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Subject:Re: language and communication From:Pat Anderson <panders -at- aw -dot- sgi -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Nov 2000 14:33:18 -0500
At 12:04 PM -0500 24/11/00, Dan Emory wrote:
>At 01:09 PM 11/24/00 -0500, Pat Anderson wrote:
>
>>Where do we go from here?
>>Are we heading to a post-literate world? A world in which information must
>>be delivered at the speed of light (here, now!) and people won't read
>>three pages of information (ref: Dan Emory's plaint about essays and
>>responses)?
>>How does graphic comprehension and literacy compare with word/language
>>comprehension and literacy in our users?
>====================================================
>Catering to the "post-literate" only guarantees that it will arrive. All of
>the concern
>shown on this list about preciseness of language for the sake of unambiguous
>clarity is lost if text is replaced by cartoons and movie clips.
IF the precision of the language is not understood by the "post-literate" audience, can the meaning be communicated?
Are cartoons and movie clips inherently less precise than text?
I don't think so -- to take a silly example (please feel free to replace this with a better example, if you'd like)...
Given that the purpose of the communication is to enable a user to perform a task... let's say it's tying a shoelace in a bow... do you think that a written description will make it easier for the user to tie his shoelace than an annotated movie clip would?
Obviously, different media fit different uses. I would be hard-pressed to describe deconstructionist language theory in a movie clip that did not rely upon spoken words to communicate the concept. Philosophies of ideas that don't have concrete metaphors don't easily translate into a movie medium. Words are abstractions.
If the task to be performed is a concrete operation, is it not better represented by a symbol system (like a series of 2D images rapidly played) that users equate with a more concrete reality?
...pat.
Pat Anderson,
Documentation Manager, Design Products
Alias|Wavefront
tel: (416) 874-8375
email: panders -at- aw -dot- sgi -dot- com http://www.aliaswavefront.com
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