CHAPTER 5 - VISUAL PRINCIPLES

One role that visuals definitely play is a provide a concrete reference for ideas. Visuals can also motivate learners by attracting their attention, holding their attention, and generating emoticonal responses.

Visual Literacy

·       Input strategies: helping learners to decode, or ‘read’ visual proficiently by practicing visual analysis skill.

·       Output strategies: helping learners to encode, or ‘write’ visuals to express themselves and communicate with others.

Decoding: Interpreting Visuals

Seeing a visual does not automatically ensure that one will learn from it. Learners must be guided toward correct decoding of visuals.

v Developmental Effects:

Many variables affect how a learner decode a visual. Hence, abstract symbols or a series of still pictures whose relationship is not clearly spelled out may fail to communicate as intended with younger viewers.

v Cultural Effects

Different cultural groups may perceive visual materials in different ways.

v Visual Preferences

People do not necessarily learn best from the kinds picture they prefer to look at.  Most learners prefer colored visuals over black and white visuals.

However, there is no significant difference in the amount of learning except when color is related to the content to be learned. Most learners also prefer photograph over line drawings, even though in many situations line drawing may communicating better.

Goals of Visual Design

Ø  Ensure Legibility

Ø  Reduce effort

Ø  Increase the viewer’s active engagement with the message

Ø  Focus attention on the most important parts of the message

Processes of Visual Design

1.   Elements

a.   Visual Elements

The type of visual selected for a particular situation depends on the learning task. Visual symbols, one classification of learning resources can be divided into three categories:

·       Realistic Visuals show the actual objects under study

·       Analogic Visuals convey a concept or topic by showing something else and implying a similarity

·       Organizational visuals include: flowchart, ghraps, maps, schematics, and classification rules

b.   Verbal Elements

Most displays incorporate some type of verbal information in addition to visuals.

·       Letter Style, should be consistent and should harmonize with the other elements of the visual

·         Capitals, for best legibility, use lowercase letters, adding capitals only where normally required.

·       Color of Lettering, the color of letter should contrast with the color of the lettering sake of simple legibility and for the sake of emphasis in cases where you want to call particular attention to the verbal message

·       Size of Lettering displays such as bulletins boards and posters are often meant to be viewed by people situated at a distance of 30 or 40 feet or more

·       Spacing Between Letters, the distance between the letters of the individuals word must be judged by experience rather on than a mechanical basis

·       Spacing Between Lines, the vertical spacing between lines of printed materials is also important for legibility.

·       Elements that Add Appeal

·       Surprise

·       Texture

Pattern

·     Alignment , when you position the primary elements within a display so that they have a clear visual relationship with each other, viewers expend little effort to making sense out of what they are seeing and are free to concentrate on understanding the message being conveyed.

·       Shape, another way to arrange the visual and verbal elements is to put them into a shape that is already familiar to the viewer. Your aim should be to use a pattern that attracts and focuses attention as effortlessly as possible.

·       Balance, A psychological sense of equilibrium, or balance, is achieved when the ‘weight’ of the elements in a display is equally distributed on each side of and axis, either horizontally or vertically or both.

·       Style, different audiences and different settings call for different design styles.

·       Color scheme, when choosing a color scheme for a display, consider the harmoniousness of the colors. Viewers are more likely to linger over and to remember a display having pleasant color harmony than they would a display done with clashing colors. The color wheel is visual analogy to help us understand the relationships among the colors of the visible spectrum.

·       Color appeal, artists have long appreciated that blue, green, and violet are considered “cool” colors, whereas red and orange are considered “warm” colors.

Arrangement

·       Proximity

a.  Directionals, viewers scan a display with their attention moving from one part to another.

b.  Figure-Ground Contrast, important elements especially wording should stand out in good contrast to the background.

c. Consistency, as viewers go through the series of images they begin unconsciously to form a set of rules about where information will appear in your display.

·       Visual Planning Tools

For the first time, don’t expect the process to be quick or easy, especially at the beginning. These skill grow with practice, and with practice you will find yourself thinking visually more often as you grapple with in structional problems.

a.   Storyboard

Transparencies, a slide set, a video sequence, or a series  of computer screens-storyboarding is a handy method of planning.

b.   Types of Letters

A variety of lettering techniques for visuals exists. The simplest is freehand learning with markers and felt-tip pens, which come in an array of colors and sizes.

·       Digital Images

Digital imaging allows users to capture, edit, display, share, and network still and video images. The technology makes the process very easy for both teachers and students.

a.   Digital Images

Digital cameras are small and lightweight with fewer moving parts than traditional cameras. Instead of squinting through a tiny optical viewfinder, most digiral cameras permit you to see a large image displayed on the back of the camera before you take the ‘picture’.

b.   Scanners

Scanners work with computers to transfer existing visual images, such as drawing or photographs, into digitized computer graphic files. As with digital photographs, students may quickly incorporate scanned images into a word processing file or enhance or change them using software.

The flatbed scanner looks like the top of a photocopy machine and is connected to the computer with secial cables.