Final Project

        For our final project, we decided to display a tri-fold with all different aspects of our visual communications class this semester.  We are trying to achieve a beginning understanding of what this course entitles, and to give students who are interested in a visual communications major or minor a    preview of what is to come. 

      We first created three pie graphs, all displaying the same data.  We did this purposely to show what a good pie graph looks like, a decent one, and a perfect one.  The three graphs display how this course, can help communications students better visualize and display their thoughts more clearly. 

      Next we decided to display a mind map, because we thought this is one of the best brainstorming activities.  For the holidays we decided to display a mind map with Christmas located in the middle cloud.  For interested visual communications students, this is an activity that will get their brains to start flowing with ideas.

      On the far right side of our poster, we displayed a flow chart that gives detailed instructions on how to change your major or minor to communications.  Not only does this give a detailed, straightforward set of directions, it also appears to be the last piece to be looked at.  We decided to place it at the end, so that if students have become interested in a major or minor in communications, they will know exactly how to switch their major. 

     On the top left side of our poster we decided to show different type of bar graphs to show our persona the statistics about the program but also something else they will learn in this class. The statistics provided will help the student with how many people are in the program, how many are men and women and how many stay in the program or drop out of it later in college.

       For this final presentation we sat down and brainstormed the many ideas that we learned in this class through the semester and chose the main ideas that stood out to us the most from the semester. When choosing the ideas we placed them in a controlled collage and then put the most important if the student would want to transfer at the end. We decided to put a giant mind map in the middle of the poster because we all thought that this was the most important idea we absorbed from the course.

Storyboard

In my first storyboard I show the picture of the little girl in the orchard first. I used scene to scene in order to show how the paths between the fruit trees will someday turn to roads that go further and further away from home. In the second scene, the backyard has turned into a long path in an immense forest. In the third picture the road is final pavement indicating that the girl is now able to drive legally. The fourth picture shows a road that has now departed from the lush forest in exchange for the fast paced city life.

In the second storyboard I used the children setting up to block a free kick picture and the man praying picture. I used them next to each other in the middle of the story. I tell a story of a day filled with soccer. It is a tournament, but only one team will walk away victorious. In this storyboard I utilized action to action and scene to scene. The first pictures gives a general background setting for a soccer match. The second is an action picture taken during a game, and the third is a man praying for one of his children who are playing that day. The fourth picture shows that out of all the teams in the tournament that day there could only be one winner.

Graph and Chart

For the chart I gathered information from a data set that searched for on the Roger Williams homepage. I chose to select data from a collection tuition amounts over the last 10 years. The data included too much information to include in one graph and needed more than one measuring stick so I choose only information I knew I could represent graphically (commuters vs. non, arch vs. non, undergrad/grad ect.) I chose to focus on tuition, resident fees, and room and board for an incoming freshman student. 

It was hard to get Excel to show the graph the way I wanted it. The proportions were hard to get right, and it was difficult to call in the proper cells for each piece of graph information. After getting everything to look accurate in terms of the way the graphical information is displayed on the graph, I began to explore the different graph types. The line graphs seemed to be easiest on the eye with limited cognitive load. I chose the 3-D line graph because total and tuition lines overlapped became distracting with a regular line graph. I would have liked to get the X axis labeled years, and the Y "Dollars in thousands" to allow the dependent variable to become integrals of 1 (1,2,3,4,5). 

The single most important thing that is missing from the graph (unless seen with the table) is a title. A "Undergraduate Tuition and Required Fees" title at the top of the graph would have further reduced the cognitive load.

Flow Charts

I did not have an amazon.com account before this flow chart, so the only way to complete the assignment was to make one. It was interesting to be experiencing the book buying process online for the first time by creating a flow chart. It was not easy and took a couple renditions. The search box is the most comprehensible tool of any website, which is why I chose it as for the main processes. The subsystems I created with my decision diamonds ensure that the viewer has an amazon account, and that they are able to search for any book or a specific text. The flow chart also walks the viewer through the technical elements of the check out process.

I miss-read the cognitive load/dual coding flow chart assignment. Instead of creating a flow chart for either google scholar or bing and cognitive load or dual coding, I created a flow chart combining all of the options. In order to create a process icon by which the viewer understood to search more than piece of information I inserted a data icon which is represented by a parallelogram. The subsystems in the flow chart are created by two decision icons. The first guarantees a suitable collection of documents returned from a search. The other subsystem allows the viewer to read documents from the suitable search return, but only bookmark the ones which are suitably revenant to the topic. A larger subsystem allows this entire process to continue so that multiple research documents can be gathered.

Explanation Graphic

The Information Graphic I choose to improve is made by a county health system in northern California called Contra Costa Health Services. The graphic itself is a flowchart detailing how to deal with a flu outbreak at a local school. I choose it because it took me a long time understand, so I figured there was a lot of cognitive load problem solving to be done. I also had a couple of ideas to help improve the dual coding used in the flow chart. I am very happy with progress I made between my first couple of attempts and my final graphic.

