas that could be refined further. InDesign was frustrating because every time I opened my resume file, I had to fix the broken links for every image. At least I learned to package all linked files (via trial-and-error) the last time I used InDesign....

Robert Turner's Final (?) Visual Resume

I had to tweak the LaTeX code a lot to get to the point I am at.  Overall I do not like the alignment and will probably be changing this in the future.  What do you all think?

Amanda Loeser's Final Resume

Caudill Final Visual Resume

Visual Literacy in a Google Search

During a recent Google search I found that images were being shown in thumbnail form just a few links down from the top link.   Knowing that Google doesn't just post thumbnails for no good reason, the company typically likes a clean look with little to no distractions (such as images), I tried to figure out why the company is placing thumbnails in it's search.  I found a small article related to eye tracking studies that might explain it.

Why are the image thumbs the 2nd link?

The basic idea is that viewers analyze a page very quickly and make decisions unconsciously.   Western readers typically follow a top down left to right pattern.  In doing so they hit the first link in a search very quickly and move on to the second and third link while almost never reading all the way to the end of the page.  Adding an image in that region that is heavily scanned helps to be more efficient in the process of finding the information a viewer is seeking.

I am still not certain why images appear several links down, although my best guess is that they may not be as relevant as top links or they might not be as featured because of content funding (links that have funding behind them to make them show up higher on the list).  Have a look at the full article here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/eye-tracking-studies-more-than-meets.html

Katie Bowser Visual Resume Final

Kara Martinez Final Resume

Above is my final version of my visual resume. I took into account some of the suggestions that were made to improve it. Such suggestions included adding more images to my resume. I added the JMU Logo as well as incorporated more clip art to a couple of sections of the resume. Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

JMU Logo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison_University

Leisha's Final Resume

I took Amanda's advice and realigned the margins and made my fonts similar.  Those little differences made the whole resume look more cohesive and professional. I also changed the "Contact Me" section down at the bottom.  I think this ribbon works better with the design and the important information like my number and e-mail are more visible.  Although contact information tends to go at the top of a traditional resume, following the "Works Every Time" design layout, I placed it at the bottom for where the eyes exit the poster.  I think this is a resume I might actually distribute at a place like a teacher fair where representatives are collecting dozens and dozens of resumes, because it would clearly stand out!