Motocross: multimodal

This is my son's life in a nutshell :) I am a sports nut and am obsessed with the sport of motocross. Hope everyone enjoys!

• Is the typeface attractive and readable?

I think the font was easy to read and I only used one to three words per slide. I could have used a larger font but I chose a white background so the text really stood out. The audience could read the text quickly and easily.

• Are there any statistics or other data that would be easier to read in a chart, graph, or table

I did not use any statistics but I could have added a slide to show a typical season of travel. I had one image of a google map that had our destination from home on it.

• Is high-contrast text, including boldface and all caps, brief enough to be legible? 

After viewing my presentation again, one can almost look at the picture and read the text at the same time. I used boldface  fonts and capital letters.  I wouldn't want the text to be much bigger as it would take away from the images.

• What do images and other graphics contribute? Do they illustrate a concept? highlight an important point? show something that is difficult to describe in words alone? If the images and other graphics are only decorative, consider removing them.

I chose a subject matter that is close to my heart and is not a mainstream sport. I feel that watching my presentation is indicative of a racer's life. There are not any images that I would remove as they tell the story of the sport. I chose simple photographs that I had taken just in the past few months and if I had added more, it might have led to confusion. The slide with my son on the track titled "New Home" was a little confusing. I should have chose a picture from the facilities website.

• Are images and other graphics the right size—big enough to read or to see the important detail?

I think that the social media slide may have been too small or I could have just put one picture of my son's site. The other images are in focus and go right along with the description.

• Do images have an obvious focus? Will readers see the part that matters? If not, consider if you can crop the image.

I think that using real photographs personalized my presentation. Each slide has an obvious focus and with the exception of the 'social media'' slide, I do not feel that I would change the size of the pictures.

• Are the charts, graphs, maps, or other graphics clear and informative? 

I did not use charts but I did include a video that I felt was important. The clip was small but captured the intensity of the sport. The images were informative and the X-ray of my son's leg was prophetic! 

• If color is used, is it appropriate to the audience and purpose? Does color direct emphasis where it belongs? Are too many colors used?

I did not use color in the background because I felt it would take away from the photographs. I wanted the images to stand out and not get lost in a color scheme of a slide. 

• How do all the formal elements, pictorial as well as textual and symbolic, contribute to your emotional response or intellectual understanding of the concept? 

I think that my presentation showed the emotion, intensity, and hard work that I was trying to convey.  Any person who had not heard of motocross would learn basic information and the photographs were easy to remember.  I feel that in a few months I could ask someone a basic question about the sport and they would remember a few of the slides.