Figure captions suck
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I'm a software developer by trade, having a degree in what I call "classical computer science," not the watered-down pap universities try to teach today. But I also have a BS in technical writing, so I know how to spell, how to make complex things understandable, and how draw technical figures, and even how to do some rudimentary art.
I also know how to lay out pages and design documents. And one thing for certain is you should never add captions to your figures.
Figures, when integrated with their surrounding text, become part of a unified message. Your attention doesn't have to be interrupted by a "See Fig. 3," for example. Instead, the picture and the words make a gestalt, rendering complicated topics more accessible. Captioning figures makes them second-class citizens. Yet pictures are such effective teaching tools, so such relegation is a tragedy.
Figure captions take up unnecessary space. If the text explains how something works, then the caption is redundant. If the figure needs the caption to explain what's going on, then you've got the wrong figure. And if you get rid of figure captions, you also can get rid of those useless "Table of Figures" that are almost never consulted in front matter.
"But everyone else is doing it," you say. Yes, and Windows, a lamentable operating system, is the most popular one on the planet. Merely because everyone else does it doesn't make it right.
Besides, there is precedent in scientific literature for integrating figures and text. Galileo published in 1613 his telescope-based observations of Saturn, including pictures of what he saw in-line. Edward Tufte, noted expert on visual information, praised this technique in his book Envisioning Information:
... The stunning images, never seen before, were just another sentence element.
Saturn, a drawing, a word, a noun.
The wonderful becomes familiar and the familiar wonderful.
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The psychology behind using captions
There is actually a scientific reason to use captions with images.. but most editors/layout people do not know this or are unable to capitalize on it.
In newspapers and magazines, the sale will occur depending on what catches the readers eyes and how enticed they are to continue reading enough to buy the magazine in a spontaneous purchase (where the majority of revenue comes from). The average time for sale I think is less than 30 seconds per magazine.. so the psychology used is the following:
Human eyes will gravitate to images first and not what is written around them. Layout needs to be in certain areas of the page where the eye gravitates fastest. The next thing the person will look for is what the image means.. eg a one line caption that will explain what is being said and where the person can get more info (as in bolding Figure 1) and then having a Figure 1 somewhere in the article in bold. The person if interested enough by the caption and the picture will scan the paragraph for more info. I think the probability of purchase was something like:
30% image alone 60% image+caption text 90% image+caption+interesting paragraph
Now in the cases where you have something like "Figure 1: An example of Section 1" is a poor use of the captions and will lower the percentage of sales (but I don't remember how much or if it was left as a part for further study. It has been almost 10 years since we were shown this article so I can't quote which Psychology Business study magazine had it :/.)
Smoogen
erhm..
"...and even how to do some rudimentary art.
I also know how to lay out pages and design documents. "
So how would you explain the low quality JPG banner full of artifacts above your site..?
Explanation
Yet, point taken. Look better?
Much better
Yep, thats much better now. By the way; nice video presentation (better-web-app.mov) on the framework comparison :)
Related note
Hi Sean,
What are you using to create your Architecture graphics/animations in your screen casts? I'd be interested and I would guess other people would be too.
Thanks, Josh
The tools
Take care!
focus on image
A generality may not help. Sometimes one requires a word and image to intermingle in close proximity. To blindly add caption is a point well taken. An image may need that 1000th & one word to push imagination over the edge. Do what must be done to shape the mental hide. Pictures do break up the monotony of the alphabet. Why do commercial graphic artists destroy their art with signitures? Convention is for conventional birds.
pointed out
It was pointed out in a MetaFilter thread on that Judd/Bono/Robinson that Ashley's name was misspelled (as Ashely), although they did at least identify her correctly. Having worked the photo desk on my college newspaper almost a decade ago, testking 70-642 I have to tell you the inaccuracy in photo captions you're seeing on the AP photo wire isn't new. Caption corrections have been been almost as common as photos on the wire for a long, long time. What's new is that Yahoo is here, spitting out the AP photo wire without any form of filtration. testking CISSP So you're getting all the corrections along with the content. When AP solely served newspapers and other more static media, this wasn't as much of an issue; the caption corrections would most likely come over the wire before the paper was put to bed, the corrections would be made and readers were none the wiser. The Internet has eliminated that time delay, testking JN0-140 and that in combination with reduced editorial proofing (at least on Yahoo's part) results in more errors making it to print -- or, in this case, to screen.
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Hi, all. I am a captioner, and I don't think my captions suck. Well, I know they don't. But I am very interested in quality standards for captioning, and I keep hitting brick walls when attempting to get them in place. 350-001 It is my belief that the only way captioning is going to get better and at the level of quality that everyone deserves is if there is a revolution from the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and an other groups that utilizes captioning on a regular basis. 640-802 Broadcasters only care about the bottom line and making sure they are in compliance with the FCC's rules. Captioning companies are bidding lower and lower on TV contracts just to get the work, and the good, qualified captioners will not work for the crap they are offering. So who do they get? Unskilled, VCP-410 inexperienced, crappy captioners who will work for peanuts and learn how to caption at the expense of the viewers. I have been screaming about this for 10 years. Change has to start with detailed COMPLAINTS...to the FCC!
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Amen, brother!
This is one of my pet peeves in books too. Along with footnotes that are located at the end of the book (wtf, who can resist reading what's in the footnote) which makes you keep flipping back and forth, making it exhausting to read.
Inline images, please - we have the technology! If the reference text moves to a different page, so can the image.
:)
— Alexander Limi