1 Review of Understanding Comics Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud Review by Jason I. Hong Group for User Interface Research UC Berkeley

2 Understanding Comics A comic book about comics In reality –Techniques in visual design –Analyzes how abstractions, time, motion, and emotions work in a “non-interactive” medium Relation to Human-Computer Interaction? –Comics are a 2D medium –Comics convey info in a purely visual medium

3 Motivation Need introspection about what comics are really about First, need a clear definition

4 Examples of Comics Comics have been around longer than you may think Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence...

5 Examples of Comics (cont.) Comics are more prevalent than you may think Diagrams Church Stained- Glass Windows Even Photographs? Car Owner’s Manual

6 Examples of Comics (cont.) Note that the definition does not include superheroes in tights

7 Abstraction Pictures, Reality, and Language

8 Abstraction (cont.) Abstracting out details may make things more “universal” The modern “Everyman”?

9 A Theory on Abstraction Although we can perceive others in great detail......we only have an idea, a simple abstraction of ourselves

10 A Theory on Abstraction (cont.) We only have abstract concepts of things Comics exist closer to this realm of concepts due to its abstracted nature The reader fills in the necessary details as required

11 A Theory on Abstraction (cont.) We fill in abstract representations with a little bit of ourselves

12 Closure Closure is how we cope with incomplete information Thru closure, we “fill in the blanks” The ultimate in user customization?

13 Motion Time, space, and motion are merged in comics Idioms have arisen to express perceived time, space, and action Action lines PanelsPolyptych

14 Time Short perceived elapsed time Longer perceived elapsed time Even longer perceived elapsed time?

15 Time (cont.) Size is one factor to perceived time

16 Time (cont.) Bleeding image to edge of page also creates timeless space

17 Idioms

18 Why Are Comics Hard to Make? Both art and literature are well-established fields, but throwing the two together do not a comic book make Systems Engineering Graphic Design Interaction Designer? Information Architect?

19 Summary Understanding Comics is an excellent book! –Two chapters, on the essence of art and communication, especially worthwhile Comics are simple, low-bandwidth, “calm” medium for telling a story that actually require lots of interaction from the user –Implicit interaction vs explicit interaction? Do we always need more bits? –Maybe we need better representations?

20 Summary (cont.) Can using idioms and techniques from comics can lead to better interfaces? –How do we express time, motion, energy now? –What other ways can we express them? –What idioms / patterns do we have in HCI? For what applications are comics useful? –Comic Chat, any others?