Information Design / Project 1 & 2

on
17.02.2025 - 05.03.2025 (Week 3 - Week 5)
Ng Kar Yee / 0367743
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Information Design / Project 1 & 2

LECTURES

Week 3⇒ Miller’s Law of Memory

  • Communication can be a messy endeavor, with interruptions happening frequently and misunderstanding affecting the way the message is carried across to other participants.
  • Miller's law suggests how our short-term memory is limited when it comes to remembering more than seven information "objects," and how retaining that information does not last longer than 30 seconds.
  • Miller's law directly opens up the issue of certain limitations when it comes to humans.
  • True understanding through communication is even harder because there are other factors that 'a priori' influence the methods we use to process information. 
  • Underlying beliefs, preferences, or even prejudices, they are usually not expressed but affect how we will deal with the information we get. That is where people go in the opposite direction of Miller's suggestions on communication.

What is Miller's Law?

  • Miller's law was proposed by psychologist George A. Miller in 1956.
  • You will have a hard time remembering anything more than seven different information if they come at you in a short period, and you will likely forget them in less than 30 seconds.
  • If you want to understand something, you first have to imagine that what you are hearing or reading is true and take it from there.

Week 4⇒ Manuel Lima’s 9 Directives Manifesto

What is Manuel Lima’s 9 Directives Manifesto?
  • Provides a working list that can help provide clarity on what Information Visualization through 9 directives, why information visualization differs from information art or infographics.

Manuel Lima’s 9 Directives Manifesto

1. Form Follows Function
  •  “The purpose should always be centered on the explanation, which in turn leads to insight.” Start with a Question: Your work should always be driven by a query
2. Interactivity is Key
  • Allows for investigation and learning through discovery
3. Cite Your Source
  • Always disclose where your data originated.
4. The Power of Narrative
  • Humans love stories. Elaborate your information into storytelling to make it more interesting and memorable.
5. Do Not Glorify Aesthetics
  • “Should always be a consequence and never a goal”
6. Look for Relevancy
  • Why are you visualizing the information?
7. Embrace Time
  • Time is difficult to work with. That’s why time management is one of the key factor to organize and achieve better results for any decision making.
8. Aspire for Knowledge
  • “A core ability of Information Visualization is to translate information into knowledge. It’s also to facilitate understanding and aid cognition.”
9. Avoid Gratuitous Visualizations
  • “Should respond as a cognitive filter, an empowered lens of insight, and should never add more noise to the flow”

INTRODUCTION


PROJECT 1 & 2⇒ ANIMATED INFOGRAPHIC POSTER

For our project 1, Mr Fauzi and Mr Shamsul introduced Animated Infographic Poster where we are needed to develop an infographic that presents a series of different processes as visuals rather than text.

In this exercise, we are required to,
  • Your main intention is to analyse the “delivery mechanisms” that affect the outcomes of your infographics.
  • Though content is important, however the aim of this presentation is too look at what makes an infographic presentation work or does not work. This includes content but only as one of the many components of an infographic:
PART 1: Infographic poster
1. Choose 1 infographic poster reference from Internet (Please consult before proceed)
2. Redesign the poster into A4 size. Sketch the idea and process
3. Redesign and simplify the poster based on visual hierarchy & typography
4. Simplify the poster's design based on color, shape & pattern
5. Attach your final poster on E-Portfolio with explanation and reflective writing

PART 2: Minimal animated infographic
1. Animate your infographic poster into one static loop animation page
2. Loop duration in between 15-30 second
3. Size: 1080 x 1920 px (Vertical Video) upload to your own Youtube channel

RESEARCH

To have a head start, I started by doing some research on Google and Pinterest.

Figure 1.0 Reference

Figure 1.1 Reference

Figure 1.2 Reference

Figure 1.3 Reference

POSTER CHOSE TO REDESIGN

Figure 1.4 Poster Chosen

The reason I chose this poster is because I felt that there are some weaknesses in visual hierarchy and typography that could be improved.

