Journals@UC (University of Cincinnati)
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The Visual Language of Textile Tickets in 20th-Century British India: A Collection from B. Taylor and Co.
No full textThis essay examines the visual language of textile tickets — small, printed labels used on cotton bales and fabric lengths — produced by British printers for export to colonial India between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Emerging amidst expanding colonial trade and advances in printing technology, these ephemera evolved into vivid, ideologically charged artifacts. Focusing on a collection of textile tickets produced by Manchester-based printing firm B. Taylor and Co., this study explores three recurring visual themes: empire, religion, and gender. It argues that these images did more than advertise textiles: they glorified British imperial authority, appropriated Indian religious imagery, and idealized women as passive ornamental objects to enhance appeal in a male-dominated trade. Through visual and contextual analysis, this essay demonstrates that textile tickets — often valued only for aesthetics — also functioned as everyday instruments of colonial control
Augmented Reality for Campus Wayfinding: Enhancing Navigation Efficiency and Student Social Engagement — A Case Study of Leeds University Union
No full textThis study designed and evaluated a user-centered augmented reality (AR) wayfinding prototype for Leeds University Union (LUU), aiming to improve student wayfinding efficiency and encourage social exploration within a particular campus environment. A site-specific field study involving photographic documentation of existing wayfinding aids, such as signage and maps, was conducted to investigate the current design. Five semi-structured interviews were carried out to gain students’ experiences and opinions, complemented by behavioral observations of three participants navigating the LUU with existing wayfinding aids to explore common challenges and dilemmas. Results showed that the existing design did not consistently support effective navigation, with participants relying on assistance from others. Furthermore, all of the students reported using the LUU mainly for social and recreational purposes, indicating that integrating navigation with real-time event information could enhance campus community engagement. In response, a prototype mobile navigation application named LUU MATE was developed that integrated AR with social exploration features to enhance both wayfinding and engagement in campus life. The iterative optimization of the prototype was based on usability tests conducted by four participants. Subsequently, a second behavioral observation was conducted with three participants using LUU MATE to assess its navigation effectiveness and potential to foster social engagement. Comparative analysis with earlier observations showed that LUU MATE reduced the time required to complete the navigation tasks and stimulate participants’ interest in campus life. This study indicates that both navigation efficiency and social engagement are essential considerations in campus wayfinding design. Future research should involve larger and more diverse participant groups and apply the design across varied campus sites to validate its broader applicability
Constructing the Hypertangible Novel: Writing and Design as Process
No full textAs the printed book co-exists with the influence of the digital, narratives become hybrid and are transformed into documents in which the content can very easily flow from one form to another. As a result of this, the first decades of the 21st century have seen the emergence of publications that challenge traditionally orthodox reading practices. This article examines the response to the digital development in novels that foreground the material dimension of the narrative and are print-specific. These works do not reject the digital realm but absorb its characteristics and expand the possibilities offered by the material dimension of the book. By analyzing Graham Rawle’s Woman’s World and its process of creation through the collage and cut-up techniques, this article aims to show how design can contribute to foreground the physical dimension of literature in novels with hypertangible qualities. This examination draws attention to design being embedded in the writing process that constructs both material and narrative dimensions. Findings show that these novels can be a product of a ‘designwriting’ process, in which design serves both as a tool to shape a narrative, and as a process that expands it and creates an object that offers an embodied reading experience. Ultimately, this highlights the importance of physical reading in the age of digital media
Scripts in Dialogue: Reinterpreting Visible Language Covers through Bilingual Design Workshops in Kuwait
No full textThis study investigates how postmodern graphic design strategies can be critically reimagined — reframed through the lens of bilingual design pedagogy to engage issues of cultural identity, script interaction, and typographic experimentation — within Arabic–English bilingual contexts. Using the Visible Language journal (late 1960s–2025) as a foundational reference, the research was conducted over three academic semesters with 90 undergraduate design students in Kuwait. Through a structured practice-led research methodology, participants analyzed historical cover designs and developed original bilingual compositions inspired by postmodern aesthetics. The project addressed typographic challenges, including directionality, visual hierarchy, and the interplay between Arabic calligraphic and Latin modular forms. Design strategies — including layering, fragmentation, and grid disruption — were systematically explored to facilitate visual integration across scripts. Outcomes ranged from cohesive bilingual compositions to instances of double monolingualism reflecting varied levels of synthesis. Cultural motifs and script-specific conventions emerged as influential factors shaping design decisions. The study concludes that adapting postmodern design principles to bilingual contexts requires more than stylistic translation; it entails critical negotiation of cultural identity, linguistic equity, and the visual dynamics of multilingual communication.
