Class Documentation of Visual Methods

Class documentation or How did I learned Visualization Methods

By Nora A. Morales Zaragoza Visualization Methods / David Skopec Master of Design Information Unversidad de las AmĂŠricas Puebla

VISUALIZATION

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This documentation is a story about all the things that happened between august 2004 and november 29th in a small town named “Cholula” where the University of the Americas is located. The characters of the story, are part of the class of Methods of Visualization taught by David Skopec, in the Master of Design Information.

My idea is to show not only an overview of the class but my personal thinking, findings and development in the process of understanding how to apply the methods of graphical representation as an instrument to decode abstract data formations.

This work is chronologically viewed as close as possible to the real world, The first part corresponds to the class structure My idea is to show not only an overview of the class but my personal and book reviews thinking, findings and development in the process of understanding that were shown in the class, The second how to apply the methods of graphical representation as an instrument to decode abstract data formations. part correspond to the Zocalo project that we did as a final presentation of the semester. At last, the Third part correspond to a small overview of my final project.

The text that is written with a San Serif font correspond to the narrative of the class, each day is marked with the corresponding date. The text in Serif font refers to personal thoughts I had during the class.

Welcome and I hope you like it.

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AT TH D SO D S V IISSUUAALLI ZI Z AITOINO NM EM EO TH

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OVERVIEW:

WEEK

2

WEEK

3

develop

4

seminar

practice

- Exercise 1

- Define final project

- personal contribution

- History of visualization

Lectures on Methods in Visualization

- Research

- course documentation

- Book reviews

- “Zocalo” project

- Translate information

- final project

- Creating visualizations

- Make final paper - Make documentation paper

grading

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Before we started the former classes we received an e-mail by the teacher asking us about some previous assignments which were as followed: PRESENTATION

The first assignment was that every participant had to introduce himself to the class, in the first session, with a presentation about our work, interests and qualifications. The presentation should to be Since I am not a student of first semester, I was asked to do similar prepared in a PDF-Document, exercises by other teachers in my work, So I didn’t find it difficult to put the information together. My thoughts where that this class was format “Letter Size” horizontal and burned on a CD-ROM going to be difficult since we were expected to work before the class (ISO Standard). and I like to be challenged EXERCISE 01

For the second one, he asked us to prepare research in advance, that contained at least 3 examples in the field of visualization, concentrated in this areas: - Environments and Orientation - Data and Visualization - Function and Instruction - Knowledge and Education We had to give each example with the next information: - Provider of the example - Who was the editor and designer - The aim of the visualization - Who is addressed by this visualization - Specification of the media that is used - Facts about the publishing We could get graphics or informations from: newspapers, schoolbooks, public space, magazines etc. But not books on Visualization and Design. All examples had to be prepared

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in a PDF-Document, format “Letter Size” horizontal and burned on a CD-ROM (ISO Standard), and every participant had to present this examples in one of the very first sessions.

Mijksenaar, Paul; “Open Here - The art of instructional design.“ Piet Westendorp, Thames & Hudson, 0-500-28170X,1999.

Wildbur, Peter and Burke, Michael; “Information Graphics Innovative Lösungen im Bereich Informationsdesign.” Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz; 3-87439-461-1. 1998.

MATERIAL

He also send us the material required for the course: Paper, Pen, Ruler, Pocket Calculator, (Digital) Camera, Laptop.

READINGS

At the end of the e-mail he suggested some readings in a list which was as it follows: “Power of Ten - About the relative Size of Things in the Universe.” Scientific American Library; 0-7167-1409-4,1982.

Wurman, Richard Saul; ”Understanding USA.” TED Conferences Inc. 0-9674536-0-7. 2000.

Tufte, R. Edward; “Visual Explanations” Graphics Press; 0-9613921-2-6. 1997.

Tufte, R. Edward; “Envisioning Information.” Graphics Press; 1990.

Wurman, Richard Saul; “Information Anxiety” Doubleday; 0-385-24394-4. 1989.

Wurman, Richard Saul; “Information Architects.” Graphis; 3-85709-458-3. 1996.

Wurman, Richard Saul; “Information Anxiety 2,” Que; 07897-2410-3. 2000.

Mijksenaar, Paul; “Visual Function - An Introduction to Information Design.” 010 Publishers; 90-6450-303-6. 1997.

One of my main tools to make all this documentation was my notebook for the Master Degree, in here I try to keep everything from thoughts, sketches, ideas and of course notes from the class, Notice the left corner is a bite from my dog “Vinty” If I would have left it a little longer it would had compromise my class.

Harris, Robert L.; “Information Graphics - A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference.” Management Graphics; 0-9646925-03. 1996.

Kahn, Palu and Lenk Kris; “Mapping Web-Sites.” 1995.

Shedroff, Nathan; “Experience Design.” New Riders; 07357-1078-3. 2001.

