Reflections on Session Two

In the second lesson, I learnt some key points about “Visuals” from Tufte (1983, 1990) and Lester (2000).
First part: Key points about “Visuals” from Tufte (1983, 1990)
1. Well designed graphics are far more effective than words.
2. Human eye can make remarkable number of distinctions within a small area.
3. Presents text and numbers as visual ideas rather than parades of words and
numbers.
4. Visuals are instruments that help people to reason information.
5. Principles of information design are universals and are not tied to unique features
of a particular culture.
6. The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static,
flat-envisioning information can escape from it.
7. Envision of information works at intersection of images, words, numbers and art.
8. It is not how much information is there but rather how effectively it is arranged.
9. Confusion is failure of design not attribute of information.

Second part: Key points about “Visuals” from Lester(2000)
1. Pictures invented to communicate complex thoughts. With invention of print words
become more important than pictures.
2. Produce powerful pictures so that viewers can remember their content.
3. Analyzing images makes you take long careful look. Image becomes part of your
general knowledge. The more you know the more you see.
4. Deconstructing Visual Information by questioning who the visualization was made
for, by whom, why, and based on which data.
5. Individuals do not have good visual literacy.

The above key points tell us how important of understanding visual language. Besides, those key points explained what and how to improve our visual language. For doing better presentation, we can insert the following types of visuals on our PowerPoint, for examples: photorealistic images, paintings, drawings, caricatures, cartoons, abstract art, maps of territories, symbols, icons, diagrams, charts, mindmaps and 3-dimensions. In Daniel's handout, there are different kinds of technology tools to be introduced. Nearly all of them are new to me. I think that I will need to spend soem time to learn them because they are very useful to me for developing my teaching job.

Finally, I would like to tell all of you about my reflection after second lesson. I understand that we not only pay attention on the visual content, but also concern about the format. According to Lester (2000), he said, “Analyzing image makes you take long careful look. First image becomes part of your general knowledge. The more you know the more you see”. For enhancing analysis and creation of our own vision, I firm believe that we need to learn how to visualize new visual language in this century. Perhaps, we should try to use different types of technology tools for making our great PowerPoint, for examples: Photoshop, Illustrator, 3-dimensional graphics, 3DStudio Max and so on.

Reference:
Lester, P. M. (2000). Visual Communication. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.
Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Tufte, E.R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.