Beyond (Type)Face Value: A Systematic Literature Review Examining Design Factors Influencing the Legibility and Readability of Typography Brian
No full textPrinted or digital text is a primary communication medium. Reading is necessary for locating, understanding, and using information in our personal and professional lives. The importance of reading makes typography essential to accessibility. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to examine design factors that influence the legibility and readability of accessible typography, resulting in 42 peer-reviewed empirical studies (2000–2025) that report on typeface design, typesetting, and other factors affecting legibility and readability of typography in Latin alphabet-based languages. Key findings include: (1) serifs are not a significant legibility factor; (2) no single type size or typeface optimizes readability for everyone in every situation; and (3) familiarity may be a significant legibility and readability factor. These results suggest that accessible typography guidelines should reflect the complexity and nuance involved in optimizing readability and identify several research gaps. Future research should explore typeface design characteristics beyond serifs within type classifications, the influence of familiarity on readability and reading skills, the potential transferability of familiarity between similar typefaces, the duration of the familiarization process, the persistence of its effects, and whether reader motivation and adaptability can outweigh these effects. Additionally, accessible typography research may benefit from studies incorporating natural reading conditions, materials that better reflect current design practices, more diverse reading measures, and in-depth qualitative approaches
Sensational Design: Layout and Typography in the Visual Rhetoric of Information Disorder
No full textPolitical communication in the United States today is often characterized by ‘information disorder’. However, studies of information disorder do not take into account the role of design in contributing to this phenomenon. Through a visual analysis of American political communication, specifically 19th-century sensational newspapers and 21st-century post-factual websites, this paper addresses gaps in current studies by analyzing two design elements: layout and display typography. In doing so, this study demonstrates how it is possible to use visual analysis to uncover the various presentations of the visual rhetoric that characterizes information disorder. This paper begins by situating sensational design within literature on design theory and visual rhetoric, sensationalism, and political aesthetics. The paper then examines layout and display typography in case studies of American political news from both 19th-century sensational newspapers and 21st-century post-factual news websites, two periods of ‘information disorder’ in American media, to understand how the visual rhetoric of ‘sensational design’ manifests differently in the two eras of ‘information disorder’. The paper concludes with a discussion of how layout and typography ‘act’ as elements of visual rhetoric, how design can be incorporated into current conceptions of political aesthetics, and the implications of such a relationship.
How I Reheated My Pedagogical Nachos: Incorporating GenAI into a Behavioral Science Research Methods class
No full textFrom Resumes to Surveys: GenAI in the Professional Communication classroom
Full text linkBetween Fall 24 and Spring 25 I trialed full integration of GenAI tools into my professional communications classes. To help foster student agency, I neither required nor banned the use of these tools, but instead left if, when, where, and how they were used up to my students: to mirror the professional realm they are moving into, these should be individual personal decisions, and not those forced on them. To ensure students are still being held accountable for their choices, they are required to complete extensive reflections after each major submission. After a year of this trial, the evidence strongly suggests that GenAI tools themselves do little to nothing to influence grades, and instead it simply comes down to how the student user implemented them
UDL 3.0 and AI potential partners: Considerations in introductory teacher education courses
Full text linkThe paper provides a personal narrative with an overview of beginning explorations of the intersection between UDL 3.0 and AI an how it has impacted and may continue to impact one instructor\u27s teaching.
AI as Collaborator: Redefining student engagement and assessment in IT Education
Full text linkThis narrative reflects on the integration of Generative AI into undergraduate Information Technology courses at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. As an instructor committed to hands-on, real-world learning, I describe how AI tools like Microsoft Copilot have become essential components of my pedagogy. From debugging code in introductory web development to using AI for database design, I share how student learning has evolved in response to AI use in the classroom. I also discuss what worked well, such as increased student engagement and stronger critical thinking, and what required adjustment, including over reliance on AI and misunderstandings about appropriate use. Additionally, I explore how AI has supported my course design and administrative work. The narrative concludes with reflections on collaborative faculty efforts to develop AI policies and resources, underscoring the importance of preparing students to use Generative AI thoughtfully and responsibly in both academic and professional contexts