In the article “Some of the newest cookbooks look like comics. But does that work for readers?“ that appears in The Washington Post’s Food Section, July 11, 2017, author Charlotte Druckman quotes CCS Visualization Program Director Albert Cairo, PhD.

IThe article mentions Samin Nosrat’s heavily illustrated debut cookbook “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat”, released in April. Tracing the history of graphic cookbooks back to the first in 1965, they were sporadically produced until recent examples. The article examines how illustrations are used as they related to the instructions. Experts on usability were consulted:  Steven Franconeri, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Principal Investigator of Northwestern University’s Visual Thinking Lab; Scott McCloud, cartoonist and author; Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, a former graphic designer, cookbook author, and restauranteur (of “Nabi”, a Korean restaurant in L.A.); and UM’s Alberto Cairo, PhD, Professor of Visual Journalism, and Program Director of Visualization here at CCS.  Some actual home cooks were also consulted, agreeing with Dr. Cairo’s assessment!

To find out Dr. Cairo’s take on the effectiveness of the use of images in cookbooks, read the full—and heavily illustrated—article at its source:   “Some of the newest cookbooks look like comics. But does that work for readers?“