Following some feedback since writing my previous 300 word long intervention plan, I have decided that the main point of focus will be on the illustrated glossary rather than the ‘how to’ guides which would mainly exist to signpost students towards Moodle. The problem of the language difficulties provided by complex 3D printing and modelling related vocabularly feels much more urgent to me, and ties in a lot more with helping to tackle racial inequality within UAL’s attainment date by helping those with EAL (who are more often than not international students, or non British home students), rather than guides more related to how to use Moodle, which students may not know about before coming to the workshop but seem to struggle with less.
Because of this, I am focusing on producing the illustrated glossary. I imagine it will be multiple pages long, which will be available both online in pdf format, printed in small as a booklet that students can take with them if they wish, and printed in large format as posters within the 3D Workshop.
In terms of accessibility, for all the printed documents I will be using no less than size 12pt font on the standard leaflets, and enlarging this proportionately for the posters. I will also create a large text version of the leaflet, and rather than having a “large text version available” sticker, the guides will be available side by side for students to identify themselves which one would better suit their needs. Online the documents will be available on Moodle, where I will research how to add alt text image descriptions to the document and make sure that it can be read out loud by a screen-reader. This is not something I have prior experience with so I will get in touch with Kye Li Chia, our Moodle technician for LCC to make sure I am doing this within UAL’s standards.
I aim to structure the glossary by terms and processes. I will first start of by introducing terms relevant to 3D modelling, this will be words used to describe how the students make and export their models in the softwares of their choices. I will focus on terms that I am already aware of that cause confusion, terms specific to 3D modelling, and terms that use words which have separate definitions in English. This list includes but is not limited to:
- Mesh (the ‘skin’ of the 3d model)
- Polygon (the shapes that the mesh is made of)
- Polygon density / mesh density (how many polygons are in the mesh, which affects smoothness)
- Boolean / Boole (the union / fusing of two separate objects into one. The Boole itself is often thought of as an object)
- Open / Closed mesh (meshes that are complete and intact, or meshes with holes in them)
I will then include terms specific to FDM printing on the Ultimaker printers, for eg:
- Ultimaker (The brand of FDM printers available in the LCC 3D workshop)
- FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling – where a 3D print is made by the heating up of a material and squeezing it out layer by layer to create a print)
- PLA (Polylactic Acid – the main material we print with on Ulitmakers. PLA is derived from corn starch so technically biodegradable)
- Infil (the structure generated on the inside of a 3D print – used for rigidity but also to avoid the time and material wastage that would occur if printed completely solid)
- Wall thickness (amount of outer layers before the infill starts, can affect strength)
- Support trees (software generated tree-like supporting structure which prints simultaneously with the model to support it as the print grows. This structure can be removed by students with pliers)
- Overhang (area of the print that will need support)
And finally terms specific to SLA printing on the Formlabs:
- Formlabs (the brand of SLA printing available in the LCC 3D Workshop)
- SLA (Stereolithography printing – the act of printing using a pool of UV-curing liquid that cures layer by layer, as the model moves upwards and out of the pool)
- Solid / Hollow (resin does not print with infil, meaning that models can cost a lot more when printed solid. Hollowing out can create a cost effective solution when printing big)
- Wall thickness (thickness of the model if hollowing out – recommended to be no less than 3mm for strength)
- Drainage holes (two holes that need to be added to the hollow model in order to drain out any liquid resin that gets stuck in the print
- Cups (air pockets within a model (more prone if the model is hollow) that can cause issues when printing – to remove cups you can try rotating the model to a different angle or adding a drainage hole)
This isn’t all the terms but just an example. I will also ask my colleagues which terms they often find struggling to explain without visual aid.
In terms of design, I intend to keep things minimal and clean while keeping it similar to existing guides we have in the 3D workshop. I will pick a main colour to work in for the illustrations (eg, shades of orange and grey) to keep the illustrations simple. I will draw the illustrations myself on Adobe Illustrator to use a simple vector graphic style with the same line thickness throughout to make everything look matching and cohesive.
For the idea to develop in the future beyond what I can produce just for this unit, it would be interesting to get the glossary translated into different languages, especially ones where modelling terms such as ‘boolean’ are translated as something different on the softwares. This could be available as a drop down selection online where the glossary is housed on Moodle.