Visual+Literacy

Dixie Hedenkamp  Visual Literacy  EDT - 3010-003  Dr. Hsin-Te Yeh

After reading a power point and becoming familiar with visual literacy and PAT visual design principles, we were given a visual design to critique. This included our interpretation of the visual message, the overall design in terms of PAT model, and what could be improved to enhance the effectiveness of conveying the message to the audience.  The PAT principles are PERCEPTION, ACTIONS, and TOOLS. The ultimate goal “ To manipulate TOOLS using ACTIONS to create effective visuals that can facilitate learner PERCEPTIONS.” First look at the visual message. My interpretation is Americans eat to much protein resulting in Americans being overproteined. This is due to the vast amounts of Big Macs, chicken, and hot dogs that Americans consume each year. Since at the top of the table it states in bold black lets “overproteined” and shows pictures of each of the foods listed above; I made my interpretation.  The overall design was average regarding the PAT model. There was perception in the design, the gestalt and foreground were good. Having the pictures over lap the table created foreground. The gestalt proximity was broken up nicely with black lines separating each category. The contiguity was good and had a nice flow. The pictures surrounding the table draws your eye to the center of the text. The perception of hierarchy was not as good. The numbers were confusing, 600 million, 8 billion, 127, 20 billion it was hard to follow. As for the actions, the repetition was good throughout, but the proximity of the pictures were to close and therefore overpowered the words and should have been spread out. The tools were the best part of the PAT model. There were a bunch of different colors used and the separating of the elements was fabulous with bold black lines. The depth needed to be fixed and the size of the pictures needed to be smaller.  To improve the visual message, I would change the hierarchy of numbers and put them smallest to largest rather than how they placed them. I would have also made the size of the pictures a little bit smaller so they do not over power the text. I did not like the amount of chickens raised each year. It is not needed since there is nothing about how many cows are raised or pigs or any livestock for that matter. Other than that the visual design was good. Noticing the stuff that I did not think worked is a great tool for me when I become a teacher. I know what is visually appealing and what catches your eyes. I need to get my students engaged in my lessons so this assignment showed me a few tools that I would want to avoid when I bring technology to my classroom.