Investigating graphic illustration methods in smart school website design

Dissertation to receive a master's degree in the field of educational technology (M.A)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the methods of graphic illustration on the website of smart schools. The statistical population of the research consists of all the websites of smart schools in Kermanshah province, and 1 website was randomly selected for the research. The tool of the present research is a checklist made by a researcher to measure the degree of compliance of the visual elements of the website with the principles of illustration, the content validity of the tool was confirmed by several professors in the field of educational technology, and the reliability of the tool is equal to 0.71 using Cronbach's alpha method. After preparing the questionnaire, 10 students of the master's degree in educational technology were trained as evaluators about illustration methods and then evaluated the desired website. After evaluating the data of the checklist, it was analyzed, and the results showed that the overall status of the Smart Schools website is lower than average. The results of the T-Tech test were a sample confirming this finding. In other words, the results of the T-Tech exam showed that the average obtained in the evaluation is significantly lower than the standard or fixed average in this research.

Keywords: website, graphic design, media visual effect, graphic images, illustration

Illustration of information is one of the new methods of displaying and presenting information visually, which aims to better understand and recognize data and for efficient use in various scientific fields. goes This effective method, by using visual strategies, helps to expand the scope of knowledge and causes the transfer of information from the source unit to the destination unit in a proper way. The main and important goal in using visualization methods is to promote and increase the right conditions to strengthen the power of thinking and analyzing information in users (Darudi, 2018; p. 105).

Attention to the presentation and visual display of information in the form of scientific visualization methods, which is one of the branches of computer science, has been noticed since about two decades ago. This useful method was highly developed by using computer graphics and it led to the development of illustration techniques by relying on scientific methods. Visualization of concepts and information was connected with various educational methods and entered many scientific, technical and specialized fields (ibid., p. 106).

The graphic designer should be able to help the learner in understanding the author's message and intention by using his/her information and visual experiences. In the school textbook, the presence of the teacher should be felt, the teaching materials should continuously help the student and foster his motivation to learn; At the same time, the contents should have sufficient coherence and there should not be any ambiguous points in them. Graphics comes from the Greek word krafikos[1] and means what is related to planning[2] and design[3]. Another definition of it is "any work or method related to drawing a picture of something or its image". Therefore, it includes all phenomena that are created: in the form of a sign, a sign, a map, a drawing, a drawing from something, and especially a line drawing of a phenomenon. From the time when man decided to present a visual message and used materials that he thought had specific and somewhat fixed concepts for his fellow human beings, graphic art began and until now, with all the advances and changes it has had, it continues to move in the same way. Hundreds of paintings in Chauvet cave [4] in the south of France, which were designed in thirty thousand years before Christ, Lascaux cave paintings [5] (fourteen thousand years before Christ), pictures of hunters in Bimbetka cave [6] in India (seven thousand years before Christ), African natives in Siarberg cave of South Africa (one thousand years before Christ) and many other cave paintings in other parts of the world along with The birth of calligraphy in the written language in three or four thousand years BC are all clear signs of the history of graphics and related disciplines. Simultaneously with the development and progress in the use of computers and the network environment in order to present and display information, one of the useful areas that has been noticed in the last two decades and important researches have been conducted in that field is the topic of information visualization (Schneiderman, 1998). Illustration goes back to patterns that early humans used to carve on the walls of caves with the aim of conveying thoughts and ideas.Illustration goes back to patterns that early humans used to carve on the walls of caves with the aim of conveying thoughts and ideas (Kanas [7], 2009); But the basis of illustration in today's sense should be traced back to the 1980s, that is, when computers entered the market little by little and software and hardware supported graphic activities (Burkhard [8], 2005), on the other hand, understanding and receiving materials and learning them is done through the five senses, which respectively about 75% of normal human learning is with the sense of sight, 13% with the sense of hearing, 6% with the sense of hearing. Touch, 3% is obtained with the sense of smell and 3% with the sense of taste (Ehdian, 2014, p. 66)

A website is a set of pages related to each other that provides a lot of information in the form of text, image, sound and video. A website is a collection of files containing text, images or graphics. connected to each other, which often includes a main page that is located on an internet service provider.

According to the stated content, it seems that paying attention to the principles and rules of illustration in terms of its shared dimension with the design of websites should be considered in the design of pages, which led the researcher to investigate this issue.

1-2: Statement of the problem

Many researches have been done regarding the effectiveness of visual elements, especially graphics[9] in the educational process, and the vast majority of them have achieved positive results. Lee et al.[10] (2002) have reviewed the research done in this field and citing the researches of Glenberg and Langston[11] (1992), Glenberg and Crowley[12] (1992) and . They point out that the use of images in education has had positive effects on students' learning. On the other hand, many experts who have conducted research in the field of learning problems have suggested that it is better to use graphic elements to make the content more understandable (Kazin [13], 1989). Haram [14] (1982 cited in Kazin, 1989) found that the use of graphics to objectify textual information increased learners' learning. In another place, Stokes [15] (2001) deals with the historical review of the impact of visual elements on the teaching and learning process. In this historical review, he quotes Aristotle and states: "Thinking without images is impossible".

Researches before the 1990s have mainly documented the benefits of graphic design, but have failed to provide a theoretical framework to explain how graphics are useful for learners (Vickery [16], 2002).

Researches after the 1990s, on the importance The use of symbols and images have been emphasized in replacing and enriching the content of limited alphabetic symbols in textbooks. By emphasizing various psychological theories such as information processing theory [17] (Atkinson and Shiffrin [18], 1968), dual coding [19] (Pavio [20], 1990), visual perception [21] (Bari and Ranyan [22], 1995) and multimedia [23] (Mayer [24], 2003) the importance of design The graphics of textbooks have been certified.

Dooley et al. [25] (2005) while emphasizing the role of image and the importance of graphic design, believe that graphic design should pursue only one goal, and that is to present complex information in a way that is understandable and learnable. The graphic designer uses his abilities and skills to create content and communicates with his audience of all age groups. He can play an important role in presenting heavy and complex course materials and by providing real, simple and expressive plans, he can depict the details and make it easy to understand the material; in such a way as to reduce ambiguous and questionable points and help education (Molek Afzali, 2008).

Caps [26] (2008) believes that a creative graphic designer has three main duties:

1. Learning and applying visual organization rules.

2. Taking into account contemporary spatial experiences for teaching and applying visual representations of contemporary spatial temporal events.

3. Freeing creative reserves and organizing them in dynamic languages, that is, developing contemporary dynamic iconography.

The task of the creative graphic designer is to force people to look and then force them to read and understand. He uses words, images, colors and shapes for this purpose.