Visual literacy

Way back in November, I did another talk about user experience and visual literacy. This time I partnered with Mike Osswald. We led a session entitled "Visual literacy in a business context" (aka "Design and visual literacy") at the IVLA 2014 conference, right here in Toledo.

• Slides on Slideshare
• Video recording on WGTE's KnowledgeStream and on The Art Museum's YouTube channel (Did I really wave my hands that much??)

Mike did a great job putting the slides together, even tweaking them for the 9-screen display we had. Slide 28 shows that well, and also serves as the list of UX "top of mind" topics that we thought had strong connections to visual literacy issues.

• Modular Content for
 Multiple Contexts
 (Responsive)
• User Interface 
 Metaphors
 ("Flat" design)
• Layers and Motion
 in User Interfaces
• Gesture Literacy
• Storytelling
• Human Factors 
 and Devices
• Data Visualization Democratized
• Infographics & Information Literacy

We got the audience engaged, heard good feedback afterwards, and learned a lot doing it. So it was a success! Not sure what UX & VL connections I will make next, but I plan to keep exploring the intersection.

I will be presenting "Visual literacy: Expanding how we practice UX" at UX Thursday in Detroit on June 26th. The official blurb about the talk:

Visual literacy, traditionally applied to educational settings, has become important for users to make sense of digital media. Keith Instone will share the how and why behind his research and the ways he applies what he’s learning about visual literacy to UX. You'll hear how this exploration is making him a better UX practitioner.

Keith hopes to inspire UX practitioners to embark on their own discipline-crashing journeys to help strengthen the future value of UX.

Leave Keith’s session with:

• A process for expanding your UX expertise by "crashing" other disciplines
• Examples from visual literacy that apply to UX
• An invitation to participate in the next virtual literacy conference

I will add the slides and other information here as I make progress.