Thanks for these *really helpful and useful tips! Boyd Davis, UNC-Charlotte<BR><BR><B><I>Lendoak@aol.com</I></B> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Dear J. Potter, Rebecca, and the list,<BR><BR>Obstacle: "lack of artistic ability", "lack of access to artists", "How <BR>can the health care community compete with the commercial community ads? <BR>People are already over-stimulated." Another obstacle, not mentioned, is our <BR>possible perception that our supervisors won't be enthusiastic about our putting <BR>in pictures, making the instruction appear less formal. <BR><BR>Responses: <BR><BR>- These are real life obstacles and logical mind sets. Let's talk about <BR>what you really can do about them. Sure, we'd like to get the huge benefits <BR>for our patients that Peter listed, but how?<BR><BR>- You're right, relatively few of us are trained as artists; our education <BR>process drills us in
communicating by writing and somewhat by speaking. We <BR>can write, we can explain verbally, but "art"? - Ugh! OK, so let's get <BR>there on the strengths that we have. Here are some ways to do that: <BR><BR>-- Think about what you want the patient (or student) to know and do, who <BR>the patients are, and where they are starting from. Here is a Spec Sheet for <BR>Visuals that we developed to give structure to this information:<BR>Specification for Visuals<BR><BR>- Date, Document title, Author/client name<BR>- Intended audience: genders, culture, knowledge of subject, age, other<BR>- Key purpose: to introduce topic, to explain a process, to persuade, to <BR>maintain action, ... <BR>- The key message the visual is to show: (ex. "give insulin shot in upper <BR>thigh)<BR>- Caption (prelim.): (ex: "Puff up skin; hold needle at a slant; give quick <BR>jab.")<BR>- Key text that relates to the visual:<BR>- Approx size & media:<BR>- Schedule & cost<BR>- Comment lines from
illustrator<BR><BR>The above can help you think about what you want, and greatly direct the <BR>illustrator (and a purchasing agent from your organization) so that you get a <BR>suitable visual. And you will save time. Peter suggested that if possible, you <BR>should talk with the illustrators as they are beginning and formulating <BR>ideas. We have found this very helpful. Typically, he mentions costs of $20 to <BR>$40 per picture. Simple line drawings work well, and can be sent to you by <BR>FAX from local or outsourced illustrators.<BR><BR>Find illustrators in the yellow pages, on Google, at your local community <BR>college - they are available.<BR><BR>Supervisors can be brought around to accepting more pictures in health care <BR>instructions by citing the huge benefits shown by the research, and what <BR>these benefits could mean to your patients (students) and organization. And the <BR>cost and time factors are small.<BR><BR>Does this help? We'll talk about effective
and low cost ways to assess <BR>suitability of your visuals in a coming posting.<BR><BR>best wishes,<BR><BR>Ceci and Len<BR><BR>When you get your visuals and <BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------<BR>National Institute for Literacy<BR>Health and Literacy mailing list<BR>HealthLiteracy@nifl.gov<BR>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>