What is the ideal lesson graphic?
With the launch of V3, we got one message loud and clear: the ideal lesson graphic is not a random stock photo. Fair enough. It’s not that we’re stock photo aficionados; in this case using stock photos was the best way to get the graphics all done for the crossover to V3. We couldn’t use the old ones because of the different format and style.
OK, so we know what the ideal lesson graphic is not. But what makes it good? The resounding message we got in user feedback was that the graphics should have Chinese characters in them or at least some sort of Chinese style.
With this in mind, we’ve been experimenting with the style of the lesson graphic. Take a look at the following examples:
Newbie - Requesting a Glass of Water
Newbie - Mosquitoes
Media - 盗款买彩
Upper Intermediate - Chinese Onomatopoeia
Elementary - Ordering Xiaolongbao
Newbie - Colors Song
Intermediate - A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
Upper Intermediate - The Glory of Labor
What elements work best for you? Some of the questions I’m asking are:
- How important is a relevant image to the users?
- Do users like colorful graphics?
- How prominent or subtle should the Chinese characters be?
- Should we include pinyin in the graphic? (If so, then just for Newbie and Elementary?)
- Do you like to learn from the lesson graphics, or are they best used mainly as decoration?
Thanks for taking the time to give this some thought. As always, we value your feedback.
-John
* How important is a relevant image to the users?
Not incredibly. For example, the second one, featuring just 蚊子, is fine by me. A giant mosquito isn’t necessary.
* Do users like colorful graphics?
I don’t think the graphics have to be all AMAZING; after all, if you’re pumping out one a day it will be hard to make them all unique it style and still follow some coherent guidelines. The Glory of Labor one is pretty awesome though, in my opinion.
* How prominent or subtle should the Chinese characters be?
Very prominent. Is there any 汉字 in the first picture?
* Should we include pinyin in the graphic? (If so, then just for Newbie and Elementary?)
Yes, as mentioned it seems warranted mostly at the lower levels.
* Do you like to learn from the lesson graphics, or are they best used mainly as decoration?
I haven’t learned from them yet, so I can’t say. I’d rather have more energy put into the lesson expansions/exercises then a nifty graphic.
• How important is a relevant image to the users?
To me, it’s very important. I’m a visual person. I like to see the relevant images goes with the lessons. But I do agree, plain stock photo doesn’t do the job.
Of the 8 images, the first 3 don’t work for me. My favorite are 小笼包 and Color Song.
• Do users like colorful graphics?
Only if it’s revelant to the lesson and fits the mood. Color by itself doesn’t mean much.
• How prominent or subtle should the Chinese characters be?
It shouldn’t be the main element. I like how it’s used in The Glory of Labor.
• Should we include pinyin in the graphic? (If so, then just for Newbie and Elementary?)
Not necessarily. The Color Song images wouldn’t look good if you insist on incluing pinyin.
• Do you like to learn from the lesson graphics, or are they best used mainly as decoration?
No. It’s not a learning tool. But it’s more than just mere decoration either. It gives us a sneak preview, a glimpse of what the lesson is about. And it illustrates what might be hard to describe in words. 小笼包 image is be a perfect example of the latter.
Doh! My Chinese characters didn’t come through. They are supposed to be Xiaolong Bao.
Didn’t have any problem with v2 though. Any tips on how to make them show up?
I think the choice boils down to whether to use a picture that is more or less evocative or more or less representative. The issue of color would be a sub-set of this.
The “Newbie - Mosquitoes” and - even better - the “Media - 盗款买彩” example carry that certain Chinese feel, look professional, and contain a few prominent characters. I like them best. For me no pinyin required in the upper levels (Intermediate and above) - that takes a bit of the fun.
Hi
* How important is a relevant image to the users?
I think it’s very important. After the lesson title, I think it is the second step where one tries to gather some info about what is going to hear next
* Do users like colorful graphics?
Not necessarily. I think the right stock photo could work if it has to do with the primary subject/theme/vocabulary of the lesson.
* How prominent or subtle should the Chinese characters be?
I think prominent.
* Should we include pinyin in the graphic? (If so, then just for Newbie and Elementary?)
yes, why not use them in all levels?
* Do you like to learn from the lesson graphics, or are they best used mainly as decoration?
as I stated in the first answer, I think the graphic gives an important clue about what is coming next. I don’t expect to learn from the graphic, just to receive a visual “add-on” about what I’m going to hear and read.
