Increase the impact of your materials with visual design
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1) The document discusses best practices for visual design of instructional materials, including using typefaces that are familiar and legible to readers, increasing line spacing and white space on pages, and only including graphics that serve an instructional purpose. 2) Effective visual design improves reader motivation, comprehension, recall and reading efficiency according to research cited. 3) Typography considerations include choosing common fonts, increasing size, and avoiding issues with letters that are easily confused for less skilled readers. Page layout recommendations focus on organizing text with lines and shapes and leaving generous margins.
Increase the impact of your materials with visual design
- 1. CameronRomney Increase the impact of your materials with visual design Kyoto Sangyo University Cameron Romney ThailandTESOL International Conference 2015 January 29, 2015 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 2. Agenda • Introduction • Typography • Page Layout • Graphics: Illustrations/Photographs, etc. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 3. Connect Theory and Practice with ‘Best Practices’ Sunday, May 31, 15
- 4. Do you know anything about typography/ page layout/graphics? Do you think it (they) are important? Why or why not? Sunday, May 31, 15
- 5. “Unfortunately, most of the materials made at home, no matter how good in content, are atrocious in terms of layout. In my experiences with both publishers and students, I have come to the conclusion that layout is just as important as...no, even more important than...content” Curtis Kelly, 1998 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 6. Visual design effects on readers • Motivation Smiley (2004); Misanchuk (1992); Bell & Sullivan (1981) • Comprehension Gasser, Boeke, Haffernan, & Tan (2005); Romney (2004); Smiley (2004);Walker (2001), Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997); Garofalo (1988), Lewis & Walker (1989) • Recall Gasser, Boeke, Haffernan, & Tan (2005); Smiley (2004); Lewis & Walker (1989) • Efficiency/Speed Smiley (2004); Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997) Sunday, May 31, 15
- 7. “...more easily perceiving ... text on a page ... less attentional resources are required for the process of reading. More attentional resources can then be devoted to attending to the message in the text, which results in deeper processing and an easier recall of the information presented.” (p. 185) Gasser, Boek, Haffernan & Tan (2005) Sunday, May 31, 15
- 8. Typeface i.e. font Sunday, May 31, 15
- 9. Common Problems for L2 Learners Sunday, May 31, 15
- 10. Legibility Sunday, May 31, 15
- 11. LC l and UC I Sunday, May 31, 15
- 12. LC d, b, q and p Sunday, May 31, 15
- 13. Lowercase i and j Sunday, May 31, 15
- 14. Lowercase c and o Sunday, May 31, 15
- 15. Lowercase f and t Sunday, May 31, 15
- 16. Double story minuscules Images from Wikipedia Sunday, May 31, 15
- 17. Use the font students are FAMILIAR with Best Practice #1 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 18. “people most easily read material printed in the typefaces with which they are most familiar.” (p. 32) Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997) Theory Sunday, May 31, 15
- 19. Copyright page Sunday, May 31, 15
- 20. Identifont & WhatTheFont http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont (includes an iPhone app) www.identifont.com Sunday, May 31, 15
- 21. Use a font with good LEGIBILITY Best Practice #1 (version two) Sunday, May 31, 15
- 22. Recommended Typefaces Serif • Georgia • (Bembo) Schoolbook Sans Serif • Verdana • Helvetica Textbook Sunday, May 31, 15
- 23. Georgia Image from Identifont Sunday, May 31, 15
- 24. Bembo Schoolbook Image from Identifont Sunday, May 31, 15
- 25. Verdana Image from Identifont Sunday, May 31, 15
- 26. Helvetica Textbook Image from Identifont Sunday, May 31, 15
- 27. set the typeface at a LARGER size Best Practice #2 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 28. • Less skilled readers benefit from larger text Carter, Day & Meggs (2006); Petterson (1989) • 9-12 pt is standard for adults Carter, Day & Meggs (2006) • 18 pt for 1st grade, 14 pt for 3rd grade, 11 pt for 6th grade Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997) Theory Sunday, May 31, 15
- 29. Don’t forget the PRINTING & COPYNG Tip Sunday, May 31, 15
- 30. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 31. Page Layout Sunday, May 31, 15
- 32. Use INCREASED line spacing and white space Best Practice #3 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 33. Theory (line spacing) “...the reader has an effortless return path to the left edge ... for the next line.” (p. 115) White (2002) Sunday, May 31, 15
- 34. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 35. Theory (white space) “Space attracts readers by making the page look accessible, unthreatening, and manageable” White (2002) Sunday, May 31, 15
- 36. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 37. Use lines & shapes to ORGANIZE the page Best Practice #4 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 38. Theory “...directing the readers eye around the page, drawing attention to specific parts... breaking copy into sections” (p.86) Dabner (2004) Sunday, May 31, 15
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- 40. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 41. Sunday, May 31, 15
- 42. Graphics Sunday, May 31, 15
- 43. Only use graphics with INSTRUCTIONAL purpose Best Practice #5 Sunday, May 31, 15
- 44. Graphics can be a distraction Evans,Watson and Willows (1987); Peeck (1987) Clark & Lyons (2011); Romney & Bell (2011) Theory Sunday, May 31, 15
- 45. “If instructional facilitation is not highly probable, then ... graphics should not be used in instructional material.” (p. 239) Misanchuk (1992) Theory Sunday, May 31, 15
- 46. White (2002) “The fear of ‘wasted space’ drives design novices to fill in any empty space with unnecessary clip art.” (p. 37) Theory Sunday, May 31, 15
- 47. Three kinds of images Instructional Supportive (strong and weak) Decorative Sunday, May 31, 15
- 48. Putting it all together A Before and After Sunday, May 31, 15
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