Selected Readings 2014-2015

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Proposal for Research Presentation Poster Design Workshop by Junichi Endo

Junichi Endo Abstract Since 2009, we have been teaching graduate students the design basics needed to create research presentation materials such as slides and posters. The course aims to provide students with the ability to create posters for presentations at academic conferences. We focused on research materials because the need to make research presentations at academic conferences increases as Japanese students reach the graduate level. Clarity and visibility are more important than the visual impact when designing research materials. For business presentations and advertising, there is a need for high-quality visually stimulating slides, such as large photos, flashy illustrations, and animation. However, academic materials require clear design and easy-to-read content. We proposed an additional workshop in which students could acquire poster design skills. In this workshop, students were able to get feedback on how others saw their own layouts from a “third person perspective” and learnt how to achieve the sense of balance necessary for effective poster design. It became apparent that the students needed to more thoroughly understand the concepts of design and not just learn a set of rules. The workshop had very positive effects on subsequent poster designs. The students were able to identify the incomprehensible aspects of their own poster design in the workshop. This understanding has enabled them to work independently and improve their own poster designs when preparing their own research posters. Keywords design, workshop, research poster, higher education Introduction Since 2009, we have been teaching graduate students the design basics needed to create research presentation materials such as slides and posters. The course aims to provide students with the ability to create posters for presentations at academic conferences. In 2013, we authored a textbook on poster and presentation design for such purpose. We focused on research materials because the need to make research presentations at academic conferences increases as Japanese students reach the graduate level. Despite this needs, it was found that many students had limited design skills because there had been few opportunities for them to learn design for education before they entered university. Therefore, there was a need to the students how to design materials higher-education research materials. Clarity and visibility are more important than the visual impact when designing research materials. For business presentations and advertisings, there is a need for high-quality visually stimulating slides, such as large photos, flashy illustrations, and animation. However, academic materials required a clear design and easy-to-read content. Consequently, it is not appropriate for students to refer to business presentation designs as business and research presentations have vastly different purpose. In particular, research posters need to be able to stand out among many other poster presentations on display. Therefore, we developed and implemented an intensive poster design course for graduate students. This course enables effective learning because it combines lectures of design basics with practice on the relevant software, which enables students to concretely learn the theory and practical skills necessary for effective research poster design. We proposed an additional workshop in which students could acquire poster design skills. This workshop was added to the lecture-based and practical learning components of our poster design class. In this workshop, students were able to get feedback on how others saw their own layouts from a “third person perspective” and learnt how to achieve the sense of balance necessary for effective poster design. This understanding enabled them to independently work on improving their own poster designs when preparing research presentations. This paper reports how this workshop was conducted, discusses the results, and gives an overall evaluation of the success of this addition to the course. Intensive Course: “Visual Design of Research” The course, “Visual Design of Research” is offered every summer for graduate students majoring in science at Nagoya University. The course contents are presented in Table1. The classes are held over two days: the first class is a lecturer focusing on design basics, the second to fifth classes are practical sessions focusing on designing posters, and the last class is a session dealing with student reviews. The specific course contents of the basics of graphic design are divided into layout and appearance (Table 2). Table 1: Course contents in 2014 Schedule Learner Model Contents Day 1 1.Lecture Design basics 2.Practice Drawing a draft poster Basics of Adobe Illustrator 3.Practice Designing the poster Day 2 4.Practice Designing the poster 5.Practice Designing the poster 6.Practice Designing the poster Printing on a large-format printer 7.Lecture Review Table 2: Specific course contents of the basics of graphic design Layout Appearance margins contrast columns repetition alignment noise reduction grouping color schemes fonts, line spacing, justification Problems in the 2014 course Unfortunately, during the 2014 course, we were unable to adequately impart certain essential design components such as alignment, layout balance, and color schemes to our students. It was difficult to develop simple creation rules for these components because they heavily depended on the content and quantity of information in each poster. It was very difficult for students to devote sufficient time to mastering poster design. A judgment of good or bad in these cases was relatively easy for beginners because the visual differences were clear, as described the following list. Reducing nose: identifying thick lines or shadow effects as noise Creating contrast: It is difficult to read if the contrast between the background color and the text color is low Dividing columns: Using multiple columns to reduce the number of characters per line However, there was some incomprehensible content, as in the following list. Where the visual differences were not readily obvious, it was important for students to learn to notice these small differences. Alignment: aligning the left side of the main heading and title, the sub-headings and the body text Layout balance: lack of spacing, or too large or small margins Here, we show some examples of the posters, designed by students of the 2014 course that needed improvement (Fig 3). These posters were well designed; however, there were some problems in the layout details and the appearance. For example, the

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January 15, 2017

Visually Documenting Consumer Health Research Using PhotoVoice by Naomi Jeffery and Rebecca L. Pearson

