User:Steven Gomez/Project:Expression Representation Variability.11

How do people with different background/training communicate ideas?

Related

"Visual Thinking in Action: Visualizations As Used On Whiteboards", Walny et al., InfoVis 2011

Methods

First step, get slides from different folks, domains. Some basic background info ("what is the topic?", "how general is the audience? size?", "where presented?"). Ask GSBB, see how many we get.

Codings

We need to group people based on their fields.

Proposed: Bio-medical sciences, natural sciences, formal sciences (CS, math, engineering), humanities, visual art, social sciences

• After first pass: Things to add?
  • Extending diagrams over time
  • Equations
  • Labels on [x] (where x is an image, diagram, equation, or other text)
  • Tables
  • Diagram overlaid on images
  • Colors (background, highlighting)

Slideshows

• charts
• trees
• graphs
• flow-charts
• dense versus sparse
• separation versus grouping
• ellipses

• word lists
• words in spatial organizations
• simple diagrammatic constructs
• words in visual constructions
• mixed words and diagrams
• diagrams with labels
• pure diagrams

• focus and context

• words in sentences or paragraphs

Live Study

• charts
• trees
• graphs
• flow-charts
• dense versus sparse
• separation versus grouping
• ellipses

• word lists
• words in spatial organizations
• simple diagrammatic constructs
• words in visual constructions
• mixed words and diagrams
• diagrams with labels
• pure diagrams

• focus and context

• words in sentences or paragraphs

Concepts to explain, teach

Spatial Concepts

• Assembly instructions, or how simple mechanical devices work
  • Doorknob
  • Ballpoint pen (e.g., how ink rubs on on the papers and the ball is "re-inked" by gravity)
• Maps
  • Drawing a map from Brown CIT down to Kennedy Plaza from memory -- what do subjects include?

Non-spatial (or, not observable) Concepts

• Chemical processes
  • Acid + Base = Water + Salt
  • Rust/Oxidation

• Astronomical processes
  • Greenhouse gas build up
  • Albedo -- light absorption/reflection
  • How a cell phone calls another cell phone

• Computational processes
  • Explaining concurrency, race conditions, deadlocks
  • Explaining inductive proofs to non-math people
  • Explaining the 'map' function (i.e., for all elements, or numbers, in a set apply some function to get a new set)
  • Describe a traffic light "state machine" based on a set of written observations
    • See how they figure out the rules, then how they explain it to someone else