VizAbility: Establishing Visual Language Capability for the Digital Age

April 7, 2004

Image-rich learning and communication have become very realistic, with the emergence of affordable and accessible media-rich computing. The challenge now is to focus on the human side of the humancomputer partnership, and to provide training and experience to people so that they can take advantage of the new ways of thinking that are afforded by media-rich visual tools.

VizAbility, a CD-ROM and book, provides guided experiences in visual communication to enhance the visual abilities. Initially published in 1995, it is targeted at people who are engaged in digital interactions, but who have never had formal training in the "visual languages". VizAbility emphasizes seeing, drawing, diagramming and imagining skills. It includes depictions of the culture of visualizers and the environments that can encourage their work, short video interviews with professionals who use images to communicate, activities to improve visual skills, and exercises to enhance readiness to do creative work.

Woolsey, former director of the Apple Multimedia Lab and current board member of the New Media Center, will show sections of VizAbility, discuss the process of its creation, and present the argument that visual representational skills are key to the digital age and should become a central focus in our schooling systems.

Kristina Woolsey is a board member of and visionary for New Media Center, an organization that brings forward-thinking learning organizations -- colleges, universities, and museums -- together with innovative high-tech companies to collaborate in a non-competitive environment. She consults with San Francisco's Exploratorium Center for Informal Learning and Schools program, and the James Irvine Foundation CORAL program, a communitybased learning initiative designed to boost the achievement of children and youth through out-of-school programs. Kristina is a co-author of VizAbility and holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UC San Diego. She has been Director of Atari Research, Director of the Apple Multimedia Lab, and a member of the faculty at UC Santa Cruz and at the MIT Architecture Machine Group (now the Media Lab).