Final Graphic Rationale

FINAL GRAPHIC

Final Graphic Rationale

Throughout the year we learned about various graphical models as well as theorists. These ideas have helped us achieve successful grades in our assignments. For our final project we decided to create a visualization on what we have learned this semester in order to explain it to someone. We volleyed ideas such as crosswords, game boards, and others but after much thought we did not find them to be successful. Using what we have learned about color, shape, orientation, and types of visualization we have created a puzzle that when pieced together, spells out visual comm. We used the dual-coding theory, which enabled us to represent the main concepts of the course. The first idea we had was to use the words “visual comm” in the middle of our graphic with main concepts, theorist, and points inside of them. However, we felt that this was just satisfactory and decided to sleep on the idea. The morning of our morning second meeting, Jordan revealed a second portion of our project that would make it excel. Our “aha!” moment came when we decided to make our main “visual comm” graphic into a puzzle and then break up our presentation piece by piece. We found this to be more effective as it brought a bigger message to our project. When trying to add the words visual comm to the puzzle, the cognitive load became too heavy. The visual comm letters were too confusing so we decided against the idea. At first we thought that using four colors would make the graphic clear and concise but after looking at the final graphic we decided it was too boring and lacked creativity. When all the puzzle pieces fit together, the key concepts and theories are come together to create the class “visual comm.” Each puzzle piece represents an assignment we did individually as a class. As the class came to a close we came together and used all our knowledge to create this final graphic.

Personal Input:

The assignment was extremely vague and it intimidating as I did not know how to fit a years worth of material into one graphic. I laid in bed at night thinking about the different things we could do as a group but I remained stumped. However, when I was sitting in class one day, an idea came to me that would be a great concept for my graphic. I wanted to make a puzzle that when all the concepts fit together it would say "Visual Comm." However, my partners Jenna and Jordan decided to go with just the concepts without the wording. Jenna and Jordan helped an amazing amount and I could not ask for better partners. We all worked very well together and since we all gave our best efforts, the graphic turned out to be a success! We went through some speed bumps like a dog peeing on our poster board but we were all able to pull our own weight and get the project done.

(I can only put 3 iterations up but we did 5)

Multivariate Graphic

RATIONALE:

In starting this graphic I honestly became flustered at the word multivariate and did not even want to continue. However, I looked through my notes and the graphic syllabus and I was able to get a better understanding on where I was going to head. I knew I wanted to add on to my swimming results graph because I knew there was so much more data I could add. I perused through the RWU Hawks website and found two different swimming seasons that I could add. I found all the point and added two more lines to my line graph. The lines were very similar and I thought that it may be a bit confusing. I thought this may be an increase in the cognitive load but, I suddenly realized that the lines tell a story. During this assignment I forgot that there must be some sort of message that come out of your graph but in the process I found it! The Roger Williams Swim Team started in 2006 and is therefore very young. In posting the points earned at every swim meet. I was able to show how in each year that we swam, the team got better. This really shows the extreme growth in the program and the graph does a pretty good job and depicting that. I used colors and labels which is also known as dual coding. This reduced the cognitive load for the viewers which then made a successful graphic

Multivariate Graphic

RATIONALE:

In starting this graphic I honestly became flustered at the word multivariate and did not even want to continue. However, I looked through my notes and the graphic syllabus and I was able to get a better understanding on where I was going to head.

Storyboarding Graphics

STORYBOARD 1 STORYBOARD 2

RATIONALE:

Declaring my Film minor a few weeks ago made me very confident in starting this assignment because I have had some experience storyboarding in the past. While I knew what storyboarding was, this assignment was very different from what I usually do. However, I tried to incorporate the pictures into my story as best as I could. During my first iterations of this assignment, all I really wanted to accomplish was where I wanted to put the pictures that were on the COMM site. Once I figured out where I wanted to put these pictures I was able to formulate a small narrative around them quite easily. Some problems I encountered when doing these graphics was how long or how concise I wanted the narrative to be. I know I wanted to keep my graphics very simple and follow Tuftes Graphic Excellence Rule. I reached an "AHA" moment when I realized that what the assignment was asking was not for an elaborate narrative (although nice) but to accurately incorporate the pictures given with easy flow. I believe that I achieved this very nicely with the soccer storyboard as there was only one image to use. The second storyboard was a lot tougher due to the fact that I had to incorporate two of the pictures. According to the Schrivers Model, I incorporated the scene-to-scene transition for most of my slides. However, for the soccer storyboard I used action-to-action to display the soccer ball being kicked and going into the net. I believe that this assignment was a success and will help me in my minor in film.

