Appearance | infovis-2015

With this display, I am trying to communicate to my audience that this section of the infographic is about the process of voting for the Presidential candidate. I started with a more realistic image of President Obama but removed details such as the shadows so that it is more two-dimensional. I retained the facial features and pose to ensure that the appearance would be recognizable as the President of the United States.

Emulation Description: I emulated the visual language model by retaining the photorealistic look of the photo cutout and I emulated the color model by choosing the appropriate bright color to bring out the distinct features of the President.

Displays that exploit the visual potential of appearance

Critique #1: Ben Peterson

Ben preferred the first version, because it has more colors whereas the second version has more lines, which does not give him a clear visual image.

Model Emulation Feedback

He suggested that the blue color for the first version could have been brighter to better emulate my color model.

Revisions based on this critique

Based on this critique, I modified the hues and saturation so that the first version has a brighter shade of blue that is more in line with the color model.

First Iteration

Final display:

Second Iteration

Sources: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Administration/People/president_official_portrait_hires.jpg

Critique #2: Xingyue Yang

Xingyue preferred the first version, because it is more visually enjoyable. She was concerned that the second version, even though it had more details, would not accurately reflect the topic of the infographic. She thought that this photo cutout was related to the topic of diversity.

Model Emulation Feedback

She suggested a light gray color for the second version, and she pointed out that I could change the line color in the second version to a lighter color, such as white or light blue.

Revisions based on this critique

Based on this critique, I filled in the color for the second version so that it is bright blue and better emulates the color model. I was not able to change the line color due to technical difficulties.

Critique #3: TianAi Zhao

TianAi liked both versions equally. She suggested that I could pick either one of these versions depending on the topic. If the topic is President Barack Obama, she would pick the first version. If the topic is more general, such as the political process, she would pick the second version.

Model Emulation Feedback

She thought that the color used in the first version was darker than usual, and suggested a brighter color. She appreciated the first version for the amount of detail it had, though it could be hard to see. She also enjoyed the simplicity of the second version.

Revisions based on this critique

Based on this critique, I made the fill color of the first version brighter to match the shade of blue used in the color model, and I heightened the contrast.

Critique #3: Tyler Bauer

Interestingly, Tyler is working on an infographic with Presidential candidate Donald Trump as the subject. Tyler loved the color blue on Pres. Obama because it was symbolic of his political party.

Model Emulation Feedback

Tyler thought the color model was appropriate for the subject of elections that I chose. He also thought that the photo cutout of Obama was appropriate in terms of color and visual language that I chose. Tyler suggested that I could adapt the photo cutout so that more details could be seen.

Revisions based on this critique

As this critique was similar to other critiques I received from Cory and Joel, I simply modified the color to be a brighter hue and applied this color directly to the original image instead of the grayscale version of the original image. I increased the brightness of the cutout so more details could be seen.

Critique #2: Joel Elizaga

Joel's critique was similar to Cory's. He enjoyed the photo-realistic nature of the photo cutout of President Obama as it was similar to the image of Pitbull in the visual language model.

Model Emulation Feedback

He suggested that I should make the suit lighter so that details are not lost, such as the creases of Obama's suit and he suggested having a light blue background to contrast with the cutout, resembling the high contrast color scheme of the visual language model. Joel thought the color model I chose was appropriate for the subject.

Revisions based on this critique

Based on this critique, I lightened the photo cutout and did not change the levels of the original image, as I had done previously, so that details would be kept.

Critique #1: Cory Brown

Cory liked the color blue on President Obama, because he felt the color best represented his Democrat party and showed that the infographic would be political in nature.

Model Emulation Feedback

When I showed him my models, he complimented me on keeping in line with the visual language model as well as the color model. He was concerned about how dark the suit was on Obama, since the cutout would not look well against a dark background, if I were to mirror the Pitbull visual language model.

Revisions based on this critique

I did not make as much of a change to the photo cutout since he enjoyed the color blue. I decided to make the fill color of this cutout a brighter blue by coloring the original image instead of coloring the desaturated image of President Obama. I considered a lighter blue background to reassure Cory of his concerns about the contrast.