MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

So we preview next week and the end of the semester. More on Monday.  For fun and edification, we will talk about visuals in technical communication. I wish that we offered you/required of you a second semester in which we worked soley on visual communication, including Power Point presentation.  Alas, we do not; further, I expect that you might resent the additional requirement.

Let's talk a bit about infographics.  I love and hate them. Why?  Largely for the lack of attention to:

• authority
• credibility
• sources

However, Compound Interest is a good place to start.  Here is one that will also teach you something useful regarding asparagus. That infograph is primarily informative.  This infographic on bad science ismore  directive. Look for your favorites.

This website is crowd sourced.  I like many of the graphics but some of the science ones are visually seductive (a pathos mover) but lack in details (logos) and, again, authority (ethos). 

Visuals and statistics, from Swedish scholar Hans Rosling, in this TED talk.

Look at this visual communication from weather forecasting, courtesy of a Slate article.

We are developing ways to visualize complexity, courtesy of bioinformatics, science visualization in computer science, and through both graphics arts and cognitive science.  Look at this graphic concerning kidney transplant rejection.  Visuals are important in many technical documents.  Here is one about organizing kidney transplants by computers.  Lastly, think about patient and family communication regarding kidney transplants.

Citation studies is another area for visualization; here is one about the complexity of science journal article data.

Back to document design, which relies on visual strategies.  I love this Wikepedia entry on the genealogy of theoretical physicists.

Finally, because this is Friday and yesterday was White Coat Day at the UMD MD School, I give you this:

 And for contrast:

And, this one.