Chapter 12 begans by explaining how visuals not only attract someone’s attention and create appeal but also give readers a better understanding of what they are reading. Well-designed visuals can usually be understood more easily than text, can be processed more quickly than text, and can help readers learn better. When given all these benefits, we can see that visuals can be extraordinarily important in increasing the accessibility and usability of documents. Visuals can be adapted to different audiences by the complexity of content, presentation, and sometimes color and size. Take for example Figure 12.3 and Figure 12.4 on page 416. Figure 12.3 is much easier to follow for the general reader, whereas Figure 12.4 is more for science professionals. Some other very important rules when making effective decisions is to think about textual reference, labeling and placement of visuals. To begin with, you should always refer to visuals in the text. Don’t expect the reader to see the visual and try to connect it to the appropriate section of the text. Next, complete labeling includes identification, title and a caption. Last, you should always place visuals as close as possible following the text reference, and always leave some white space around the visual.
There are several reasons why visuals are important for technical documents. This chapter outlines seven of them: provide visual recognition, organize data, show relationships, define or explain, present chronology, illustrate appearance or structure, and identify facilities or locations. Each of these functions will help keep a document more organized and visually appealing to its audience. Another important aspect of the use of visual forms to consider is color. Staying away from too much color, cultural insensitivity, and overuse of decorative color are all good suggestions. Because so many documents are printed only in black and white, adding color can add variety to a document. This chapter lays out seven reasons why color is always a good option: signal safety, attract attention, enable accurate identification, show structure or organization, highlight components and their function or movement, aid comprehension, and influence interpretation. Whether it be a photograph or a chart, visual forms always help to enhance the look of and help to better understand a technical document.
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I liked reading this chapter. This summary was very easy to understand and they listed the main ideas for this chapter. In the past when I have read a book for class like social studies or a science book they have always showed graphs, pictures and visuals that went along with the text. I really like this idea when there are visuals that go along with the text. For science class last year we had to make charts and visuals. It helps others who are looking at it when you have a label and title on it. When you have some extra space in between the information and the picture, readers wont know what goes to what.
Visuals can be a very nice touch to any document. It creates a picture (literally) for those with ADD and have troubles reading and paying attention for long periods of time. Which seems to be just about everyone these days, including yours truly. Visuals can really help readers learn too. It is nice to have an image of what your reading. When I read history books it really helps me when I read something to have that picture so I can use my imagination to be in the era I am reading about. Helps me pay attention and get more from the reading.
Like most people it is beneficial to me to have a picture or graph of some sort in an attempt to organize facts close together. This really helps me to compare and contrast the information and really see the big picture. The chapter stresses the importance of visuals and the positive effect that they can have on a presentation or paper. They are especially helpful when presenting to an audience that doesn’t have a lot of knowledge in the area of the topic. I also feel however, that sometimes pictures and visuals can be overdone if used to extensively. The paper or presentation cannot rely solely on charts and graphs but also must contain the back round material.
First off, I think this summary was very well written. Secondly, I could not agree more about visuals. My presentation is coming up and I needed to add a little beef to it. I looked at my power points and asked myself what was missing. I noticed that I only had one picture on one of my slides. I went back and found some pictures that would add to the presentation. I found some pictures and personally think that it added a lot of meat to my presentation. Pictures are important in my opinion, because they allow the audience another way of grasping what you are trying to portray to them. It hits them on both fronts. One front being what you are telling them, and other front being what you are showing them.
Visuals in any kind of presentation are a beneficial part to help the user understand. For me I like to find a chart or graph that I can look at and follow while I am reading. Graphs and charts help me understand by putting information next to each other. I did this in my presentation taking the graphs and charts out of the article that I read, that helped me understand. Even with the confusing wording I could follow along on the charts and figure out what the authors were trying to say. Visuals also attract me to documents. Some of my school books in the past have been nothing but text and I found that I would not read because it bored me. With the Burnett book I can keep interested by looking at the side notes and illistrations.
Chapter 12 presents one of the most useful things that can be done to make a document or text more explanatory and easy to understand. Using visual, the documents can be made look interesting and also most importantly it will be easier for everybody to understand and interpret the whole idea of the content. Making colorful visual with naming and added text to explain or refer to the visual will be a very effective way of making it simple to the readers. For myself if there is just text then it mostly takes me more time to understand things then if it is accompanied by a well defining visual.
Visuals are very impoportant to everyone. I think that it is a better way to learn, and I like to have them in my presentations, or documents. It really keeps the reader interested in what is being explained or discussed. Its not just important to have visuals, they have to reference the information that you are talking about, and have actually something to do with it. They also have to be appropriate inside of a presentaiton or some sort of document. I think that using diferent colors can also change the enhancement of the document or presentaiton.
I always like to use visuals in my projects or articles because it adds to the text. This is especially true if what the text is trying to convey is hard to imagine or think abstractly about. Another important thing with visuals if that say in an advertisement, if a billboard only had text it would be hard to see what was meant, but the visual makes it easier to figure out. Showing a picture or two can also in my opinion make a boring presentation more interesting. I think visuals are very important when you are making an instruction document because this lets the reader know exactly what you're trying to explain.
