This will count
as a lab exercise even though software does not play a major role presenting a
solution to this design problem.
In-Class
Working Days: Monday, October 13 and Wednesday October
15.
Due date: Wednesday October 15 at the end of the class
period.
Media for
Turn-in: Visuals and Verbal Rationales, as
usual. For the visual part, create
sketches on plain, clean paper with pen, pencil, chalk, ink, crayon,
marker. Sketches (visuals) must be
presented as professionally as possible, that is, neat lines, careful labeling.
See your “position and immediate audience” instructions below. Verbal
explanations for design decisions must be word processed, spell checked,
formulated in some logical manner.
Objective: This exercise emphasizes the collective reasoning and sound
planning that underpins a concise, yet data-rich, visual display
appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
It ignores proficiency with any type of visual presentation
software. It calls on you to visualize
the relationships between different
kinds of data.
Your position
and your immediate audience for this exercise: Think of yourselves as editors, not
producers of the final design.
Collectively, you will imagine how the relationships among these pieces
of data should be displayed. You will then design a sketch and rationale that
tells your co-worker, the graphics artist on staff, how you want this display
to look. Consider me (Romano) your
supervisor, a higher up in the National Consortium of Local School Districts,
who will review your instructions to your fellow employee. You want to convey
your message to your co-worker and show me that your decisions are
sound. Note well: This modifies a bit the assignment as presented in K & R.
Procedure:
Suggested
Approaches:
Final Words:
This is a hard
problem with several possible solutions. When we finish, we’ll compare
solutions in terms of their strengths and limitations. But this is not a
contest, and often we learn a lot by trial and error, by attempting and
revising those attempts, by working together and comparing solutions. I will give your group a collective grade.
Then you may take this work and revise it individually for your portfolios if
you wish.
You have two full
class periods to work on this problem collectively, but you have lots of
time to think about it individually before putting heads together. Take
advantage of this time and come to the table with at least two good ideas.
The lab is open
on Wednesdays from 12 to 1, so groups can use this extra hour to work together
if you are able.