Visual+Literacy

When viewing visual communication devices, like advertisements, educational information – graphs and table, or even instructions it is important to make sure that your visual depictions are able to accurately portray the information or concepts you would like you audience to be aware of. In the case of the “Over Proteined” advertisement or graphical depiction, I do not feel their visual devices were able to accurately portray the intended information.

At first glance, I read the title of the graph, “Over Proteined” and assumed that the graphical information would be provided insight into whom was over proteined, what was the appropriate level of protein, and a comparison between the two. I took a second look and realized that my initial assumption about the graph may not have been accurate. As I looked at the pictures I realized that they where focused on fast food products, a burger, KFC Chicken, a hot dog and oddly a chick. Therefore I needed to refocus my attention for this graph may not be talking specifically about protein consumption, but rather about fast food intake. At this point I felt that if the point of the visual device was to present information about fast food then the graph had been mistitled.

As I read the information provided, I again had to evaluate my perceptions. The pictures were aids to the information, but the information presented was not uniform. It began with information about how many Big Mac hamburgers where consumed by Americans each year, then provided information regarding how many chickens were consumed per minute. The figures, while interesting, did not give me adequate information to compare the information. I was not able to adequately establish a definite relationship between the amount of hamburgers Americans consumed yearly and how many were eaten every minute. It continued to then inform the viewer about how many chickens were produced each year in the United States for consumption. I did not find any real purpose to the visual device because it presented conflicting ideas and visual information.

If I were to recreate this visual depiction I would first decided what I wanted to show viewers. If in fact I were concerned with American consumption of fast food productions yearly, I would re-title the graph. I would then take a minute to decide whether it was necessary to visually represent each idea in all columns. If it were important I would align my visual depiction with the statistical information provided, for example, the hamburger should be located either directly below or above the statistics dealing with hamburgers. I would then try to find uniform information to present to my audience, whether it be yearly or per minute fast food consumption. I believe all of these changes would create a more cohesive visual depiction of the information presented and provide viewers the ability to accurately interpret the visual devices shown.