Visual+Literacy

visual literacy

===// This artifact is a critique of a visual message. The critique was fun to do but it was a little difficult to explain in terms of the PAT model. I think it was difficult because many of the elements in the PAT model relate to other elements or overlap with other elements. When I am a teacher and need to make a visual for my students, I will refer to this artificact and the ACE model. This artifact will hopefully remind me what the processes and elements are to create an effective visual for my lesson. //===

After learning about what Visual Literacy is, my interpretation of the Overproteined visual is the following. I believe that the visual’s purpose and/or message is to state how much protein Americans eat each year. It’s function is to organize the quantity of the two types of protein, beef and chicken, that Americans consume. I think the visual works because the viewer knows what the creator is trying to say. However, I think the viewer has to look at the visual more than once to figure out what the meaning is.

The overall design of the visual is pretty good. It’s easy to read and the pictures are clear. The figure/ground principle element is good. Each of the four sections stand out. The hierarchy element is done well because each section/rectangle is equal in size. This shows that chicken and beef have equal importance in the message. Americans eat a lot of both meats. However, the gestalt principle is done poorly. It’s good in the sense that all four sections together show that Americans eat too much protein. Yet, the proximity or similarity elements are confusing. I don’t know why the left rectangle is about beef, then the middle two are about chicken, and the last rectangle is about beef again.

Most of the Action elements are good. There is nice contrast and repetition of shapes (rectangles) as well as uniform alignment. Proximity is the only actions element that I thought wasn’t very good. It was confusing to see the bucket of chicken and hot dog pictures overlapping both the rectangles that had beef and chicken text.

For the Tools element, I believe that type, color, shape and depth were done well. The text type is easy to read, the colors are pleasing to the eyes, the shape is simple and the pictures give the chart depth. However, in regards to the pictures, I think the space element relates to the proximity and gestalt elements. Again, I believe that the baby chick, bucket of chicken and hot dog are not in the correct space/location of the visual.

To make this a better visual, there are a few changes that I suggest. First of all, I would make the word “overproteined” bigger in text. I think it’s too close in size to the other text. Since it’s the title, it needs to be bigger to stand out. If the word is bigger, there will be no confusion that it is the title of the visual. Next, I would put the beef text boxes next to each other and the chicken text boxes next to each other. This would make it easier for the viewer to understand the meaning because the text will be in a more organized layout. Lastly, I would put the chicken pictures with the text that discusses chicken and the beef pictures with the text that discusses hamburgers and hot dogs. It makes more sense to group them together with their similarities. Overall, I think the visual is fairly good. It just needs a few adjustments so that it’s easier and faster for the viewer to understand it’s meaning.