Digital+Literacy

The first thing my eye takes note of is the familiar visual symbols--the McDonald's Big Mac and Kentucky Fried Chicken. In using these well recognized representations of fast food I am able to relate to the picture. However, I am confused about what they mean and how they relate to each other and the "table enhancements" visual that is presented. My first question is whether or not they will be compared and contrasted with regard to which establishment has the most calories or sells the most food because I notice the numbers are within the billions and millions. I also know that McDonald's uses a trademark saying, "Over 1 million sold." In that respect, I expected the numbers used in the table to directly correlate to each businesses sale amounts.

In considering the PAT model, I found that the "table enhancements" picture activated my schema, in that the the figures in the visual material were recognizable to me. My perception of these figures reminded me that I do not like those fast food businesses, nor do I eat there. Therefore, I was ot interested in what the information/data communicated.

The hierarchy of information did not sem to exist, in that the numbers did not follow an asdending or descending order. I found no correlation between them, which made it more confusing to interpret meanings or associations to eachother.

I saw no indication of gestalt within the visual image. In other words, there was no indication of "the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts."

The actions within the visual image were distracting and confusing. They did not enhance the intended message of the picture. The text was aligned, or centered, which brought my attention to the words, but it still did not make sense to me.

In considering the tools, the typography was basic and the color (black) did not pop out at me. This may have been due to the vibrant color of the pictures. The spacing was another component that threw me off because the words were scrunched up and too close to the pictures. Again, the pictures did not make sense to me. I did not understand the purpose of the table at all, other than my assumpition: As a result of people eating meat in the millions and billions, society as a whole was overdosing on protein?

I think that the message could have been conveyed much better if the clip art and vague title: "Overproteined"were presented in a much more appealing way. The colums within the table were distracting and the pictures and numbers didn't seem to have any correlation at first. I would re-title the table to a phrase such as: "Americans yearly consumption of protein, or meat."