Analyzing concepts visually can be helpful in determining how to move forward with your research at the beginning and can assist with formulating keywords or subject searchs through authoritative BAC databases for journal articles and books.
The example below focuses on an art movement, the Futurism movement. Concept mapping doesn't need to be carefully rendered; low tech use of pencil and paper is fine. Developing a a concept map can help you narrow your research interests and may help if you share your concept map with your peers and your professor.
Excerpt from a presentation created by Ellen Petraits, Research Librarian, Rhode Island School of Design
Topic Finder is an example of visual concept mapping. Topic Finder is an internal tool in the Gale/Cengage datatabases which the BAC Library subscribes to. The visual results are based on finding your keywords associated with articles within the database. An algorithm determines what words from the search results appear most frequently with your keywords and that forms the visual clusters in Topic Finder. The cluster size is based on the number of results from your inital search combined with the new keywords that Topic Finder associated with your search. This can help narrow and lend focus to your research topic. Below is the resulting search for phrase "climate change" and insurance in Topic Finder.
Here is a one minute tutorial on using Topic Finder.
When giving a presentation, you want to impart information but also keep your audience's attention and have them concentrate on what is important from your point of view. You need to design meaningful images.
Data visualization, information graphics, and diagrams create a maximum amount of content in a compact format. They quickly tell the supportive story of an oral presentation and summarize what is important in a a presentation
Information Graphics
Here is a simple information graphic/diagram from a suite of graphics.
This information graphic was created and is owned by https://informationisbeautiful.net/ . The BAC Library was given permission to reproduce it on 9/15/2020 for use in this guide.
Below is the original data from which the above graphic was created.
Both the graphic and excel file have the same documentation but the designer who created the graphic has created a visual graph that is easy to understand, has an immediate impact, and still maintains the integrity of the data. In addition, the designer highlighted what was important to the presentation without obscuring other data.
Data visualization should be able to convey concepts, complex charting, and, simultaneously, be a part of the narrative that the designer wants to express. Anyone who needs to present information to their peers should be able to incorporate graphs and diagrams to enhance their communication skills.
