I think that one of the flaws in data display is the lack of devotion to showing the visual verbal interdependence of the Cognate Strategies. (Kostelnick 326) There is so much data is in this world to display. Everyone should be certain to define the interdependence, or the significance of the data, either by explaining it in words, or make the data display self-explanatory. This table is a "Recapture of Payment Errors to Government Contractors." It includes money paid in error to Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors, Department of Defense Contractors, on through General Services Administration Contractors. The only interdependence shown here is the fact that these are payment errors to government contractors, with cumulative data from 2004-2012. The manner in which the over payments were made is not available. I give the Arrangement/Emphasis an A- as they pertain "to the visual structure and organization." (Kostelnick 14) The table has been designed to display the highest dollar amounts recovered at the top of the table and the others follow in descent. The design is readable, it has clarity, the conciseness is something I cannot determine. It appears impressive, but it covers 9 years of details that I cannot see. That data might be skewed. The tone is serious, and I have to give it a fair score for ethos, because it is United States government website displaying this data. But for ethos, I am left with questions about why they chose to display nine years of data as one number. When clicking on the "view details" tab, it just takes me to a list, without dates and other details. http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/







Another item that I have analyzed is the chart below. It comes from the same government website, and it displays its information in billions. But I cannot precisely follow this chart, even in color. I am able to make out the larger blocks of color, but not the small ones. The chart has a nice label, it tells me what the data is about. But what is an "improper payment" and was it recovered? Is it part of the dollar amount in the table shown above? Again, this displays nine years of data, but not in detail. Suddenly, I discover what is missing on my copy of the chart, is that it is interactive on the website. When you place your mouse over a block of color, it will display what it represents. This is cool. Upon further searching, I found the data behind this chart. I recommend going to the site and experimenting with their interactive chart. The arrangement is good, the clarity is good, and conciseness is a good as it can be in the small space. The fact that they have the legend below the chart appeals to these cognates. For ethos, it is good, but I am left wondering why it only displays the entitlement programs and not other government spending.



http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/improper-payment-amounts

I will conclude with a statement from my own experience, working with databases, or spreadsheets, we store numbers data that we need to provide answers for any variety of reasons. The spreadsheets used to be kept on ledger paper; pencils and erasers were used to enter the numbers into the columns. Today we use Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet programs to enter the data. We take for granted the value of these tools. Somewhere behind both the table and the chart is some very hard data, down to minute details. But the audience is not given access to that information. It might take further searching to find that data. From what I have learned in this class this semester, I am not feeling too bad about the data that is shared in these two pieces. I know that I will scrutinize tables and charts in the future for the Six Cognates and their interdependency so that the audience is not left full of questions.
























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In class, we discussed Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," which is really the seminal work in well, understanding comics.  McCloud discusses just about every, and any aspect of comics that can be conceived, and our discussion on 'gutters' was interesting, as I hadn't read "Understanding Comics" in some ten years.

As an avid comics fan (buff?), I had always been told that Neal Adams was one of the genre-defining comics-book artists of his day (which happened to precede me by some 15 years).  As you can see in the examples to the right, his use of panel arrangement was completely "outside-the-box," to coin a phrase that came up in class.  That is not the interesting part, however.

Trap. The combination of the genres of trance and rap usually through sound mixing and editing, has become a staple of parties and festival shows. They share similar use of synth, heavy base and spoken words to create music. But what interests me out of these is the artwork and how the artwork mimics the mixing of themes between rap and techno much in the same way the music does.

Arguably one of the most recognizable symbols in the Western cultural lexicon, or even that of Eastern cultures, is the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. Popularized in the late 1920s by a series of short films, America’s favorite rodent has come to represent the Walt Disney Studios and the Disney corporation at large.

The above comic by Robert Berry appears in his Ulysses “Seen” adaptation of the James Joyce novel Ulysses.

We watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and had an interesting class discussion on whether it was a scholarly work or not. It was not, perhaps, “scholarly”; but it was an argument, and it made me think about the sociology of internet communication.

During our in-class discussion of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," the composer brought up gutters, the space in between frames of a comic (or newspaper, cartoon or other media).  In a comic, as McCloud states in the image to the right, gutters "play host to the magic and mystery that are at the very heart of comics."  These gutters are vital, and can serve as more than a space to let the reader's mind wander.

When we talked in class about usability and the internet, it sounded like the conclusion as to what makes a usable website is simplicity. Creating a website to serve a very obvious purpose is the key to usability. But even when a site is usable, there are aesthetics that make a website a more enjoyable experience for the user. Color, formatting, and graphic elements can enhance usability by making a website visually appealing.

In Vitaly Friedman's article "10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of," the first item listed is  problematic hidden login links on websites. Friedman uses Backpack as an example because the login link is very small and placed right underneath a block of text that looks like an advertisement, rather than placing the login somewhere else on the page where it can be easily located.

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Of the recent readings for this course, I feel most compelled to comment on the writings of Jakob Nielsen. I had heard of him before, touted as the leading expert of usability. A great deal of the discussion in class was devoted to some apparent contradictions between his ethos and one of his now defunct websites. However, I noticed contradictions on the very page we were asked to look at for class.

Professor John Logie teaches us that comics have a place in academia. He teaches it in Visual Rhetoric. Why not? Comics are visual and they are graphic and they are certainly full of rhetoric. Comics teach us to engage ourselves with the comic we are viewing, on our own time, in our own space. Professor Logie teaches that Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is an essential book to do just that, understand comics.
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