Final Design Rational

As a group we decided to create a 3- dimensional concept map to show what we have learned in Intro to Visual Communication. We feel that this style map would best express all of the ideas that have been learned over the course of the semester. We thought of this idea because we wanted to show the class a 3-D model, rather than an image on paper. We felt that it would get the point across best and it would bring some creativity to the concepts discussed. The inspiration behind the model was from solar system dioramas that many of us saw in science classes. We thought this design would work best for this final project because of the main focus being in the center and smaller ideas coming from that.

When creating this model we learned just how much information was taught in this class. When deciding each branch of the model should be, we went back over all three of our notes and tests from the semester. We highlighted the ideas that we felt most important, and collectively decided on ten main ideas. The concepts included in the model are: a mind map, concept map, collage, decision graphic, how-to graphic, explanation graphic, flow chart, simple tables, story board and a multivariate display.

All the images included in the model were our sketches from the semester. We went to or blogs and printed them out to paste onto the Styrofoam branches. We chose to use Styrofoam shapes that we connected to the central idea by popsicle sticks. Initially we were going to use dowels, but remembered we had to label the branches. The popsicle sticks allowed us to have room to write the “linking phrases” between concepts.

This model allowed us to visualize all the ideas that had been learned. After the completion of the visual we created it was interesting to see the ideas branch out from the central idea. We tried to use Gestalt laws such as proximity to relate the branches to each other as much as possible, 3-dimenstionally. Our efforts also went towards keeping the cognitive load as low as possible. We did this by using color to distinguish the different branches from one another. The central idea, that being the class was white and different colors then branched out from there. The Styrofoam balls and popsicle sticks were the same color. Another theory that we included in our project is dual coding. We used this theory by including both verbal and visual information during our presentation, by having visuals being the pictures of the concepts along with our explanation of each. Overall, we feel that this 3-D model is a good tool to show others the ideas that were learned in Intro to Visual Communication.

This was a fun project to do. It was challenging to incorporate everything that we have learned but it was exciting at the same time

Multi-Variate Assignment

For my multi-variate assignment I chose to look at the top halloween costumes of 2010. They were; Lady Gaga, Snooki, and Avatar. Since mostly women would be dressing up as Lady Gaga of Snooki I chose to ask only girls what they were for Halloween. I compared girls in high school, girls in college, and girls out of college. Since some girls did not dress up as Lady Gaga, Snooki, or Avatar I also added another group for people who were "other". I sent out a facebook message to 30 girls I knew in each category, I then recorded all of the data I found in the table.

After I made the table showing the information that I found, I put everything into bar graph. By using the bar graph its easier to see trends in the data. As you can see in high school most of the girls were Snooki the runner up was Lady Gaga, then Avatar then "other". In college most girls were Lady Gaga, then Snooki, then Avatar then "other". Lastly for girls out of college I found that most of them were dressed as Avatar, then Lady Gaga, then Snooki, and then "other". The reasons for the different costumes for different age groups has to do with what the girls do. In high school a lot of girls watch MTV and Jersey Shore and is one of the most popular shows on MTV right now, Snooki is a character on the show Jersey Shore. In college girls are always trying to dress more scandalous than other girls and Lady Gaga is known for her scandalous outfits. Lastly girls out of college are trying not to be scandalous anymore so they would not dress like Lady Gaga or Snooki, so they mostly dressed as Avatar.

storyboard 2

In my second storyboard there was a lot of action. Everything was very predictable but I feel like it was a good story and had a good beginning, middle, and end. I liked using two of the frames given to us because it made the assignment more challenging. I was content with using just three frames for this story, there wasn't much more for me to add to it. I thought I created a good ending. I used the scene to scene transition, from Scott McCloud's 6 Transitions, between all three frames.

Storyboard 1

When writing this storyboard I was surprised to see how depressing I made my stories. Over all I enjoyed this assignment it was interesting to see where my mind would take the story. I liked finding pictures to make the story work. It was hard to make a full story with just three frames. When I reached the last frame on this slide I had a hard time coming up with a conclusion but in the end I think it all came together nicely. I like how when the story started you the reader would not expect what the ending is. When it comes to Scott McClouds 6 transitions I used the scene to scene transitions between all of my frames.

Simple Table

In my table I found out the percent of minorities accepted to RWU in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. I did this by first finding out the number of minorities that applied to Roger Williams in those years and then the number of minorities that were accepted to Roger Williams in those years. By dividing those numbers by each other I was able to find out the percent of minorities accepted to Roger Williams. From this chart you can see a steady increase in the number of minorities accepted to Roger Williams. This was a very interesting study to look at, and after reviewing all of my data I was shocked to see how many were accepted in 2007 but glad that Roger Williams has made an effort to accept more minorities. You can also see an increase in Roger Williams popularity since 2007. More than double the amount of minorities applied to Roger Williams in 2010 than 2007. All in all this finding out all of this information was a great learning experience and it was interesting to see all of the data put into graphs.
Here is the first graph I did concerning just the percentages of the data in the table. It shows the increase of minorities accepted to Roger Williams over the past three years.



This is another way to graph the same information that was demonstrated in the bar graph. This is a line graph that shows the percent of minorities accepted to Roger Williams. As you can see there is another steady increase over the past 3 years.










This is the last graph I did using the information from the table above. This graph shows the number of minorities accepted to Roger Williams and the number of minorities that applied to Roger Williams. As you can see there is an increase in both areas of the line graph over the past three years

Flow Chart

When doing this assignment I had to use my resources. I actually went on to amazon.com and went through the steps of buying a book and looked at the questions I had to ask myself in order to get to the end result of submitting a book for final order. I had to force myself to thing of the steps that we all think of as natural to our everyday lives. I went into great detail in this flow chart and feel I described the steps on how to buy a book very well in my flow chart. I thought it was a good idea to use color to show the different parts of the flow chart, so that people could further understand it. I also thing adding color reduced the cognitive load of this flow chart. All in all I enjoyed this assignment and thought I learned a lot from taking part in it.

2nd iteration

In this second iteration everything really came together. I like how I incorporated the colors not only in the actual images but in the words as well. I had a lot of fun drawing this figure because I love flowers so much, it was interesting to really learn all the different parts of the flower.