November 15th: Extra-textual Elements

(Not to be confused with extraterrestrial elements; that show is a remake, btw)

Announcements

• GIS Day: Department of Geography and Earth Sciences
  Wed., 11/16 Noon-4pm (multiple events)
  McEniry Lobby
• Chapel Hill @ VT (football)
  Thurs., Nov. 17th @ 8:00 pm
• UFC 139 Sat., Nov. 19th @ 9:00 pm

Tonight's Plan

• LAST READING QUIZ #5 on Moodle
  This quiz opens at 6:35 pm and closes at 6:40pm
• Quick Ethos, Pathos, Logos discussion
• Chapter 9: Lists, Tables, and Forms
• InDesign Table Practice
• Forms and Culture
• Document #4 Issues
• Ethics and Visuals
• Text and Subtext
• Bibliographic Essays and Rhetoric Projects Due
• Important Due Dates to Remember

Don't get too excited. We're mostly going to discuss tables as our important extra-textual elements. I'll show you how to do a table like this one. Although forms are important, they're really just big tables if you think about it, so we won't be creating them, but we'll be discussing them from rhetorical and cultural perspectives.

Perception, Culture, Rhetoric

Before we get too far into perception, culture, and rhetoric, let's focus on data. Chapter 9 begins by saying users need data explained efficiently. How does this book and this class on information design contribute to providing data effectively to users?

Perception

• I don't know another fancier way of saying this, so here it goes: Users in Western cultures like lists.
• Users in Western cultures read lists top to bottom (horizontally).
• What one perspective of perception probably captures the essence of perception with regard to tables?

Culture

• What purpose do lists serve culturally?
• What does it say about a culture that uses pre-printed forms?
• How do extra-textual elements fit into our overly information-saturated society?

Rhetoric

• What rhetorical strategy do lists, tables, and forms employ?
• Ethos, pathos, logos...
• Discuss the visual rhetoric of the table on p. 284.
• What constitutes an open, friendly visual style?
• What "list" principles did I violate with these bullets from the perception, culture, and rhetoric categories?

Parallel Entries and Headings

This is really just a quick note about being parallel in your designs and prose. On p. 279, the authors tell us similarity is related to parallel relationships in lists. Below are some items on a list; are they parallel?

• Go to the store
• Find bread, eggs, and cheese
• What time is dinner?
• Check tire pressure

Below are headings; are they parallel?

• Uploading Your Webpages to the Internet
• How to Create Hyperlinks
• Make Your Visuals Sing
• Be Consistent in Your Page Layout Design
• When it’s Time to Access Your Public_HTML Folder

Being parallel also means you have similar grammatical structure for sentences.

For example, what's wrong with the following sentence?

• Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy, attended the University of Bologna, and was an eater of bologna sandwiches.

Making a Table

InDesign and Dreamweaver have some interesting table features. I say "interesting" because, well, they aren't as intuitive as one would hope. I'm going to demonstrate how to create a table similar to the one on p. 296. Before we do, let's look over the genesis of that particular table on pp. 291-295.

I've used InDesign CS2, CS3, and CS 5.5, and you can make a table the exact same way. If you want an online tutorial, watch this video on creating tables in InDesign CS3 (Mac specific...but useful for PCs).

Making a Table

Now it's your turn. I want you to have a table on your web site. I'd like you to create one in InDesign. Have a link to the PDF of your table created in InDesign--don't make the link for the actual .indd file. Include the following:

• Bold font for headings
• Sans Serif font throughout the table
• "Properly" aligned text
• Border
• Shading (fill) of some kind (alternating rows or columns or haphazardly--just have shading of some kind).

So what do you put in your table? You can replicate a table from the book, or try to create a table based on data from the following web sites:

• CNN.com Presidential Race statistics
• Voter Turnout statistics from past races
• Juvenile Crime Statistics
• Anything else? Create a table with othe data.

Save this as a pdf and link to it from your home page.

Forms: Products of Bureaucratic Cultures

Remember, there is NEVER a nonrhetorical use of language when one tries to create usable documents. Additionally, documents exist for purposes, but they are also cultural repositories mediated by ideology. For instance, what does this "special marriage license" say about the culture from which it comes?

More Documents (time permitting)

What ethos do the following documents evoke:

All open as PDFs.

• DMV Crash Report

• Positive Drug Test Report for Current Employee

• IRS form I-9

• Medical Registration Form

• Furbearer Hunting in New York State

Document #4 Issues

I'm turning back Document #4 to you today. Below are a few general issues to consider:

• Red circles in Photoshop
• Uniform, clear screen shots (paste them in Photoshop)
• "Basal" text--not the herb
• MS Word Document look...
• Stay parallel
• Use captions for extra-textual elements (Figure X.X)
• Arial vs. Ariel
• [Color] C=___ M=___ Y=___ K=___
• Don't just state what a color means based off some out-of-context web page; you have to let me know why a color means what it does. There are several interpretations possible.
  • Why is blue calming?
  • Why is yellow for sickness?
  • Exceptions: Green for environmental stuff and Red for danger or love...those are pretty common.

Those of you who haven't turned in these portfolio assignments will definitely want to get them to me ASAP.

Ethics and Visuals

When creating visuals or, more likely, manipulating visuals, make sure you aren't distorting reality. I know we all remember Dove's Campaign for Beauty model's metamorphosis. Anyone know of other distortions?

• Ever heard of "Hitler's Pope"? Apparently, he never met Hitler, but this picture, through juxtapositioning, makes a case.

• This is typical of Washington, DC protests--remember, the camera "frames" the shots. I do realize this isn't Washington, DC, but it's typical of protests I've seen where the media, because of the limited camera view, make the crowd look bigger.

• Political photo doctoring or, more accurately, Orwellian propaganda.

While the above might seem like extreme cases, even minor touch ups can be unethical as the book points out. Check out this cheesy discussion on visual ethics.

Text and Subtext

Did we ever get to this activity on text and subtext? If not, let's go to the activity and see what we can do before class ends.

Next Week and Beyond

Well, that's it for your reading this semester. We have a portfolio workshop next week--entire class--where I'll go over all the portfolio requirements, including reflecting/reflection requirements.

Don't forget these special dates:

5182 Presentations: 11/29 (5182 students only)
Portfolios DUE: 11/29
Websites finished: 12/06
Final Presentations: 12/06
Final Exam: 12/13 @ 6:30 pm

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