I think that graphics like these ones, work great:
- Chinese Onomatopoeia
- Ordering Xiaolongbao
- A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
Regards,
Matias.
OK, total newbie here.
So, I can’t speak for what works for more advanced students.
But image #1 does NOT work for me. No ties to Chinese.
People have said they don’t learn from the graphics. I do! Or at least I WOULD IF they were structured so that the language elements were also present in the graphic.
I think all the rest of the graphics work on some level. I’d hate to see some ‘formula’ applied. Like HAVE to include - or NOT include - pin yin etc. Agree that pin yin is good through elementary. Maybe at times later? Maybe sometimes not even at elementary if it would help focus on a simple character? Vary the styles (like the examples) but once people see that there ARE relevent elements (I like that!
) then people might start looking there to see if they can read them. Like I’m now starting to pay more attention to the Chinese that I see in everyday situations.
Just don’t feel you HAVE to put massive effort into each one. Stock is OK some times. Simple sometimes. Pictures of Jenny sometimes!
You’re on the right track! Good work, all of you.
Thanks
The best one is xiaolongbao. Someone who’s never seen it before would need to know what it looks like. I consider the chinese charaters to be a necessary part of the graphics as a newbie. They are just the right size. On the other hand onomatopoeia is perfect in its context. I reminds me of the Batman show. Since it is only about sounds, there would not need to be a picture to go with it. And on the other hand, the mosquito one is fine too, since no one wants or needs to see a picture of a mosquito. The text is much larger than it mormally needs to be, but in this case there is nothing better perhaps to replace them with.
My favorite graphic is Chinese Breakfast. Chinese Breakfast is one of my all-time favorite pods. The symetry of the dialog and even of the image is almost poetry. There is repetition and yet there is the natural linear progression of the dialog. He gives assent in two different ways, she asks a question in two different ways, we have the verb to drink and then the verb to eat, and we have something you drink and something you eat.
More important is the progression, the contrast, the reason the response changes. His first reponse assures the vendor of his interest and the second one is a more neutral yes. The vendor asks a question with the most common ‘want not want’ form of a question. It is slightly wordy and works best at the beginning when there is no context for the dialog. The second question is not in the SVO form that we are used to in Enghish. Instead it can only be analysed in the Topic:Comment form of Chinese grammar. The object of the verb is pulled to the front, it cannot be the subject of the sentence, therefore it is the topic. Instead of saying the wordy (unnecessarily so at this point in the dialog) You want to eat bread? it is Bread (pause) Eat?
The beauty of it is that this is very natural in mandarin and very advanced grammar for a newbie. I really appreciate that you are not dumbing it down for me and twisting the grammar around in unnatural ways to make it more comfortable for an English Speaker. I believe that we get imprinted with this early exposure and it is very difficult to drop them later on if the early forms are not truly idiomatic for a Chinese Person. The reason I know so much about grammar is that I studied Cantonese first. ChinesePod is so addictive that it is drawing me in.
Mandarin uses ma for form a question whereas Cantonese almost never uses ma, using the ‘verb not verb’ construction much more regularily. Other than learning a Mandarin dialect that preserves the entering tones and heavily borrowing Cantonese forms of foreign loanwords like taxi, I have no intention of mixing the two up.
What got me back into ChinesePod was Green Eggs and Ham. That was so funny. The followup Buying a Newspaper, that was also very good. And What’s Up? carried the promise that you are trying to be very idiomatic. That is very important to me.
The graphic for Buying a Newspaper is also very nice. Again we have the word for Newspaper in chinese characters just the right size with a somewhat amusing picture of a open newspaper.
I forgot to mention that the cultural notes for Buying A Newpaper and Chinese Breakfast was also very helpful. Buying breakfast on the street from a vendor sounds very charming to me. Chunks of Money was a very cute thing for Jenny to say.
Bumming A Smoke was great for starting with the way to ask if someone has something (yomeyo), but the graphic looks like the two men are breathing each others smoke.
I was going to try to think of more graphics that I like, but I think I am almost done. The MSG graphic is fairly OK; its reminicent of Chinese Breatfast, so I can’t fault it, but who want to look at a bowl of MSG?
That’s Enough Tea is another of my all-time favorite dialogs, it is very important to know how to politely decline Chinese Hospitality.
Is this blog still alive?