Week 12

Good:

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/largest_metropolitan_areas?t=information_design

These infographs involve the population of the largest metropolitan areas. One part shows how many people  entered cities per hour that uses arrows to show the amount of people coming into the cities. One is a scatter plot of most populated metro areas from 2006 which can be compared to the scatter plot from 1990.Both of these are basic scatter plots but can be easily compared. Another one shows population density which is actually denser than the other scatter plots used here, driving the  feeling of density. The scatter plots used here are really varied.

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/the_phaidon_atlas?t=information_design

The Infographs from The Phaidon Atlas is actually kind of interesting. It shows the location of building across the world. The map is made of pixel like triangles which each continent with a different color. The black pixels are the building and the key is on the bottom of the page. Some buildings are really close together which is why there are some keys around the continents in order to show the clustered buildings. I think this is a decent way to show this much information on a small page. It’s as good as it gets without going to another page.

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/the_build_network?t=information_design

The infographs from The Build Network comparing the Walt Disney organization are pretty good. There is a cart that compares percentages through a circle graph made of colored lines which is effective as well as refreshing because it’s not just a simple pie chart which would usually be used here. There is also a series of 3D bar graphs which is also different but can also compared a lot more information easily and clearly.

 

 

Bad:

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/mediafonds?t=information_design

These infograph from Mediafonds could be better. I find it hard to understand what they are comparing. There are blue lines that stretch from the center to the edge of the page but there isn’t anything really telling what each line represents. There are small numbers on the edge of the page showing the amount that each line represents but that doesn’t excuse the lack of understanding the comparison.

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/the_architect_50_methodology?t=information_design

The infograhs used here at Architect 50 are interesting. To show percentages the have a circle made of smaller circles which are just strokes but are filled in as the percentage rises. Another way they show info is through line graphs. I think these are not as effective as the circle graphs. These are just too cramped and hard to follow because they are comparing too many firms, but it would probably work really well if there was less things to compare.

http://www.catalogtree.net/projects/interstellar_overdrive?t=information_design

This infograph from Interstellar Overdrive shows a subjective classification of guitar players depending on their scores at the five categories: Volume, Shreditude, Technique, Emotion and Originality. I find the infographic a little cramped. I also wish that there was more room to show the score of each category. There is only so much room for each star which could use more room in order to show more of a difference in score.

Event 2

IIDCon

 I attended IIDCon on 11/19/16 which was a conference that included 4 speakers; Victor Yocco, Brian Crumley, Liese Zahabi, and John Halfpenny. The first speaker was Victor Yocco who is a research director of EY Interactive. He writes about psychology and design. Through his research he theorizes that psychology is important to design because psychology is the study of the human mind affecting in a given context, and humans will be the ones using the things you design. Psychology reflects empathy for the users. When he starts designing he thinks to himself, “what do I want on this canvas?” Then he thinks about where information will be chunked throughout is design. He says that if you invest time into your work you will build a connection with your work. Some psychological skills he uses in his design are heuristics, default effect, and scarcity effect. Heuristics build metal shortcuts when there are too many decisions to make at once. The default effect shows that many users don’t adjust the settings of a device because they assume hat the designers have the best interest of the user. The scarcity effect is motivated by limited availability or exclusivity. This enhances the user’s perception of scarcity. It also is a common motivator of design decisions. He ultimately encouraged us to remember to research and think of the psychology of design decisions.

Up next was Brian Crumley, a lead front end developer. He likes to think of websites as systems rather than pages. He usually starts out by asking what elements will be used in what context. To do this he needs something that starts a conversation. This is why designers use perspective style guides. This front end style guides are not made of code. It show what information you have, but it is the designer’s job to find out how to use it. The info should flow in 1 direction. It is a good idea to avoid bloat or too much repeated code as it takes up too much space harming the sites performance, and improves user experience. This document optimization turns a regular document into a living document. The style guide builds a common language between all on-board staff members of the project. The guide includes basic and additional elements. The elements can later be built byte sized and accessed internally from the CSS. He finds himself using a lot of Photoshop to optimize or normalize photos. He then talked about a system for design called SEAL which stands for solicit, encourage, ask, and listen. He said that all elements on a style guide should be used at least once.

