The Chameleon
Designed by Andrew Before
Information Visualization and Aesthetics (INFO 424)
Displays that exploit the visual potential of location
Final display:
With these location displays i'm trying to represent the different areas that chameleons come from. I chose to show the most well known chameleons. Each has its own are that it is native to.
From the color model I kept consistent to the light gray background, and for the first time I used some of the white background. From the base model I did notice that their graph had no outlines around country borders. I experimented with this and decided to include the borders, to make it easier to distinguish against the similar background color.
First Iteration
version 1
version 2
Second Iteration
revision 1
revision 2
First Iteration
Critique #1: Luis Flores
Luis liked the world view map, he said it made it very easy to know exactly what area of the world I am talking about. He also liked that the countries are highlighted to stand out. Countries stand out more, I should make the font different color or bold. World takes up a lot more space, when focusing on specific section. Likes the whole continent more than a section of the continent.
Model Emulation Feedback
Said that in my base model the map had no political boundaries, I should look into possibilities of removing these borders. The lines of the world map should be gray.
Revisions based on this critique
From this review I added back in the countries that were taken out of the popout, and I removed the political boundaries from the whole display.
Critique #2: Jackson Brown
Jackson liked the first version more. He said if I go for the second version I should zoom in on all of Africa. He likes having the full continent for a frame of reference. I should try lightening the black outlines of the small world maps. Try color coding the chameleon names, and stay consistent on lines to countries.
Model Emulation Feedback
He mentioned that in my base model labeling lines are dotted. I should change the lines from the chameleon to the country to a dotted line.
Revisions based on this critique
From this review I got rid of the lines that were pointing to the countries and replaced them with rounded rectangles more similar to my model.
Second Iteration
Critique #1: Peter Lu
Peter suggested changing my color differentiation between the different chameleon countries. He found it hard to figure out what the shades of green meant. He thought that each one was a different shade. He suggested that I should just use a white line border instead of using the different shade.
Model Emulation Feedback
When I showed him my model he liked the changes. He saw that the maps now fit much more closely to my model and thought it looked much cleaner.
Revisions based on this critique
From this review I got rid of the shades of green. They were causing more confusion than good.
Critique #2: Daniel Hoang
Was confused with the color coding. Suggested that since i'm zooming in on a piece of the map that people already know where i'm talking about, and the color encoding is less important. He said I could try splitting the countries up, adding space between them.
Model Emulation Feedback
When I showed him my model he suggested changing the zoom in box to a dotted circle more like my base model.
Revisions based on this critique
From this display I tried the circle approach, but it was a little to extreme. I ended up compromising with the rounded edge rectangle which can be found throughout my model.
Critique #3: Guiyan Bai
What’s confusing is how the whole Africa is highlighted. The second one looks 3d, so make sure to keep it consistent with the rest of the infographic. He liked the second one more. He thought it was more active and interesting. I could write out information explaining what the highlighted countries mean, so that it’s easier to understand for the user.
Revisions based on this critique
From this display I added some descriptive text below the title. I also changed the minimap version of africa to have the same highlighted countries as the blown up version.
Critique #3: Austin Meyers
Austin said that he liked the changes from the first version. He commented on the zoom in box background being the same as the overall background. He said that since they're the same he would expect to see items like the lines behind it.
Model Emulation Feedback
He said he could see this fitting in with my base model. He suggested I could make it small to fit my overall infographic in a smaller space.
Revisions based on this critique
From this review I changed the background color. Because of this change I added in back in the political lines on the zoom in part of the display.