This chapter talked about how visuals can make a difficult topic to learn much easier. I really agree with this because I am a very visual learner. My worst subjects are science and math and when my professor draws out an equation it is much more understandable than if he or she stands at the front of the room and talks for an hour and a half about it. I also find presentations a lot more interesting if the presenter has incorporated visuals into their project. It captures and keeps my attention. Visuals are important in every aspect of learning they also enhance the learning experience.
In chapter twelve they made it clear that using visuals were important. I talked a lot about visuals and chunking in chapter eleven. I think visuals sell your presentation to any audience. This summary was easy to read and well written. They relate the text well to chapter twelve. Visuals help make a presentation interesting and exciting. I liked how they pointed out the seven important technical documents. I also agree to stay away with too much color. Having to much color can actually make the audience not pay attention to the information. In conclusion, this was a well written summary and they captured the key points in chapter twelve.
Through out my high school career, we took many tests which put us into different learning categories. The one I remember are hands-one learning, visual learning and audio learning. Most people have a certain way of learning that works best for them. So being able to incorporate as many learning styles into your work will increase the success of the audience's understanding and liking. This chapter really touched on visual learning, which a lot of people are visual learners. I agree with the importance of a visual and how it helps you understand text even more and the placement of the visual is really important. In my chemistry book there are lots of pictures and I would not really pay that much attention to them until the book references them.
People learn three different ways by seeing, reading, and actually doing. When a person learns by seeing, if a visual is placed with the text it makes it much easier to understand. I like images because when your reading from a text book it gets boring. Paragraph after paragraph gets so bring so when they but a visual in there it breaks the information up a little bit. I also think it makes something easier to understand. For example, if I wanted to put a cabinet together I would need a visual aid to actually see what I am doing, text would be to confusing.
Visuals direct the audience to a better understanding of a document. Added elements like tables, graphs, and pictures give a visual appeal and capture attention. Not only are visual forms stimulating to the eye, but they also have more practical uses such as organization, showing relationships, providing explanations, and presentation. I've found that graphs and tables especially help enhance a document not only as an attention-getter, but also as a second explanation (great for visual learners). This chapter was very similar to chapter 11, relating to visual representation, but chapter 12 went into more detail.
Sometimes the visual presentation can be more important than the information itself. Visual can be used to help explain information or be the source of information. Like they say “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Visuals must be organized effectively for them to be useful. Another very important aspect of visuals is that many people associate certain visuals with a company of product. Visual design is very important because it can tell you a lot about the company. Visual design is one aspect that is involved in every part of a company.
Chapter 12 makes some very good points when it comes to visuals. All people learn differently, whether they get more from text documents, visuals, or oral documents. It is beneficial to have visuals with texts when it will add to the material and make it more clear for the reader. I agree that it is important to label a visual within the text that it accompanies and keep the two near each other. It is always frustrating when you are unable to find the visual a book is refering to. Depending on the document does depend on if it should be visual based with text, text based with visuals, or just one or the other. I feel that most often color is needed to grab my attention and emphasize essential parts of the document.
This article would be a good one to read for anyone who is about to give their power point presentation to the class. Some of the visuals have been very good but others have not. When you have something to look at it is much easier to pay attention to what is going on, and listen to what the speaker has to say. However, when the visual is ineffective the amount of information presented can be very overwhelming and the audience tends to just zone out rather than try to catch any facts. It can be hard to find an effective visual but when you do it adds a lot to the overall presentation.
I think that visuals really help people understand what information is trying to be portrayed. When I am creating a document I always think about the placement of the document and labeling it so people know why its there. I also agree with Burnett when she talks about text, because the font and size of text can be visual. I know that when I see the same visuals on similar document, I always relate them together. Visuals to me are extremely recognizable, more so than text. I never thought of color to be so important but it really is. Certain colors tend to represent certain things, like yellow usually means caution. So when creating a document, using color will stand out more then just black and white.
This chapter was enjoyable to read because I like the part in a project where I get to put designs and visual. Using graphic makes a document very appealing and unique to others and it could help some learn much better. Everyone in this world have different types of learning skills and strategy like some are visual learners. Having visuals that shows graphs, pictures and tables could help visual learners like myself learn better. Visuals help me get interested in the material i'm reading untill the end.
There are many ways to use visuals. Many think visuals are pictures or graphs, but there are many ways to allow visuals to persuade or give extra information to your project. In chapter 12 we learn all about that. Visuals can be used as text and as pictures. Text can give an affect to a reader just as a picture might. This chapter was summarized in a very organized fashion, easy to read and follow along.
the summary of this chapter was very easy to read and understand. i think when reading books or listening to presentations, its very helpful to have visuals, visuals help people get the point, ecsically bar graphs or visual images of something that help grab attentions. for example CNN and Fox new networks will have reports talking on one side of the screen and sometimes have images of a city like iraq on the other side of the screen, wether there are bombs going off or not people will just sit there and wait till something happens/ expect something to happen so they continue to watch.
I think that visuals are very important in a document. When I was reading this summary I thought of how important visuals are in vehicle repair manuals. Visuals are very important because they help you locate items and know what to do. To be useful though they must be well labled and in a good location in the manual. A picture showing timing belt routing in the computer section would not be useful because you would not be able to easily locate it. However you also need text to go along with the visual because you can not tell what to do in each step just by a picture; you need text to give you a description.
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