Graphic #8 Graphs and Table

TABLE AND FIRST GRAPH

OTHER TWO GRAPHS

RATIONALE:

While looking through the graphic description I saw the word “Excel” and immediately got goosebumps. In all my experiences in using excel I have had nothing but negative feelings. However, I took the project head on and hoped for the best! I researched many statistics about Roger WIlliams University and went from academics to admissions. I ended up choosing the 2009-2010 RWU Men’s Swimming Meet Results for my data. I choose all the point accumulated at the end of the meet and made several different graphs. Making the table was fairly easy and it came very easy. After I got the table squared away I got very confused as to how to format my graphs. I decided to put three graphs which were bar graphs, line graphs, and a bar graph that were shaped like pyramids. I had trouble trying to label the axis along with adding more data to the graph. I tried formatting and editing but nothing worked. I finally came to a different “AHA” moment when I finally found out all one has to do is highlight the data and hit edit table! The narrative I was trying to accomplish with my graphs was how well the men’s swimming team was throughout the seasons. The graph also tells the teams wins and losses conveying how hard the teams were. At the end of making this graphic I was able to appreciate excel a tiny bit more along with understanding on how to make a fairly effective graph.

Amazon Book Flow Chart

FINAL GRAPHIC

ITERATION

RATIONALE:

For one does not read or order products off the internet very often, I was actually confused on what sort of steps I need to include in this flow chart. The process seemed a little grey in my mind as buying a book online was not something I usually do and putting it in flow chart form made me even more confused. I knew that I would have to make many iterations in order to get this graphic right. I practiced many different processes so that I knew how flow charts worked and amazon books. I knew I needed to have enough room when my flow chart had parts where the viewer need to make a decision. I did not know exactly how to incorporate color into the graphic other than making the different shapes different colors. I thought that any more color than that would make the graphic defy the laws of Ocaams Razor. The flow chart is very simple and only goes over the main points of ordering a book on amazon. There are only about six steps one must take to order a book online and the flow chart show that in a waterfall effect. I added a few symbols away from the flow chart that would relate to the process of ordering a book. I thought that this graphic went well but I hope that I used the official patterns in the flow chart were used correctly.

Graphic Improvement

FINAL GRAPHIC

2nd ITERATION

1st ITERATION

RATIONALE:

I had a very tough time trying to find instructions or a graphic in my dorm that was incoherent or poorly done. After much rummaging I stumbled across a graphic that was for a screen protector to put on my phone. There was way too many words, too little graphics, and confusing arrows. I knew that this was certainly something that I could improve. I took the time to fool around with some ideas that proved to be unworthy of the final graphic. I noticed i needed color, more steps, and less words.

Spaghetti Dinner Graphic

FINAL GRAPHIC

RATIONALE:

During this week I felt myself doing very well conveying a message without words as our group won the "Ocaams Razor" prize for the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. However, when the assignment was given to describe a full spaghetti dinner without words I did not know what to do. There are so many different steps into making a spaghetti dinner that I immediately became overwhelmed. I first sat and started to draw of all the component needed to make a spaghetti dinner. There is garlic bread, meatballs, and spaghetti just for the bare essentials. In the lawn care assignment I felt as though my "chart like" format was very successful so I decided to do a waterfall effect with columns eventually leading to the end product. I put the process of making spaghetti in the left column, making garlic bread in the middle, and making meatballs in the right column. To divide the processes I decided to make the lines look like spaghetti to go along with the spaghetti dinner feel. I tried to use multiple colors within the symbols to relate to the audience in what products they may recognize. I tried to use similarity in symbols such as the timer to convey how long the audience is supposed to cook the food. Overall, I feel ad though the final graphic turned out to be successful.

Lawn Solutions

Lawn Solutions Final

Lawn Solutions Iteration

LAWN SOLUTIONS RATIONALE

Heading into this project I had no idea on how to approach drawing decisions with no words. I knew I had to think a lot when approaching my iteration because I needed to let my ideas flow. I ended up being extremely happy with my iteration and used the outline for my final drawing. I decided that listing the chemicals one by one would be less confusing as there are many different scenarios. I used the different elements according to what the chemicals needed and found out that they were very similar. The only element that was different between lettered chemicals was the insect infestation. I drew the insects first before listing the other elements because it was the distinguishing factor. I had a hard time thinking of symbols that were sustainable for others to understand. I ended up using what I thought were universal symbols such as the thermometer, desert, rain, and a basic bug. While I was happy with the way this turned out, I was fairly surprised that I had not had an "aha" moment yet. I thought I had done something wrong but suddenly realized that my chemicals names looked very similar looking and could be confusing. Then it came, AHA!, color coding to make things more clear has alway been a favored technique. I decided to keep the letters black and the numbers orange so that people could distinguish what they needed easier. I ended up being very happy with my drawing and I believe that people of all kinds will be able to understand it.

