Comments
John Brock
Michael Atkinson
Reference Information
Sequential Art for Science and CHI
Duncan Rowland
CHI 2010: Monsters Attack! April 10-15, 2010 Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Summary
This paper attempts to show the effectiveness to convey an idea using visual stimuli by presenting the information in the form of a comic book. Rowland explains that sequential art, such as a comic strip, is able to convey effectively information by catching the readers attention opposed to throwing random scattered graphs or visual aids. He uses the example of a PowerPoint presentation. Two experimental ways of conveying scientific data are presented as school children and researchers in physiology present their data visually and sequentially. Both claim to properly inform reader of the results and process while keeping only the needed general information when presented in comic form. This method of getting information across is still experimental and has its skeptics.
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| Sample sequential art |
Discussion
When reading the comic, I thought to myself that this would not work. I believed this a childish way to pass on information. Then I remembered the feelings I experienced when I first opened the PDF document. I remember feeling dismay when I saw it was a 10 page report. Then those same feelings shifted to happiness and excitement when I saw the report was a comic. I did feel I got the main points from this and was able to follow along easier than if reading a dragged on report on these findings given to me in paragraphs of black and white.
I feel that such an approach would work only for topics that have foundations in multiple disciplines, and that at some point, the more complex the subject becomes, the less interesting the comic is to read.
ReplyDeleteFor example, consider the Superman comic. We are interested in reading it because it contains a generally broad story of a seemingly normal man who turns out to be a superhero. If Superman instead focused on the brand of glasses Clark Kent wears, or about the hamburger he had for lunch for the duration of the story, the comic would become unreadable and boring.
Much in the same way, this learning approach would probably work for things like "Intro to CHI," but be a terrible failure if someone tried to make a comic about "Advanced Calculus with Imaginary Numbers."