The next person to talk was Liese Zahabi , a professor of interactive design at Maryland University. Her talk was about information science. She started out by discussing the search process when she used to work at a library and comparing it to the way Google collects data from users and targeted adds. From this she concluded that searching can be hard, especially on the Internet. She said the Internet’s original purpose was to share information with many people. She stated that because all things are integrated with each other that their is really only knowledge that separates all things. Searching forms its own ecosystem on the web because the Internet is always evolving. All search engines need to organize information which can be done more easily today than ever before. Unfortunately content is formed much quicker now of days. Early websites didn’t understand how to design for web because it was such new territory. Now with Google’s data, it is easier to find information, which formed a consolidation and a near monopolization of search on the web. A single search sifts through an exponential amount of options that are filtered and prioritized through many categories. She ultimately wanted us to know that the Internet was a evolving ecosystem, it was created to build a better comprehension, and to embrace it as a new metaphor.

The last speaker was John Halfpenny, a reputation specialist at BrandYourself. The most important thing to remember is what you write will be recognized on the Internet. He says your profile should be optimized for your readers so optimize it for screen. To produce your personal branding, you need to design you for you and your audience. You need to not be a phoney, be true to yourself. 5-7 brand touches are recommended to distinguish your brand. It is recommended to use social media, the big 8 he refers to, as you get recognized better and have about 7 times the personal connection with your audience. It also helps optimize your name on search engine results, which is also recommended. Another way to do this is to make use of your keywords, which should be your name, throughout your sites. It is important to fill out your bio, and build a structure of your sites through links. The overall message of his speech was to take control of your presence on the Internet.

Event 1

On Friday 10/28/16 I went to PCAD to see designer Christian Robinson. He is most known for being an illustrator for children’s books. Some of these books made it onto the New York Times best sellers list. This is sort of ironic as Robinson says he was not the biggest fan of books as a child. What he was really into was drawing. He also said that he didn’t have the best mother but rather was raised mostly by his grandmother.

He attended CALARTs were he studied animation. He unfortunately found out that animation was very hard. He didn’t like the process of animation as he did the art that went into animation. He really liked the art direction of Walt Peregoy, Mary Blair, and Eyvend Carle. He also liked the experimental direction of Corolin Leaf and Yuri Norstein. He was also into the children illustration style of Ezra Jack Keats, Roger Davidson, and Leo Lionni. After tellings us about his inspirations, he explained Albert Einstein’s quote that says the secret of creativity is to hide your sources.

He then showed off some of his work from college. One of these works was an animation called the Dinosaur Song. He then took his portfolio to PIXAR in order to get an internship. He started working for the product merchandising department of PIXAR. The movie Up was the current project for PIXAR when he was working there so he started to make posters, lunch boxes and other products featuring the movie’s characters.

He the went on to tell us that he worked odd jobs for 2-3 years after his internship with PIXAR ended. He went on to say that he would often us sticky notes to write down feedback so that he could improve and learn from his mistakes. Eventually he was hired to be the illustrator for the book Last Stop on Market Street  which he brought an unique art style to, which was believe to aid in the books success. The success of this best seller opened up a lot of opportunity for him to illustrate more books. One of these books was called School’s First Day of School. A fan of his work got really upset about that fact that a janitor character was black. This fan was really upset about this because he thought it was sending a message saying that black people could only work blue collar jobs. After this feedback he realized that children’s book are sort of lacking in diversity and believed that this needs to be changed. Now he tries to add diversity in his work.

 

Week 11

We were to take information from our daily routines for a week and use it to create an info graphic. Our information was to be compared to other trusted sources in order to create a story with our info graphic. I took my info and compared it to national average. My info graphic is a piece of print that is folded and attached by double sided tape. My first attempt was a little cramped and didn’t seem to have much direction. I then doubled the size and added more design elements.

Early form: infographic

final form: