I read Chapter 4 of Small’s Ph.D. Thesis on Layering, Juxtaposition, and Scale. I really liked this chapter and thought it tied in well with the previous Small reading we did, and I can definitely see similar ideas as well as some progression.

Small starts out by discussing the difference between print and digital visual design, and I particularly find it interesting how Small claims that the latter has worse resolution – I can definitely see how this was the case previously, but I think digital work has gotten much higher in resolution.

Small discusses the Talmud project, addressing the issue of working with multiple texts simultaneously. The criteria for the project was creating a digital space where relevant texts could coexist, with material easily accessible (like flipping through a book). Small discusses the difference between physical and digital visuals in length in this section. Again, I found it interesting that he claims the main advantage of physical materials is the high resolution and how easy it is to compact many pages into one source of information like a book. Technology has definitely advanced to the point where we’re a lot better at data storage now, and websites can store a lot more than books can. The advantage of being dynamic and responsive remains the same. This also made me wonder about how Small views the existence of digital reading material that resembles physical ones, namely items like the Kindle.

Small also discusses layering as a method of controlling focus – by taking advantage of layering, we can shift user attention to different information centers. I found the discussion of the technical limitations to something like blurring quite interesting, because this process is definitely a lot faster now and more feasible to do.

Finally, Small discusses dynamic juxtaposition and scale. I didn’t really buy into his dynamic juxtaposition examples, particularly due to the emphasis on translated texts. Since most translations can’t happen word to word or even line to line, this kind of juxtaposition wouldn’t benefit the reader anyways. I think it’s worth also delving into non-Western-centric examples – for example, how can we digitally visualize both English and Chinese texts, with their different methods of reading (left-right vs. right-left). I liked the section on scale because one of the areas Small discusses is pretty relevant to modern design – the idea of persistence and allowing users to see multiple things on a screen at once. Many web browsers now support split screen and responsive sizing is an important element of UI design now.