Exercise Three - Ann, Marlissa, Milena, Nicole, and Rob

Strategies for Conveying Visual Information - Summary of Terms
Information taken from Universal Principles of Design




ALIGNMENT (pgs.22/23) - The placement of text and/or pictures so that the edges line up in a certain way. In the text they state that aligning the visual elements to one side is more powerful than a centre alignment. Text may be justified in documents that are especially complex.



HIGHLIGHTING (pgs. 108/109) - When you want a specific area of the document to stand out. Highlight less than 10% of a design, and stick to a few techniques used consistently throughout your text or image. Using the technique of bold text works the best of you don't want to disturb the flow of your design. Underlining text isn't the best for its legibility. Avoid changing fonts for the purposes of highlighting, and if you're going to use colour, choose a less saturated one. Blinking is highly effective for highlighting the most important information, but the viewer should be able to turn it off, or it will distract from the rest of the document.



LAYERING (pgs.122-123) - When you simplify complex information by organizing it into related groups. There are 2 types of layering: 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional.

2-dimensional layering makes it possible to view one layer of information at
a time. It can be presented in a linear or non-linear way. When you are presenting
information that has a clear sequence (like assembly instructions) it's good to use a
linear method of layering, such as seen below:

Non-linear methods of 2-dimensional layering are best used in presenting
the directly hierarchal or parallel relationship between bits of information,

like in the family tree you see here:

3-dimensional layering is used when you want to view multiple layers of information
at the same time, so that you can see their relationship to each other. The stacked layers
may be opaque (like in a political map) or transparent like in a topographic map.

SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO (pgs. 182/183) Is the ratio of relevant (signal) to irrelevant (noise) information in the document. Ideally, you want to get rid of as much "noise" as possible.