Weakness In Visual Hierarchy

1. Weak Focal Point 
  • The main character is prominent, but it doesn’t clearly represent junk food’s harmful effects. A stronger central element would be more effective.
2. Overcrowded Elements 
  • The combination of text, icons and a character makes the layout cluttered. The information isn’t well-separated, making it difficult for the reader to navigate.
3. Disjointed Flow 
  •  The curved dotted lines suggest a path, but they don’t create a clear reading order. The viewer's eye jumps between different elements without a structured direction.
4. Imbalance 
  • The right-side text box contains important details but lacks visual emphasis. Since it blends into the background, it competes with the circular icons instead of complementing them.

SKETCHING AND IDEATION

After getting a green light from Mr Shamsul about the poster, I proceed on sketching how I would like my poster to be.

Figure 1.5 Ideation Sketch

Figure 1.6 Ideation Sketch

Figure 1.7 Ideation Sketch

DIGITIZATION

After getting my ideation sketches approved from Mr Shamsul, I process on digitizing my poster. I started off choosing the first ideation sketch.

Figure 1.8 Draft

After roughly drafting, I showed Mr Shamsul my progress. From the poster, Mr Shamsul suggested not to have a border as it makes the overall view more clutter. Besides, the typography for the body font was suggested to change. After getting feedback from Mr Shamsul and some serious consideration, I decided to go for ideation sketch 3.

I started out by drafting the elements I need which is the graphics of the infos and junk foods in Adobe Illustrator.

Figure 1.9 Elements Outline

Figure 2.0 Elements With Colour

After finish constructing the elements, I started to organise and build the elements and infos to how I wanted it to look like.

Figure 2.1 Overview Draft

Figure 2.2 Overview Coloured

The typography used in the poster is Jaro for the heading while Ubuntu for the body. The reason I chose to design this poster in the current way is because I felt that, 

1. Emphasis
  • The large illustration of a person eating a burger may immediately catch the viewer’s eye.
  • The bright colors of junk food contrast with the muted background, emphasizing their importance.
2. Title & Heading 
  • "Harmful Effects of Junk Food" is placed at the top in bold, large-sized text, ensuring instant readability.
  • The thick, blocky font style enhances impact and urgency.
3. Supporting Visuals & Icons 
  • Smaller circular illustrations depict various health risks with corresponding visuals, guiding the viewer’s attention in a logical flow.
  • Each effect is connected by curved lines, directing the reader’s eye smoothly through the content.
4. Text Labels
  • Short, concise labels in white text against colored backgrounds ensure easy readability.
  • The typography for these labels is simple, clean, and structured for quick information absorption.
Figure 2.3 Typography And Overall Colour Palette

FINAL DIGITIZATION FOR PART 1 INFOGRAPHIC POSTER

Figure 2.4 Final Digitization (JPEG)
Figure 2.5 Final Digitization (PDF)

PART 2 MINIMAL ANIMATED INFOGRAPHIC 

After finishing the digitization, I proceed on the animation. I started to combine and organised every element in Adobe Illustrator into seperate layers. Then importing them to Adobe After Effect where the animation would be done.

For the animation part, I decided to do 3 things, which is the large illustration boy eating junk food, the drink split turning it into a path way down which may lead the reader in reading the infos from top left to bottom right and a pop out transition for the infos as the drink split flows to the bottom.

Figure 2.6 Overview Of The Animation Process

MINIMAL ANIMATED INFOGRAPHIC 

Figure 2.7 Final Video (MP4)
Youtube Link
https://youtube.com/shorts/bMp4RfQUDaU

FEEDBACK

WEEK 3

  • This effect of junk food looks more okay to redesign as the other one have too much infos

WEEK 4

  • The sketches looks ok
WEEK 5

  • Not to have a border as it makes the overall view more clutter
  • The typography for the body font was suggested to change

REFLECTION

Working on Project 1 which is Animated Infographic Poster have been a fun ride where I got to learn how to arrange and animate information clearly. Besides, it was new experience as it was my first time learning how to animate an infographic to be more presentable and which kind of design or layout would present a clearer visual to the audiences. Moreover, we have the opportunity to analyze and explore how other professional designer's work present their infos and the reason behind its layout. This project was challenging yet interesting for me as I need to combine and arrange all the information needed yet still express creativity in a page however with the guidance I got from Mr Fauzi, Mr Shamsul and my friends, I managed to finish the tasks.

Comments

Post a Comment