4 ms·

> The content is harder to read and to follow, and concepts aren't as accessible. For you. It can be difficult sometimes, but it's very important when evaluat

by ygjb 8y ago

> The content is harder to read and to follow, and concepts aren't as accessible. For you. It can be difficult sometimes, but it's very important when evaluating content proposed as educational to ignore personal knowledge and experience on a topic and focus on the learning outcomes desired by the authors of training material, and not impose our own expectations and biases.

txcwpalpha 8y ago
I'd have to agree with the parent. And it has nothing to do with personal knowledge/experience/expectations/biases. The linked 'comic' is bad in ways that I think many people would agree on. I'm not talking about the content or even the "cutesy" style, but the layout/formatting itself. The lack of space or separating lines between the panels makes it quite difficult to follow the chronological order of the story. The font used for dialog is atrocious. And the harsh colors all placed on top of a stark white background isn't easy on the eyes. These are things that all detract from any possible learning outcomes, no matter what they are. I think a lot of people in this thread are arguing that 'cutesy style = bad', but I think the real reason they might be thinking that is because it's actually just this particular instance of cutesy style is bad.
- ygjb 8y ago
  > The lack of space or separating lines between the panels makes it quite difficult to follow the chronological order of the story. I agree on the need for lines to delineate between panels. As for the order of the story, it is written in English, and like most comics or visual presentation materials is organized in a left to right, top to bottom layout. The font used is not great, but it is a sans serif font, and while not designed specifically to be accessible to dyslexic folks, I find it easier to read than many other sans serif fonts, in part owing to the distinctive shape of each of the glyphs. I would prefer more spacing between the letters, but to be fair, I only made that observation after I turned off my letter-spacing:2px user-style You say harsh colors on white background, I say high contrast is very valuable to me as someone who is dyslexic - I find high contrast content easier to consume.
scrollaway 8y ago
There's no "for you" to be added, the comic has severe accessibility issues. If you think it's fine, I wager it's for one of two reasons: - You may have decided it's fine because you're ignoring the issues by dismissing them as "it's because I'm not the target audience". - You may actually be in a minority of people who have no issues reading this. Put it this way, if I print content in light-grey on a pastel-white background and have people complaining about this, I shouldn't be defending it with "Oh it's not fine for you, but for other people it's fine". That's the whole challenge of accessibility: Making your content accessible to the biggest chunk of your target audience (and if possible, beyond that).
- ygjb 8y ago
  I agree with you on the accessibility angle, from the perspective of users with reading disabilities, color blindness, etc. I am not sure if that was the angle you were aiming for. As for the accessibility of the ideas, they are presented clearly. Where jargon can't be avoided, it is presented by the role it plays, and a simple explanation of what it is not (see the digital signature panels) that presents an idea, gives the user enough information that they can start forming a question and addresses an incredibly common misconception. As for being in a minority, I don't know. What I do know is that as a person who has to deal with dyslexia on a daily basis in a largely text based position as a remote security engineer, I found this content to be very approachable, and it got positive feedback from several folks I shared it with this morning, including an early childhood educator and a retired teacher, so YMMV. As far as not being the target audience, frankly, I am squarely in the target audience as I am always looking for new and effective ways to teach people this stuff because as an infosec weenie a big chunk of my job is helping people avoiding the pitfalls of technology by helping others understand how to build secure or maintain basic opsec. This comic is not effective for me, since I am technical enough to need better resources, but it is super great for a project manager who might need to ramp up knowledge about why HTTPS or TLS is important without needed to know how to configure or implement it.
  - geezerjay 8y ago
    > As for the accessibility of the ideas, they are presented clearly. They clearly aren't. Some users already pointed out they had problems getting what the cat was supposed to represent. That's a telltale sign of how bad the content was presented when a significant portion of the audience, and one which is educated and technically inclined, has a problem understanding and tracking the meaning of a basic concept that's presented right in the very start. People aren't "reading it wrong". The comic is simply poorly thought-out and the execution makes it needlessly hard to go around these problems.

by ygjb 8y ago

txcwpalpha 8y ago

I'd have to agree with the parent. And it has nothing to do with personal knowledge/experience/expectations/biases. The linked 'comic' is bad in ways that I think many people would agree on. I'm not talking about the content or even the "cutesy" style, but the layout/formatting itself. The lack of space or separating lines between the panels makes it quite difficult to follow the chronological order of the story. The font used for dialog is atrocious. And the harsh colors all placed on top of a stark white background isn't easy on the eyes. These are things that all detract from any possible learning outcomes, no matter what they are. I think a lot of people in this thread are arguing that 'cutesy style = bad', but I think the real reason they might be thinking that is because it's actually just this particular instance of cutesy style is bad.

ygjb 8y ago
> The lack of space or separating lines between the panels makes it quite difficult to follow the chronological order of the story. I agree on the need for lines to delineate between panels. As for the order of the story, it is written in English, and like most comics or visual presentation materials is organized in a left to right, top to bottom layout. The font used is not great, but it is a sans serif font, and while not designed specifically to be accessible to dyslexic folks, I find it easier to read than many other sans serif fonts, in part owing to the distinctive shape of each of the glyphs. I would prefer more spacing between the letters, but to be fair, I only made that observation after I turned off my letter-spacing:2px user-style You say harsh colors on white background, I say high contrast is very valuable to me as someone who is dyslexic - I find high contrast content easier to consume.

scrollaway 8y ago

There's no "for you" to be added, the comic has severe accessibility issues. If you think it's fine, I wager it's for one of two reasons: - You may have decided it's fine because you're ignoring the issues by dismissing them as "it's because I'm not the target audience". - You may actually be in a minority of people who have no issues reading this. Put it this way, if I print content in light-grey on a pastel-white background and have people complaining about this, I shouldn't be defending it with "Oh it's not fine for you, but for other people it's fine". That's the whole challenge of accessibility: Making your content accessible to the biggest chunk of your target audience (and if possible, beyond that).

ygjb 8y ago
I agree with you on the accessibility angle, from the perspective of users with reading disabilities, color blindness, etc. I am not sure if that was the angle you were aiming for. As for the accessibility of the ideas, they are presented clearly. Where jargon can't be avoided, it is presented by the role it plays, and a simple explanation of what it is not (see the digital signature panels) that presents an idea, gives the user enough information that they can start forming a question and addresses an incredibly common misconception. As for being in a minority, I don't know. What I do know is that as a person who has to deal with dyslexia on a daily basis in a largely text based position as a remote security engineer, I found this content to be very approachable, and it got positive feedback from several folks I shared it with this morning, including an early childhood educator and a retired teacher, so YMMV. As far as not being the target audience, frankly, I am squarely in the target audience as I am always looking for new and effective ways to teach people this stuff because as an infosec weenie a big chunk of my job is helping people avoiding the pitfalls of technology by helping others understand how to build secure or maintain basic opsec. This comic is not effective for me, since I am technical enough to need better resources, but it is super great for a project manager who might need to ramp up knowledge about why HTTPS or TLS is important without needed to know how to configure or implement it.
- geezerjay 8y ago
  > As for the accessibility of the ideas, they are presented clearly. They clearly aren't. Some users already pointed out they had problems getting what the cat was supposed to represent. That's a telltale sign of how bad the content was presented when a significant portion of the audience, and one which is educated and technically inclined, has a problem understanding and tracking the meaning of a basic concept that's presented right in the very start. People aren't "reading it wrong". The comic is simply poorly thought-out and the execution makes it needlessly hard to go around these problems.