How to Make a Spaghetti Dinner

In order to successfully transmit the information need to make a spaghetti dinner I first drew all of the components in the top left corner. The components are a box of noodles, a jar of tomato sauce, two pots, two wooden spoons, plates and utensils, and a strainer. The first graphic represents both pots under high and medium flame (water in one under high flame). The second graphic shows the transfer of the noodles into the water-filled pot and the tomato sauce in the pot under medium flame. A simplified clock attempts to show the amount of time to cook the noodles, and the spiral arrows next to the wooden spoons represents stirring the sauce and noodles. The next step shows the straining of the the noodles, and the transition of the two ingredients into separate bowls. Once the cooked ingredients are placed on a table or eating surface the spaghetti dinner is complete. 

Botts Lawn Care

For Bott's Lawn Care decision support graphic I wanted to make sure it was clear that a healthy, thriving lawn does not need treatment. I was conflicted on how to arrange my graphic on the page, so I made two attempts. Both are organized vertically. My second graphic (top) feels more cohesive because the bold arrows create a focus toward the fertilizer types, and the proximity of the two types of grass health. I was also conflicted about how to represent insects vs. no insects. Although the top graphic appears more visually appealing, it is actually the one with some unintentional mistakes ("boots," A and B fertilizer types switched). The "X" through the insects on the first graphic represent the conditions better then the absence of the insects in the second drawing. Thinking about it now, it would have been really hard to depict health vs. unhealthy grass without the use of color.

Collage

The patterns I observed in my collage included organization, balance, color, and rhythm. I also noticed the rectilinear nature of the college elements, and the relationship between graphic images and text. Many of the images on the collage were taken from a skiing magazine which seems to make it the central focus, but I did try to include a variety of subjects and interesting text. 

The general feedback I got on the comments suggested that my collage was organized and focused around skiing and nature. Almost everyone made note of the fact that I used the whole page. I was interested to see a few comments about having a lot of text. When the page started to get filled up the collage became very busy and I didn't want to distract from the images I had chosen. My solution was to add the blue and purple pages on the bottom right for their color in hopes that the small text would be of no interest compared to the other images. Overall the comments matched somewhat closely to my intentions for the collage.

Geographical Map

My intent for this geographical map was to examine the interstate highways that run through New England. I wanted to do this because I am frequently traveling on these roads. I go to school in Rhode Island, but I return home to New Hampshire to work on the weekends. I am also regularly visiting friends and family throughout Massachusetts, Burlington Vermont, and northern Maine (Beddington, Castine). I also ski throughout New England every winter. I have become proficient at navigating the highways in these states over the years, but I wanted to have an accurate visual representation so I could conceptualize my trips better. I also included major ports I would visit if sailing from New Hampshire to parts of the Downeast region (Penobscot Bay, Bar Harbor, Rockland).

The process of doing this geological map was harder that I had anticipated. By the time I had finished drawing out the states in pencil I was wishing I had done an affinity map. I was however very happy with the outcome and impressed by what I learned about the proportions of New England. I am always eager for a drive to Vermont or Maine but never to travel a much shorter distance from Rhode Island to coastal New Hampshire. It is interesting how the traffic during a 3 hour drive can make a traffic free 6 hour drive so much more bearable.

There is a compass rose orientated in the top left corner and a map Legend in the bottom right corner with an approximately accurate scale. Deep and Shallow water is indicated by lighter and darker shades of blue. Interstate highways are shown in red, developed land and thick forest are denoted by corresponding greens, and grey represents New England's neighboring territories. State Capitals are also labeled.

Mind Maps

The central focus for this mind map was Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire. I work at the Portsmouth Yacht club and every year we accommodate hundreds of transient vessels making their way up or down the coast with moorings. While providing launch service I am frequently asked about the history of the harbor, and what there is do. I have lived in the area all of my life so I sometimes forget to mention the small fun things there are to do that I take for granted on a usual day. Although I have a usual spiel about historical sites and information, but through this mind map I was hoping to achieve a more thorough sensible response to the customers questions. I am current returning home to work for the yacht club on the weekends until the end of the season in mid october, so it is important to keep a sharp mind at work sense I am usually scrambling to do homework during breaks or on a slow day.

The experience was similar to how it was explained in class. During the first twenty minutes everything I wrote down on the paper was usual familiar to me. When I started to run out of ideas it seemed like really great ones would come to me randomly, but slowly. I just kept working at it over the course of a couple days and ending up coming up with excellent ideas that really surprised me. I had problems trying to decide how to incorporate color into the map. I decided on yellow for the central focus to draw the viewers eye immediately. Red and Blue branches help signify water vs. land affiliated activities while purple is useful information. There are images associated with the various branches that unify the map and make it more easily understandable. During the second mind map I explored the necessary things involved with being a useful employee at the Portsmouth Yacht Club. The aha moment came when I started realizing some of the last things I jotted down were the things I needed to work on the most at the club.

Overall, I can certainly see the usefulness of mind mapping. I am intrigued by the fact that our brains go directly to the most used synapses. It takes a while to get to the good stuff. I have definitely been taking this phenomena into consideration in everyday life as well. I am more conscious of things that I do just out of a habit or pattern. I am excited to introduce this technique to others in the further because I feel like it is essential especially for problem solving.