Final Project Concept Map: Design and Rationale

This final project was a challenge. There were so many topics covered this semester, and condensing all of that into an effective visual took a lot of thought and reflection about the course as a whole.

The first thing our group (Courtney, Dan, and Marcelle) had to consider with this project was the audience. The goal was to present information from this Visual Communication class to other students and viewers who had never taken the class. For us, this meant simplifying the information and providing our knowledge of the course in a way that outsiders could understand.

The next step in developing this project was deciding the design and content. These two aspects went hand in hand because what information we were going to use also depended on how we presented the information. We all agreed that a concept map would be the most effective way to display the content. A Concept Map is a diagram that hierarchically organizes pieces of information and shows the connections and relationships between them. This seemed like the best way to organize and present what we learned.

We worked as a group to identify the content, breaking down what we learned into categories. We started out with VISUAL COMMUNICATION as the primary concept, because our ultimate goal was to define and explain visual communication. Branched off of this were more focused concepts that included science, design, aesthetics, and visualizations. We thought that these three categories were larger ideas in the course. From there we broke the information down further, becoming more and more specific as we branched out. We covered a majority of the course’s content using no more than two words for each concept. The connections and minimized amount of text makes everything easy for viewers to read and understand the connections.

Our first iteration was a sketch of a 2D concept map that helped us to get all of our ideas out onto paper. For the final iteration, we decided to take it a step further by bringing the concept map into a 3D space.


The first idea was to use Styrofoam balls in varying sizes connected by wooden skewers. We planned on printing the labels on different colored paper to further distinguish the concepts’ order and emphasis. The problem with this design? Styrofoam is SO expensive. With the number of Styrofoam balls we needed for this project, the cost would have been upwards of $50. We took advantage of the Christmas season by replacing the Styrofoam and skewers with ornaments and ribbon. Round ornaments in different size and colors were purchased to mount on a large foam board. The center ornament was the largest. As the map branched out, the ornaments changed color and became increasingly smaller as the ideas became more specific. We stuck to the four color rule, using only green, gold, silver, and red in an attempt to reduce the viewers cognitive load. Black ribbon was glued onto the board to connect the ornaments. The ribbon also became increasingly thinner as the map branched, another visual element that added to the order of the map with size and color.

The end result was a very organized, effective visualization. We worked together to take content in a 2D format and bring it to life in a more colorful, dimensional way.



Personal Reflection:
Overall, I think the project came out great. This was an interesting because we were essentially using all the concepts, ideas, and theories we learned about visual communication to present that same information. It was very helpful working in a group because we all really put our heads together to bounce ideas off each other and brainstorm. Everyone had helpful contributions, and I know the ideas we used were the result of teamwork. A lot of time and hard work went into putting this project together, and I think the effort and creativity really shows. Coming across the prices of Styrofoam was a huge struggle because I had to think on my feet when shopping for materials. Our group had decided on doing a concept map, so I really had to think on my feet and figure out a way to keep the same idea while not spending a lot of money. Thanks to the Dollar Tree, I was able to keep to the same project design and use ornaments. In the end, I think this worked out even better because we were able to use the size and distinguishable colors of the ornaments to visually organize all of our information.

Multivariate Display

For me, this was the most difficult and challenging visual we've done all semester. I used my pie chart from the original simple graph I did earlier, which displayed data for the high school GPA of first year RWU students. I had a lot of trouble thinking of what "story" to tell with this information as I searched for two other sets of data to use in the multivariate. I finally decided to make the entire visual about first year RWU students. I used data about graduating class rank as well as student location (in-state or out of state).

It was really difficult trying to make a multivariate graph with a pie chart. I couldn't think of any way to display all of this data. I wasn't showing information over time, so that eliminated a lot of possibilities for using different graphs. The data was very different from each other and didn't have the same variables, so it was really confusing trying to tie everything together. I'm still not even sure if the visuals I made even work as a multivariate display.

Even though I was unsure, I started with making a pie chart for class rank. The data given from collegeboard.com said that 14% of students were in the top 10th of the graduating class, 38% were in the top quarter, and 72% were in the top half. I plugged in the numbers to make a graph, not even realizing at first that the numbers didn't add up to 100%. After working with the numbers, I realized that I had to do some math to make everything add up. There was 14% in the top tenth, which I subtracted from the 38% in the top quarter (because if you're in the top tenth, then you are also in the top quarter) to get 24%. I then subtracted the 24% from the 72% in the top half of the class (because, again, if you're in the top quarter, you are also in the top half). This left me with 90%. I concluded that the remaining 10% were students in the bottom half of the class.

The third data set was much simpler. 91% of first year students were out of state, while 9% were in-state.

For my first graph, I tried overlapping information. In my head it seemed like a great idea, but it ended up being a confusing visual disaster, in my opinion. I started with the original colorful pie chart. I then took the class rank pie chart and filled each slice with a different pattern. The pattern was transparent, so you could still see the colored chart underneath. The last chart was much simpler, with only two pieces of data, so I created a border around the entire graph. It was really busy and the patterns made it difficult to understand the chart underneath. I had to use keys for everything, because overlapping made it hard to label everything directly.





It took me forever to figure out another solution. My AHA! moment was to make everything 3-D. I made the 3 pie charts 3 dimensional and had them somewhat stacked. However, I wanted to label everything, so the graphs are more spread out than I originally thought. This display is much easier to understand because everything is color coded and the viewer can understand the information much quicker.




In the end I was happier with the second display, which has all the elements I was hoping to include. It has three variables that tell a story about first year RWU students in a visual way. It may not be the best example of a multivariate display, but I learned a lot through the problem solving I had to do to get to my end result.