Notes from 45th International STC Conference
Anaheim, California, May 17-20, 1998

Presenting Critical Information Visually:
Methods for Communicating with Images

Abstract: This session discusses methods for combining images with words using image essays, then provides techniques for presenting risk information visually.

Note: 15-page handout available for Terri Miles' presentation... hard copy format only... give me a call (or e-mail note) and I'll send it to you. Campbell ran out of handouts; I will contact her for a copy.

Unlocking Images and Words: Using Image Essays as the Key

Terri J. Miles
Manugistics, Inc., Rockville, MD

• Our world is becoming increasingly visual. "The world is literally raining images..."
• We need to continuously investigate ways to integrate images and words.
• Image essay = a series of images that tell a story or convey a message; some are pictorial and some have a combination of pictures and words.
• Presenter showed an image essay about the integration of mankind and technology (developed for a graduate course in visual communication).
• Major differences between word essay and image essay:
   
• Word essay is totally linear; image essay has sequence but is less rigidly linear
• Images unfold immediately in front of our eyes; all elements are there and can be seen simultaneously (as opposed to reading through several paragraphs).
• Visual contexts are much more complex
• Creating an image essay is just as deliberate as creating a word essay:
   
• Use of color
• Placement of images
• Size and shape of images
• What experience to provide
• What works with image essays:
   
• Grouping by subthemes
• Putting like images together
• Multiple-sense appeal (synaesthesia)
• What does not work with image essays:
   
• Crowding the field with too many elements... it overwhelms the reader
• Improper alignment of image selection with readers' experiences and backgrounds... as always, audience analysis is crucial... but it's also important to realize that you can't allow for everyone's reactions.
• Presenter displayed and critiqued a series of online articles.
   
• Consistent use of colors and graphic elements can provide a corporate "look."
• Balance of text and graphic elements is important
• Navigability is also a key consideration
• Q & A's
   
• Was there a verbal outline for the image essay? No. The assignment was to think entirely visually... no words!
• How do you allow for audience subjectivity, emotional response? You can't, not entirely. In fact, you have to relax about that or you will paralyze your ability to express yourself visually.
• But are emotion and artistic expression compatible with technical communication? Yes, yes, yes! The techno-nerd who asked this question did so in a very skeptical, almost adversarial tone of voice -- as if to indicate that any form of emotion in technical communication would be tantamount to heresy. Bill Horton nearly came out of his chair in the back of the room!

The Effects of Information Design on Perception of Environmental Risk

Kim Sydow Campbell

• Audience analysis: Surveys indicate that the average American knows next to nothing about environmental issues.
• This made it necessary to find a visual means of forcefully communicating the concept of environmental risk.
• Risk ladder: How likely are you to die? The visual approach is to assign a value to risk levels and then graphically depict relative levels of risk.
• Analogy: Suppose you tell homeowners they have 100 mg of "fibronite" per cubic meter in their home. In all likelihood, that means nothing to them. But telling them "that's like smoking 10 cigarettes a day" interprets the data in a context they can understand... and fear!
• Ethical issue: Placing items high on the ladder by manipulating the scale will connote danger, even if it may not be real. Conversely, placing items low on the ladder may mask danger. Effective? Yes. Ethical? No.