Oral Presentations Begin

Oral Presentations begin on Monday, Dec 1 and continue on Tuesday, Dec 3. We will begin alphabetically, using first names. If you need to exchange dates with someone in class, contact them and make arrangements to do so, then send me an email to communicate the change.

For oral review, see blog posting below, dated October 30, 2008.

Have a great break.

Status Report & Draft Due

As mentioned in class today, a Status Report is due Sunday night (Nov 16) by midnight regarding your report. Please email info about what's completed, what's currently going on, and what you hope to have done by next week.

Also, a draft of your report is due for class on Wednesday (Nov19). The draft should include a Table of Contents and a List of Figures, generated using the MSWord functions demonstrated in class today. If you do not have your figures completed yet, use the "Caption" option to hold placement for where the figures will reside in the final text.

Last, run a "Readability Test" on the whole draft, and report the results on the last page of the draft.

Graphics/Visualization

This week, while meeting in the Baker Lab (room 314) on Mon, Wed, Fri, we will be looking at, discussing, and practicing various visual dimensions of scientific communications.

Begin by reading the handout distributed in class (from Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"). Also, think about how visual representation can distort, or how perceived visual effects can effect assessment (think of optical illusions). Different people SEE the same areas differently! Perception changes with experience. And perceptions are CONTEXT-dependent.

For example, it is a securely established finding that clear and simple LINE LENGTH depends on the context and what other people have already said about the lines. Thus misperception and miscommunication are inherent elements of any visual. Each part of the graphic design determines what the eye sees.

Also, think about COLOR and color theory. WHERE does color really exist? Outside, in things? Or inside, between the eyes and the brain? If color is really just wavelengths of light, then the world really has no color; it is only PERCEIVED as such by the brain. Then, individual perception of color is "relative" to light and biology.
How does color theory effect the modern communications designer???