Customer Reviews

Creating Graphics for Learning and Performance: Lessons in Visual Literacy

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was tremendously disappointed by this book... okay, that's out of the way. On the "plus" side, the book is well researched and Linda does an outstanding job of presenting the research. For example, the chapter on typography is probably the best single collection of font & typography I've ever read, pulling together 20 sources to cover the subject. Another plus was the chapter on hierarchy perceptions, which leverages 32 sources and some excellent examples stretching across 40 pages. These two chapters should help you improve your poorly designed reports and PowerPoint slides. Other than these fine highlights, the book fails to live up to its research, its title, or its praise from other reviewers.

Contrary to the review that says the author "practices what she preaches," the book violates several of the principles presented in the book. Evaluating the book according to the principles on typology (again, a very strong chapter), the text is too small, many of the fonts don't support the content, the text stretches too wide across the page, and is justified - all this combines to make this a very difficult book to read. The advanced organizer leveraged across 12 chapters of the book is completely dreadful and weak (e.g., the graphic to represent typography is the word "type," where each letter is a different font; the graphic for the chapter on shape has the word "shape" with a triangle behind it). The amount of instruction carried by pages and pages of hard-to-read text surprised me in a book about creating graphics for learning and performance - I expected to see solid examples of leveraging well-designed graphics to reduce the cognitive load of the text.

The most painful chapter is on the use of color in graphics... mind you, the book is printed in black and white on poor quality paper. The color wheel pages include the instruction to "fill in with markers or crayons." Are you kidding me??? Linda sites the books of Edward Tufte, as well as the books by Robin Williams (the designer, not the comic-actor). Here's what I find interesting about these authors - Tufte decided to take over the publication of his first book himself because the original publishers refused to use the desired paper stock and would not include his fold-outs; Williams' books are printed on high quality stock with high-end color graphics illustrating almost every point she makes. Tufte's books sell for $40-50, and Robin's for less than $40 (actually, in the $20s on Amazon!). The graphics in Linda's book look like they were drawn by a sixth grader, and her book costs more than Robin's and similar in price to Tufte's. I have no idea whether this was Linda's decision, or Pearson's (the Publishers), but not using a skilled graphic artist was a critical error.

In the Preface, Linda states she wrote the book to "help people create effective visuals - visuals that are clear, that communicate well, and that help people learn and/or perform their jobs better." She also infers her target audience includes teachers, instructional designers, and graphic artists. It's much more likely she wrote the book to support an undergraduate course in basic page and screen layout disguised as a course on instructional graphics. If this is your intended use, it will serve your purpose (especially when used in conjunction with the book's website). If, however, you are a graphic artist or instructional designer, I just can't justify the purchase of this book.

By the way, to the reviewer who wrote that "Linda Lohr is `the Tufte for Educators!'," I encourage you to actually read Tufte - Tufte is the Tufte for Educators. The way I see it, you owe me 50 bucks!

Good: There is nothing good about this book

Bad: There is nothing bad about this book

Ugly: The title of this book should have been - "Lessons in Visual Illiteracy". This is not a book. This is more like a collection of detailed notes a high school student would make after looking at a dozen design books. There is absolutely no visual consistency in the graphics that appear in the book. It looks like the graphics for this book were created by some elementary school kid. The execution quality of the graphics & the overall layout of each & every page in the book is beyond disbelief. Margins, font size, font selection, visual style, visual balance, proportion, composition - you name it, and it has been molested beyond repair. The opening visual & "the notes about the opening visual" appear in the beginning of each chapter. The whole book is based on this absolutely meaningless, technically deficient, & visually impaired graphic. Prentice Hall should be careful about its reputation. They should use the right experts to write about a particular subject. Would you ever use a celebrity chef to write a book about how cutlery is made? Would you ever use Steven Spielberg to write a book on how a movie camera is made? This book is a perfect example of the author trying her level best to show her expertise in something that she clearly does not have a clue about. The author has taken all the well-documented & widely used graphic/visual design principles & tried to explain how they can be applied to learning. She has failed miserably. I can't believe I paid fifty bucks for this useless collection of paper rags.

