Week 2: Discussion Posts

Schriver/Williams
1. When authoring any kind of publication with text, graphics or both, it’s important to consider the intended audience in order to effectively communicate the message. This also ties in with Williams’ points about the design structure of the document. By using her four basic principles of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity, the designer is able to create material that a reader will gravitate toward.

Barton & Barton
2. Maps, just as newspaper articles, websites, etc, are created by authors with inherent biases that cannot be separated from the design or interpretation of the visual representation. Maps should not be seen as merely “factual” but instead as a “semiological system.”
3. Maps can empower/disempower (depending on the status of the author and the reader) based on Barton and Barton’s idea of inclusion and exclusion.

Question: If the decision itself to map or not to map has “ideological implications,” then is Peters’ notion of an ideology-free map (or any visual display of information for that matter) even in the realm of possibility?