November 17, 2017
Revising our Vision
My infographic group met again today to discuss further changes that we wanted to make to our draft. During class, we realized that we did not have a strong audience that we were trying to target with our infographic. After some reflection and interviewing members of WPI EMT, we have decide to target pre-med majors at WPI as well as students who hope to become EMTs after graduation, since EMS experience gives you training to become an EMT.
We decided to title our infographic "Road to WPI EMS" as we will be highlighting the steps that need to be taken to be a member of WPI EMS. Our central image will still be the ambulance but it will also include a winding road that it will be traveling on. Road signs will accompany the road to give direction to how to apply and join WPI EMS. We are still planning to include medical equipment in the final infographic.
Here is our second draft:
Revising our Vision
My infographic group met again today to discuss further changes that we wanted to make to our draft. During class, we realized that we did not have a strong audience that we were trying to target with our infographic. After some reflection and interviewing members of WPI EMT, we have decide to target pre-med majors at WPI as well as students who hope to become EMTs after graduation, since EMS experience gives you training to become an EMT.
We decided to title our infographic "Road to WPI EMS" as we will be highlighting the steps that need to be taken to be a member of WPI EMS. Our central image will still be the ambulance but it will also include a winding road that it will be traveling on. Road signs will accompany the road to give direction to how to apply and join WPI EMS. We are still planning to include medical equipment in the final infographic.
Here is our second draft:
We used the signs on the road for the reader to follow. They point in the direction of the steps to become a part of WPI EMS, in the order that you must follow. We decided to keep the signs in the colors of WPI EMS's logo. The number at the top left corner is WPI's emergency line. If it is called, an EMS dispatch will be sent to the emergency. We decided to include single pictures at the bottom of the infographic to should the four simple steps to become an EMS in a simpler graphic.
I find it very clever that you guys decided to use a car metaphor. It really communicates the fast paced life style that is needed for being a WPI EMT. I know that I at least think of EMTs running around saving people and I think that with the car, that urgency is communicated. Also, using a road to represent the journey and the signs to represent the different steps is a very well-defined metaphor which really works to your favor. You don't have to spend space/time explaining why the symbol works because the audience automatically understands what they road/signs symbolize. This is something my group and I are really struggling with, to create such a clear defined metaphor that also works with the theme of info-graphic. It definitely makes the final draft look clean and professional! Overall, really good job!
ReplyDeleteYour infographic has matured greatly between your first and second draft. For your first draft, I loved the word cloud but felt that there was something missing. Your second draft is much more comprehensive. The road is a perfect visual element for directing the viewer's attention through the various steps of joining WPI EMS. The road/signs depiction of the steps somehow makes them seem less daunting that they would if laid out in a simple bulleted list. I like that you recapitulate the steps in a different, more concise form at the bottom of the page. This repetition will help the viewer to better solidify their understanding and remember what the infographic conveys.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the road providing a linear representation of the narrative. You can now think about fleshing out some of that narrative within the affordances of the purpose of your infographic.
DeleteI was surprised when I read the second part of your comment; it made me realize that I had been viewing the infographic through my own lens, not sufficiently aware of the parts of my experience that greatly differ from the average viewer. I am a member of Lens and Lights (LNL), which does lighting/sound/projection for events on campus. In LNL, we use portable radios to communicate. When I read the infographic, I remarked to myself mentally that the depiction of radios was particularly fitting to symbolize "doing work" for WPI EMS, because for me the image invoked "doing work" for LNL. It did not cross my mind that most other people would be confused by the image.
ReplyDeleteRyan, I love this comment. In rhetoric, we call this the terministic screen or, even better, occupational psychosis. The idea is that our occupations and the way that we have been trained to think make it so we over see something, other things seem natural, and we don't even notice a whole category of things. Think that stupid "slug bug" game that people play, where you get to hit people when you see VW bugs. People who love playing that game (my sometimes violent friend...) see these things every where, and I always have a bruise on my arm when we are driving around. Whereas I don't really see them.
ReplyDeleteThe occupational psychosis is exactly what you are talking about--our jobs make us interpret everything through that job. When you think about ethos, then know how occupational psychosis works is handy. When you become a rhetorician--someone who conscientiously practices persuasion--then it's powerful when you recognize these moments in yourself because then you will be less likely manipulated by them.
As others have stated, this is a distinct improvement over the initial draft. It conveys far more about not only what the club entails, but also the process by which you enter it, which is particularly important here as it is far more complicated than for most other clubs. I do think that, as discussed in class, the road and signs could be made more clear if they pointed in a more consistent overall direction, though. Most notably, the two-directional sign on the last segment of the road is disorienting as it encourages the viewer to jump between different areas without a clear flow. I also feel like it might help guide the eye if the road was skewed, or at least with a shorter middle portion so the eye is more consistently moving from left to right.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I don't believe I would have realized on my own that you are aiming to target the specific audience of WPI pre-med majors. While there is the use of medical iconography like the stethoscope, I fail to notice anything else that references or encourages that specific group. Perhaps you could include something about how EMS would specifically give them some practical experience that's relevant to their field, or maybe some statistic demonstrating a way that EMS benefits pre-med majors.
We definitely had a hard time defining a specific audience. We initially wanted to focus on pre-health students, but a lot of WPI EMS members had a variety of majors and backgrounds. A lot of people in EMS were looking for a way to get involved on campus, and found a "home" through EMS. We could try to cater towards a different audience - "students who want to save lives", which might a broader audience that we are looking for.
DeleteTo second what Caroline said, we also found that many of the club members joined because they wanted to become an EMT. We are changing the road signs to point in one continuous direction. My initial thought with the two way road sign was that a probational member could completed either course of action to become a general member, but after hearing everyone's suggestions during class I do see how it was confusing.
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