Abstract:

Being able to communicate research in different scenarios is one of the desirable skills in a researcher, therefore, there is an increasing number of varied traditional and non-traditional formats for communicating research. Comic strips are not widely used for communicating research in academia or in research publications specifically, yet they may suit some audiences and be useful for online dissemination when recruiting participants, and when communicating to the public outside of academia (Lock, 2013 & 2014). This paper presents the development and application of comic strips with the intent of communicating the rationale, research questions, and findings of a doctoral study. The process to develop this comic strip followed a design thinking approach throughout its five described phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test (Brown, 2008). The comic strip in this paper was socialized through video, poster, and slides presentation. A qualitative interpretative approach was employed to explore the insights of members of the public who were exposed to this comic strip and reported it to be: clear, engaging, clever, attractive, and humorous thus informative, original, novel, creative, and effective to communicate the content. It is argued that the scholarly use of comic strips makes research more accessible to broader audiences (academic and non-academic) thus incorporating a bit of humor. It is suggested that comic strips could be an innovative way to reduce the gap between research and its practical application in the real world, due to their potential to engage a broader audience in a more visual way through light readings, appealing characters, and familiar situations.

Keywords:

Applied comics, communicating research, applied design thinking, research and society.