Sketch #3 Collage

MY COLLAGE

-mix of both dark and warm colors

-Nature themed

-Man made objects also

-connections between products

-no specific order

-Nature vs. Man

-Abstract and Modern

-Food stands out

When this assignment was announced I immediately became stressed. The time limit was way too fast for me as I like to take my time when making art. Looking back at the assignment I understand why it is done this. This assignment boosts ones sense of analysis and ability to make connections. In the process of making this I had no plan. I was simply cutting things out that jumped out at me. When starting the process I had very little direction in where to put my images. My arrangement only included a little thought. When I arrived back at my dorm I was able to look at my piece for a longer period of time and jokingly made connections. The more I joked about connections the more I realized how much they made sense. I had a lot of pictures that dealt with nature and many pictures of food which contradicted each other. I believe it depicted a message of nature vs. man or the industry. I also used a lot of cool designs from a home decor magazine. This gave the collage an abstract and visual appeal. I ended up being very happy with my collage.

Mind Maps Sketch #1

MIND MAP #2

MIND MAP #2

MIND MAP #1

Upon starting my mind map I had zero idea on what my central idea and problem was going to be. This forced me to sit down with my sketchbook and think about what sort of problems I currently have in my life. This only took a moment as I realized what dilemma always arises here at Roger Williams. This dilemma is money. I thought about how much I am paying to go here and how I even need to watch how I spend my money here in order to stay in sufficient funds. I still want to have fun with all my friends so I decided to make a mind map that may help make me realize a solution on how to save or make a little more money. I started going off with the ideas and reasons that put me in this problem. I realized that things such as my smartphone, trips, food, and weekends have taken up the majority of my bank account. After I had found out these problems I became stuck on how I should solve my dwindling bank account. I left the sketchbook for an hour and then came back with a clear head. I then realized in my "AHA! moment" that a vast majority events in which I spend money all draw back to school. I then made numerous connections to what happens on campus and realized that a lot of things connected to each other. I achieved solutions such as spending less on food, sharing with friends, and music.

MIND MAP #2

For my second mind map I decided to take the problems of "Pressure of RWU" that derived from my money problems map. I decided to do this because at some points during the year I become overwhelming stressed with the multiple events in my schedule. I wanted to see if I could find solutions or answers as to why I feel this way. I thought maybe I could even find a way to control my stress during my mind map experience. I started with four main controls that I thought where most of my stress comes from. These subjects were doing well, procrastination, peer comparison, and self appearance. As mind maps work, I just started listing off words or ideas that came to my head when I thought about these stressful thing. The only problem I found when I looked at all my words is that I did not really see an overall connection. I was a bit frustrated as I thought I would have seen an overall correlation right away. After looking at the map a second time, I had an "AHA!" moment and realized that a majority of the things that caused me stress would all give me a life lesson. While I struggle with these things now, scenarios like this in the future will not be a problem for me. I achieved my goal of finding the origins of my stress and how I will benefit from the current stress.


CONCLUSION

From this first mind mapping experience, I realized I can use this tool to find solution and find messages from my subconscious. I thought that in doing this exercise that I would not actually find things I did not know. My current issues of money an stress is now probably going to dwindle in severity. I hope to use mind maps in my sketchbook for the future as I found it to be a great success. The "AHA!" moments were very cool and I wish to have many more of them. Overall, this was a nice beginning to my sketchbook.

Affinity Map Sketch #2

AFFINITY MAP CLOSE UP OF MIDDLE CONGESTION

AFFINITY MAP

Affinity Map Sketch:

Now on my second assignment, I was really excited to begin a new prompt and to let my mind function in a different way. After a long time of deliberation, I decided to go with an affinity map, as I believe I would have the most fun creating it. I had a hard time figuring out what topic I wanted to discuss never mind the control on my axis would be. I contemplated certain activities and other various things but finally ended up focusing my map on beverages. I thought that I could find a lot of units to add to my map and I immediately thought of what my variables would be. I chose the two extremes of youth and elderly plus the extremes of healthy and unhealthy. I was excited to start because a bunch of different ideas were just flowing through my head. The idea was simple and I like it as I got to understand how and affinity map worked. I encountered a problem with how general I wanted to get with my beverages. I did not know if I wanted specific names of beverages or just general names. I sat there distraught wondering what direction I wanted to go. Upon this contemplation I had an “AHA!” moment and thought that I would just find drinks that would correspond to age then it would fall into categories of unhealthy or healthy. This made this much easier to figure out and I was then able to finish my map. I achieved my goal of understanding an affinity map.

Conclusion:

This assignment was to help me better learn how an affinity map works and I believe I have achieved this goal. I knew that if I chose something different that I choose something different I would not benefit from the assignment as much. I knew that going into this course I wanted to learn more of the informational process. I learned all of the basic aspects of an affinity map and would consider the assignment a big success.