Infographic Topic
Designed by Jessie Zhang
Layouts
Critique #1: Christy Pham
Christy thought that some of the text in the first version was too difficult for her to read, especially in the location display. She liked the relationship display since it showed how candidates were connected to each other by political party affiliation. Christy thought that the voter turnout was sad, and emphasized that it was a great element to highlight. Christy really liked the second version since the information was better organized and easier to read. She thought that the "When to Vote" timeline could be vertical for easier readability since the layout is now vertical. Christy preferred the second version because it follows the grid nicely.
Model emulation feedback
When I showed Christy my models, she thought that both versions emulated all of the models. She suggested that I should fill in the blank space above President Obama's head and readjust the text sizes so that all sections could depict the same amount of information. For the second version, Christy suggested that I could reduce the amount of whitespace at the top of the infographic.
Revisions based on this critique
I made the whitespace smaller in the second version, and I made the timeline vertical instead of its current zig-zag pattern.
First Iteration
Second Iteration
Critique #2: Jeff Zhong
Jeff liked the background and the timeline that spans the first version of the layout display. He could tell that the background was light blue and there was a white rectangle in the upper left corner. He suggested that for the number display in the bottom right there could have been horizontal lines extending from the numbers across the bars. For the second version, he could see that there were columns and thought the layout was fairly consistent. Overall, Jeff preferred the first version because it felt more full and fleshed out, and it was more appealing.
Model emulation feedback
He thought that there was too much space between columns so he suggested I should make the space smaller. He said the same for the top section: there should be less whitespace, because there was too much. When I showed Jeff my models, he thought that both of my versions emulated all of the models really well, especially the color and visual language models.
Revisions based on this critique
Since he gave the similar suggestion as Christy, I made the whitespace in the second version smaller not only in the top section but also between columns to improve the flow and unify elements.
Critique #3: Hamzah Aly
Hamzah recognized that the layout display was modelled after the iPad layout and liked the strong contrast and unifying elements that were present in the display. He could not think of any changes that needed to be made, but suggested that I should continue to play around such as adding some background color or resizing elements.
Model emulation feedback
Hamzah commented that the layout display emulated my models very well, especially my layout model.
Revisions based on this critique
Because Hamzah was not able to offer much feedback, I continued to play around with the elements to ensure that the infographic appropriately exploited visual potential. I made a lot of small changes here and there that only served to make the revised infographic more "perfect."
Critique #2: Augusta Milford
Augusta appreciated the organization of information. She commented that the first section at the top contained redundant information about the Presidential election. Visually, she thought that the infographic presented a strong unity and harmony of contrasting elements and the flow felt natural. Augusta liked that I colored the text blue in the timeline display to differentiate the voter registration deadlines from the rest of the events.
Model emulation feedback
Augusta felt that my revised layout display appropriately emulated my models, especially my typography; she commented that the typography I chose for this layout was really good.
Revisions based on this critique
I thought about fading the colors for the candidates who dropped out of the Presidential race to make the relationships more clear and in line with the news. However, I decided to keep it simple because I did not want to overwhelm the audience with the amount of information. Based on Augusta's feedback, I edited the text to eliminate redundancy.
Critique #1: Josie Stump
Josie pointed out that while the revised layout display was easy or her to read and digest information, she was confused by the relationship display, in particular because the numbers were not ordered in a manner that was consistent (e.g., 3, 2, 1 vs. 1, 2, 3).
Model emulation feedback
When I showed Josie my models, she thought that the layout display emulated my layout model very well and could not find anything else to critique. She commented that my display emulated models well.
Revisions based on this critique
I considered changing the relationship display so that candidates could be ordered in terms of their perceived frontrunner status by the media, but ultimately decided against it; Clinton and Sanders could easily be read as first and second place by reading horizontally.
Critique #3: Amber Kim
Amber was initially confused by this layout display at first because she thought it was about Obama's election and realized that there was Donald Trump. She thought that the map was referring to this year's results instead of 2012. She couldn't understand the timeline display. The only thing she could understand was the voter turnout graph. Amber thought that the voter turnout graph should not be at the top because it was not relevant to the point of the infographic. Instead, she suggested it might make more sense to put the relationship display at the top. Amber preferred the second version, even though she thought the first version looked cooler.
Model emulation feedback
When I showed Amber my models, she thought that my layouts emulated these models really well. She was only confused by the organization of information.
Revisions based on this critique
Based on Amber's critique, I have elected to swap the number display in the second version with the relationship display to more clearly portray the intent of the infographic: to aid the voters in understanding the 2016 Presidential election by examining how the past 2012 Presidential election informs the current election.