Flowcharts

What were you trying to achieve? For this blog assignment we were pretending to be on a design team for Dr. O’Connell who wanted to give first semester freshman a visual guide to the Advising process. Due to the fact that the Advising process can be complicated to first-year students, our goal was to decrease the cognitive load of these students by simplifying instructions in the form of a flow chart diagram.

What problems did you encountered and how did you solve them? I encountered many problems during this assignment. I first struggled to remember all the steps of the advising process due to the fact that I am a senior and it has become muscle memory for me at this time. I also struggled to find the best way to make this chart easily understood to a younger demographic because they might not have been introduced to things like “MyRWU” at that time. I solved these problems by speaking with my freshman cousin and his sophomore friends who go to this school; they helped refresh my memory on any main points that I may have missed out on. They also helped me to determine what information was easily understood, opposed to what information was confusing in the eyes of a freshman.

What was your AHA! moment? I think my AHA! moment was the second time around when I realized color was not the most accurate way to conduct a flow chart. Instead, I switched this in my final draft so all the criteria was black and white, but the beginning and end points were bolded so people could see the difference better. I also had an AHA! moment when I figured out the correct way to create loops and arrows to send a user back on the flowchart if they were missing a step. I pretended I was using the flowchart myself and went through the steps to be sure it was a smooth process.

What connections did you make to what you have learned in the readings and in class? This assignment relates to our discussion in class on Occam’s Razor. There are many steps in this process that we either know we know, don’t know we know, know we don’t know, or don’t know that we don’t know. It is hard to create an informative diagram without brainstorming with others to be sure that everything is completely added, and nothing was left out, accidentally or not. Many times by brainstorming prior to creating a diagram such as a flow chart, even a senior will be given a piece of information that they didn’t realize they didn’t even know about, and this information could even make their life easier in the long run as well.

Finally, another connection that can be made involves our reoccurring discussion on cognitive load. Cognitive load can be described as ‘the burden on working memory during processing of information’. As a freshman the individual might experience over processing of information in their minds, and it will just add to the stress of first semester problems in the long run. Our goal was to reduce this cognitive load, and using a flow chart is another great way to do organize information in a simple and fun way to read.

What would you do differently had you more time or resources? If I had more time I would keep making a few more rough drafts and play around with the format until I was 100% comfortable that it was the easiest way to display the information. I would even look at other examples to see if there was any information that I didn’t realize I left out, to be sure I am giving the freshman my best work, and helping them out as best as possible without actually doing the work for them.

Draft One: 

Draft Two: 

Final Product: 

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Storyboard

For this blog assignment our task was to create a storyboard with one image used in the post, then create a narrative around it using only four frames. Secondly, we would repeat the same process but instead using two of the images provided. It was really exciting because it allowed creators to use their imagination and decide what was going to happen in the story.

For my first storyboard I decided to choose the photograph I used the young girl that looks lost in the woods. Immediately when I saw this image I thought of my favorite childhood movie, Alice in Wonderland, and I created a storyboard going off of that. It was awesome because there is an exact scene in the movie when Alice is lost in the woods and is trying to chase the rabbit. She ends up chasing him into the bunnyhole and spiriling down to Wonderland where she met all the other goofy characters that Wonderland had in store. I transitioned from real life images to cartoon because that’s what ends up happening in the movie that came out, and many people can understand it if they have seen the movie. If someone did not see Alice in Wonderland, they would view this transition as a girl that got lost in the woods with rabbits, and ended up falling down the rabbit hole where she entered a new, imaginary world full of great pleasure and excitement. I would say a lot of these transitions would be subject to subject in this particular storyboard, but there are some moment-to-subject as well.

For my second storyboard I chose to use the image of the man with his hands folded together to start. I used this to tell a story of a man who loves his son so much and doesn’t want to miss his big soccer game for the world, but has to for a big corporate sales meeting at his work in the city. He decides to say a prayer for his son right before he goes into his office meeting, asking for his son to have a good game and a lot of confidence. Then I used the image of the boys lined up in pennies for the third frame, portraying the idea that the boys are lined up waiting for the mains son to shoot the game-winning goal. The final image is a picture of a soccer ball in the back of the net because he scored, leaving audience to think his father would be incredibly proud of him, but unhappy he had to miss it. The majority of transitions in this were moment to moment because it each situation had a big significance.

What was your AHA! moment?
My AHA! moment was when I decided what story I wanted to tell with each of the storyboards. I was so excited to make the Alice in Wonderland graphic because it is something that is a really creative and fun movie to me, and I would like to pass the plot of that story around no matter where I go because it pushes viewers to use their imagination, which is something many people lack in this generation.

What connections did you make to what you have learned in the readings and in class?
This topic of storyboards could connect to Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics. He talks about transitions in storyboards including: moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and non-sequitur. The transitions I used could have worked better if I chose some different photos to make the events more exciting, especially in the second filmstrip.

What would you do differently had you more time or resources?
If I had had more time I would try to figure out alternative ways that we could tell stories with those particular pictures.

How to Make English Muffin Pizza

What were you trying to achieve?

For this assignment I was trying to achieve my goal of reaching out to children ages 7-12 who cannot speak English, and informing them using pictures and symbols on how to make an English muffin pizza. This is a pretty young age so I had to make sure that they could comprehend everything that was on the instructions properly. Also, I had to keep in mind that I was trying to convey the information in a creative and fun way since they are young so I had to be sure to add colors and fun font to the instructions and title.

What problems did you encountered and how did you solved them?

There were many different problems I had encountered along the way. I am not in the age range of 7-12 and have never made an English muffin pizza in my life so I had to start by doing research on my own. Secondly, the rough draft was bland, didn’t have fun color, and had too many details that it would confuse the reader more than help them to achieve their goal. My second rough draft was a little bit better but I still was angry with myself because I didn’t plan ahead so the formatting was off in many different ways. Finally, I had to change some of my photos to a more simplistic symbol because some people were getting confused. One thing people who saw my drafts was wondering was why there was an apple on a jar, I had to change this so it resembled a tomato instead.

What was your AHA! moment?
My AHA! Moment was on the third draft when I realized that kids do not have the patience to read a lot of details so it was easier to make the instructions short and sweet. I put a key on the top of my final list so they had something to refer to, and also drew arrows to the next step so it was easily followed.

What connections did you make to what you have learned in the readings and in class?
One similarity that I learned in the classroom readings was that there are many different ways to organize thoughts whether it is categorizing things, placing them in charts, graphs, and more so it is important to understand the context of the audience to figure out what will be most suitable for them to read. This will help everyone because the creator will make more profit if more customers are purchasing.

What would you do differently had you more time or resources?
If I had more time and resources I would definitely take the time to figure out other great ways that would make these instruction guides even simpler. I would also take the girl out of the final photo because I don’t want it to be marginalizing and take away from the overall message being conveyed.

Draft 1

Draft 2

Final Draft