User:Sydniefouse/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.) Visual communication

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because Visual Communication is a key element to our class, as well as a key communication tool for humans throughout our history. Visual Communication is utilized in a wide variety of ways to convey a message, including: signs, typography, drawings, graphic design, illustrations, industrial design, advertising, animation, graphs, diagrams, maps, and photographs, for example.

My first thoughts on the article was while it appeared lengthy, it was broken up into a digestible way that tackles the expansive ways that Visual Communication may be used, the parts of Visual Communication, and its importance in our society both now and throughout human existence.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article was rated as "start-class"

The introduction of the article is generally very informative on the subject and includes what makes up visual communication and how it has been/can be utilized in our society. Most of the key terms in the introduction have links that further elaborate on their function, however, there are still a handful of terms that do not offer a link or definition, like electronic resources, tones, balance, and hierarchy. These terms follow other central parts to breaking down the topic of visual communication that do have their own links if a user is inclined to learn more about it. The links that are presented in the intro, however, do work and are informative. The introduction also even mentions the use of visual aids.

The overview of the article is lengthy at first glance, but it is broken up into digestible paragraphs with working links. The first part of the overview seems more skewed towards visual communication in modern times, like technology and art. Listed for important figures are only two people with brief explanations of their contributions. Despite using visuals to communicate dating back to ancient times, it is interesting that there are only two people in the last few centuries notable enough to be mentioned in the history of visual communication. While the section does mention Visual Aid Media, and it's evolution from "simple" to "advanced," it does not have any historical information on the origins of using visuals to communicate. I think building the historical context would help solidify the importance that visual communication has had for the world. It also does not mention the use of these tools for orally impaired people, or how they have been used to change the world, like with politics and visual propaganda for example. These are also important aspects of visual communication. The Image analysis section does provide useful background information to help users gain analysis skills for interpreting visual aids, though it does feel like something that could be used to close the section out instead of break it up. Throughout this section, technology is continued to be emphasized.

Components of visual communication seems to heavily focus on the art and technicalities of the topic. This section seems like it would serve artists and graphic designers the most, but it does provide a good opportunity for anyone else to learn the elements of visuals. It is an informative section, but once again, it does seem wrongly prioritized with the prominence and motive section directly under it. Personally, I think this section would have a more general interest from users than the components section as it tackles real world applications of visual communications. This section is informative but also feels very niche.

The prominence and motive section feels like the most informative for how visual communication serves out society. The first portion tackles social media, which is a very prominent tool for our society currently. However, social media is also the most recent development and use for visual communication when in comparison to its importance in culture, politics, economics, and science and medicine. While currently social media is important in our society, it does not feel like it is the most important category when in comparison to the other facets that influence our society visually and historically. The paragraph on culture is the closest to mentioning the importance of visual communication for verbally disabled people and equality. It shares relevant information that explains how visual communication functions in a culture. The politics section highlights the different aspects in which politics are influenced by the visual. This section also uses examples to further the point. The economics section emphasizes the pillar that visual communication has become in the field by explaining the important role that graphs and charts play by conveying information and giving meaning to numbers in a way that most people can understand. Graphs have become something that economists heavily rely on. Science and Medicine relies on visual communication to explain findings to "non-scientific readers." This section does a good job conveying how helpful visual communication has been in furthering understanding for these fields. This section also addresses the shortcomings of visual communication in this area, which is important to be honest about to readers. Overall, this last section had good and relevant links and was broken up nicely, however, I think Social Media could have been put last.

Additional links in the article work, and most in the References section do. However, links 1, 8, and 20 have not been updated and do not work. Overall, it would be beneficial for the article to also explain the historical development within visual communication and the transition of humans primarily communicating with visuals to verbal, as raised by Dcm829 on the Talk form as well as a few other editors. The Talk form does present some good discussions and critiques. The article itself feels underdeveloped and like it has holes in information and a bias towards technological advancements. There are only two visual aids for the article. While the first one is interesting to look at, the second one feels incredibly generic and only relates to social media. There could be more visual aids, as also pointed out on the Talk form by Ahuezo004.