Background

Thesis Research | The Drawing Project | Download Thesis

The hope of my thesis was to address the challenges of living with MS by researching visual communication in a printed context to ensure that current best practices are creating accessible and comprehensible communications for this audience. My primary and secondary research focused on three specific symptoms common in the community. Visual impairment, cognitive changes and fatigue are key manifestations of the MS community and the symptoms that could be most affected by inaccessible design choices. My thesis research had four main purposes: 1.) to describe the nature of and the need for accessible print communications by addressing the challenges of living with MS; 2.) to access and identify issues related to the current system of print communications, if any; 3.) survey and interact with the MS community in reference to print communications and visual methods; and 4.) create a framework for design teams working on communications that serve people within the Multiple Sclerosis community.

MFA Thesis Research

Visual communicators have a considerable amount of control over the way a message is delivered, working to discover new ways to create exciting, compelling, innovative and attractive design solutions. Typographic details like font selection, legibility, color, readability and margins of a page become even more crucial elements for designers when the audience includes a demographic that may have reading or cognitive disabilities. Being able to read, understand and access materials gives a person a tremendous amount of power by allowing them to expand their world view and take control of their own lives.

Through communication, people are able to understand and share ideas, culture, thoughts, and knowledge. Communication ultimately allows people to grow and become a part of their society. The purpose of my MFA thesis was to develop a framework to assist graphic design teams working on visual communications targeted at individuals living with Multiple Sclerosis. Access to information is a democratic right for all people.

The American Disabilities Act (ADA) passed July 1990, prohibits: “discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities.” By law, everyone should have access to information. The form that information takes varies greatly depending on the artifact, but is generally understood to be a complex presentation of concepts, symbols, writings as well as oral and visual language. The sum of these parts is that the user acquires meaning through a holistic understanding of the intended message.

Being able to read, understand and access materials gives a person a tremendous amount of power by allowing them to expand their world view and take control of their own lives (Momura, 2010). Through communication, people are able to understand and share ideas, culture, thoughts, and knowledge. Communication ultimately allows people to grow and become a part of their society. with respect to increasing accessibility of information, my thesis focuses specifically on crafting a framework to assist graphic design teams working on visual communications targeted at individuals living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). You can download and read the final document by clicking here.

The Drawing Project

Drawings created by people with MS were included in the thesis research as a way of exploring the potential to reveal unique data about the processes of community integration and social inclusion. These visual methodologies may hold unique and vital information that typical research methods like surveys and interviews would not. It also can be seen as a visual tool for graphic designers who to better understand an audience group they may be designing for.

For the drawing, the prompt was: ‘Draw how you see MS in your mind visually.’ The wording of the above scene is written to be as nondescript as possible. The goal for the participants was to portray themselves visually however they saw fit, as literal as bodies in motion or more metaphorical and/or abstract.

After finishing each drawing, these participants were asked to explain their drawing, a full account of these interviews and drawings can be found in the Drawing Appendix section. These drawings gave insight into how these particular participants visualize themselves, their emotions, social integration and activities through the open-ended nature of the scene prompt. You can see the drawing collection by clicking this link.