Naomi Jeffery Petersen, Ed.D. and Rebecca L. Pearson, Ph.D., Central Washington University Abstract Individuals use images to make sense of personal and societal situations. We draw and paint to understand and emerge from mental health issues, post photographs on social media to show intimacy with family and friends, create pictorial documents such as infographics to collapse and translate study data into eye-catching, understandable products, and map such population health indicators as infectious disease rates and community experiences with violence so that we can more readily compare and prioritize issues and groups. Many of these actions are best viewed as fitting one category: more useful for individuals or society. One practical qualitative research method, PhotoVoice, spans these categories, allowing people first to view and frame a situation for themselves and then for others. In PhotoVoice projects participants are co-researchers documenting situations, choices, or contexts by taking photos, describing them in writing, and sharing this documentation with others. PhotoVoice is a flexible tool for visual/imagery-based research. Goals typically include helping communities document strengths and risks, promoting dialogue and awareness, and influencing policy change. In this paper we describe a PhotoVoice project in an undergraduate Consumer Health course and include guidelines and examples. Although our focus is on the use of images and associated narratives to understand, describe, and argue for change in population health and social issues, K-12 educators, grass-roots activists, and heritage professionals may also find relevance. Introduction “…all sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.” Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen in The Human Condition. (Arendt,1958) We tell stories to understand and bear our pain, both personal and public, and we value images to help tell those stories. From a parent making shadow puppets while talking a child to sleep to a film with sophisticated cinematography, pictures help us to tell our tales, whether of entertainment, woe, or documentation. Storytelling helps us as individuals and as a society to find meaning. This article focuses on a visual approach to telling stories of communities and why this process is beneficial to all concerned. Visualizing Ourselves Meaningfully Humans have always used images to understand, depict, and change their worlds, both internal and external. Very young children take obvious interest in pictures of animals, vehicles, and people – content that matches their own typical experience of a gradually broadening environment. Friends, lovers, and family members pore over photographs that refresh memories, demonstrate commitment, and provide evidence of intimacy. People of all ages immerse themselves in art to enjoy, to understand, to experience awe and reverence. Individuals draw and paint to express and relieve feelings and mental states (Raggl & Schwartz, 2004). Social scientists translate quantitative data into user-friendly graphs, charts, maps, and,more recently,infographics, an approach that couples easily understood pictures with numbers, percentages, and other evidence to help others understand important findings from scientific reports (Abilock & Williams, 2014). Viewing images is an obvious way to use them; making and arranging images results in a product usable by others, but the process alone may also be useful for the person creating the product. One example is seen in the use of art therapy, both for children and adults. Both artist and therapist find value in images created as part of art therapy, and literacy surrounding images created is essential for the therapist (Curtis, 2011). A more general application can be seen in Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (1983) which posits that there are multiple dimensions for finding meaning, for instance visual and auditory in addition to verbal and logical. This has inspired a generation of teachers to include ‘multiple modalities’ to engage students. This is consistent with learner-centered theories, also called ‘constructivist’, which maintain that delivery of information is not equivalent to learning as the student must make sense of the new information and incorporate it into an existing knowledge base. Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation address the adjustment made either to one’s understanding of the new information or one’s integration of it into a world view. One of the multiple intelligences claimed by Gardner is that of a ‘naturalist’. While this assumes a propensity to understand nature, it further assumes an understanding of systems. This understanding is often manifested in metaphors that identify a relationship in one context that could be recognized in another. Nearly all metaphors are visual, that is, physical representations of dynamic functions. Graphic organizers (Ausubel, 1978) reduce the relationships to skeletal figures that allow a more global grasp of the interdependence of elements. Thus the use of such devices as graphics and diagrams is very consistent with the wisdom of systems theories (Deutsch, 1949) It is noteworthy that one of the benchmarks of science literacy is to know that building models makes it possible to study something that one cannot experience directly (Rutherford, 1993). The collection of information about a focused subject results in a model of that subject and provides the opportunity for the investigator to see patterns and discover details not easily discerned in the immediacy of experience. Science is, of course, associated with testing hypotheses and gathering empirical evidence in a rigorous way that others can replicate. However, the very act of posing a question and designing a way to test it is itself an important pedagogical model. We learn more if we are curious to learn, and the skill of phrasing a question and designing a study is crucial to organizing the information we gather. Thus, however that information is gathered, the process of investigation is valuable for maximum engagement in the process of learning. Inquiry learning is not a replacement for direct instruction of basic procedures and definitions, but it is unquestionably effective in helping students understand complex concepts in complex contexts. Finally, there is merit in learning new skills in the process of investigation. In addition to gathering data, such as photos, the novice investigator learns the technology of the camera: how to frame, how to focus, how to follow through, and how

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January 22, 2017