Conclusion:

This book has nothing to offer.

If you want to learn about visual literacy, read the following

1.Introduction to two-dimensional Design by John Bowers

2.Focus on Designing by Vello Hubel (especially chapters 14 & 15)

3.Technical Communication by Rebecca E. Burnett (especially chapters 7,8,9)

4.Graphic Design Solutions by Robin Landa

Once you get a grasp of what visual literacy is all about, you can apply it successfully in any field of work - whether it is the learning industry, or the advertisement industry , the publishing industry, or your one-of-a-kind garage sale flyer - anything that requires any kind of visual communication. Don't waste your money on this book. It is useless.

Linda Lohr is "The Tufte for Educators!" Unlike many other authors of similar texts who do not practice what they preach, Dr. Lohr not only TELLS the reader what to do--she SHOWS the reader how to create graphics with hundreds of learner-friendly visuals that support and illustrate her lessons.

DISCLAIMER: I know the author and have collaborated with her on various professional articles and presentations.

Dr. Lohr's book is highly valued in the field of Instructional Design. In general, our field only plays lip service to issues of aesthetics and visual design. Dr. Lohr's book fills a gap for those who know little of issues surrounding typography and graphic design. Whereas, Tufte's book are exceptional at illustrating good and not so good examples, they do little in instructing the reader in how to make effective graphics. My background is in computer science and I was taught to focus on function and then think of visuals as something to be added later (if time and budget allow). Fortunately, I think this is less common, although still prevalent, in some technical areas. Dr. Lohr has done a good job of teaching me that visual design does matter from the start. If you are very experienced in graphic design or the arts, this is not the book for you. However, if you don't have that background and want to learn more about creating effective graphics, this book is for you.

Another important note. I saw Dr. Lohr's manuscripts for both the first and second editions and they did apply all the concepts she describes. Unfortunately, modern publishing often takes a cookie-cutter approach to books and looks everywhere for ways to cut content and save costs. Dr. Lohr's was saddled with distorted layouts and typographical changes beyond her control. Tufte self-publishes his material particularly to avoid this kind of problem.

I am acquainted with the author and adopted this book for a course I taught on producing learning materials. I considered some other options, and this was the clear choice for the course. It was very useful, covering many aspects and considerations for visual design for learning -- I only wish we could have really gotten into and gone through the book much more in depth than was possible in a quick summer class.

Some of the negative reviews you will read are clearly about the first edition of the book, and even they are unfairly low. It was helpful as a resource, but the color and visuals overall really are much improved in this second edition. The second edition is better overall. It is great as a textbook and as a reference that I keep on my shelf.

Dr. Lohr does indeed practice what she preaches. I am a former student of Dr. Lohr's and can say this book is perfect for a beginner of graphic design. Our class had a wonderful time learning the basics of design. When I completed the class I was able to share what I had learned with my high school students. They too loved the class as well as Dr. Lohr's creative spin on learning the foundation of design.

Good book on graphics, more for those with some graphic talent (I have very little so some of it was over my head). But I did learn a lot and have applied it to my design of e-learning. In addition, it contains good information on how people learn.

This book is well written and organized. One thing that is a problem is that the companion website isn't up to date and has some defunct links. When the information becomes difficult, the author helps the reader to understand by using multiple examples and graphics to illustrate points.

This is the first book that blends both the principles of visual design with learning principles. It has exhaustive examples reflecting, visual learning and it's implications on instructional design. This book is very much fun to read.
A MUST READ !!!!!

Before I picked up this book. I never gave consideration to how to incorporate graphics in my instructional material. I am not an artist by any means, but this book helps me look like a graphics pro. I frequently re-visit the text when I need inspiration. If you buy this book, you will pick up design tips that are hard to find in any other source. It must be used in instructional design classes all over the USA. I would love to meet the author!