Tufte, R. Edward; “The Visual Display of Quantitive Information.” Graphics Press, 1983.

Garland, Ken; “Mr Beck’s Underground Map - a history by Ken Garland.” Capital Transport, 185414 168 6. 1998.

Bertin, Jaques and de Gruyter, Netze; “Graphische Semiologie - Diagramme.” Karten Walter; 3-11-003660-6. 1974.

Card,K. Stuart, Mackinlay, D. Jock and Shneiderman Ben; “Readings in Information Visualization - Using Vision to think.” Morgan Kaufmann; 1-55860-533-9. 1999.

“Zeichensysteme der visuellen Kommunikation - Handbuch für Designer, Architekten, Planer, Organisatoren” Otl Aicher; Martin Krampen, Ernst & Sohn, 3-433-02650-5,1996.

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The first class started with an overview of the class, and what was expected for us during the next two weeks: OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the course was that the students will know the principles, methods and applications of graphical representation (visualization) as an instrument to decode abstract data formations.

BOOK REVIEW

Each student was supposed to pick one book from the list previously provided by the teacher and after each day of class we were supposed to make a ten minute presentation explaining the aim of the book.

august 16th, 2004

Since the list wasn’t received by everybody and we were confused in the way we were supposed to pick the book, Janet, one of the students that have already read one of the books offered to be the next day reviewer with the book “Understanding USA” from Richard Saul Wurman. After that incident, each participant chose a book according to their convenience.

GOALS

- Introduction into the history of Visualization - Elementary methods in Visualization - Practice in a conceptual and visual design process SEMINAR SCHEDULE

Minute Parameters

The seminar will consist of two parts:

size: Letter 21.5 cm x 28 cm Type: Courier 12 pts margins: 25 mm top, right side and bottom and 40 mm left side.

2 or 3 pages maximum.

1st week / Seminar with exercises 2nd week / Practical work with lectures He explained how he was going to criteria for the grading of the course would be, contributions to the class, documentation of the course and project and the result of the final project.

MINUTES

Then he explained about the “Minutes” a way to keep record of the course in a resumed and abstract way. He assigned one student by day who will be responsible to take notes during the whole class and hand them to the group the next day in a written format.

ZOCALO PROJECT

He also talk briefly about our next practical project which was about creating an analysis and visualization of the Zocalo of Cholula concerning on: -Space and Orientation -Function and Purpose -History and Background -Utilization and Activities TEACHER

Then our professor, David Skopec, told us something about his experience and studio, www.kognito.de which is specialized in visualization and diagrammatic information and Visual identity.

STEP STONES IN INFORMATION DESIGN

After that, David showed a small presentation about what he thought were some relevant people and events on the history of Information design, he organized them chronologically here is an example of some of the ones he mention that caught in particularly my attention:

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- Leonard Da Vinci (created his own way of visualizing ideas, in a way he created his own language to understand his work)

Here is a model that David showed us in class about the skills of an Information designer:

- Albert Dürert - Simon Stevin 1585 (ex (explaining visualizations) - Johann Ames Comenius 1653 (Schoolbook explained by pictures)

UNIQUE SKILLS how we deal with problems

- William Playfair 1785 (Cartesian coordinates) - Alexander Von Humboldt 1785 (cartographic illustration, visual explanation and finding in words) - Joseph Minnard 1854 (levels of information in drawings) - Florence Nightingale 1858 (nurse, first pay chart, compared different factors at once)

FORMAL AGILITY

Example of a polar-area diagram invented by Florence Nightingale. The original was in color with the outer area in blue, the central darker areas in black, and the central lighter areas in red.

- Ettienne -Jules Marey - Michael G, Mulhall (images to express amounts & values) - Otto Neurath 1932 (the father of Information Design) - Harry Beck (London’s Underground map ) - John W. Turkey (science and art separated) - Jacques Bertin (overview about systems in graphic communications)

always LOOK for abstracts expressions to make complex things understandable

- Charles and Ray Eames 1977 (Powers of 10) - Benoit Mandelbrot (fractal mathematician - new forms of visualizations) - Muriel Cooper 1994

It refers to the capability of not compromising with a special style of design, but to look at new ways of “facial expression” or forms that are more focused on the result and user.

INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION different fields of media and provide solutions

It is important not to close ourselves in the media, the problem should be resolved no matter what.

VIVID REDUCTION ADVANCED Resources that we are using, decision on how much media and graphic we need

TECHNOLOGIES It refers to those small clever solutions

STRATEGIC COMPETENCE Understanding that it’s a system and about setting the milestones

ENVIRONMENT how does the design affect nature, in all levels, not any the visual environment but to be conscious about the effects

The academic approach will be then, to integrate concepts in “Visual Systems” which merge three particular aspects:

- Richard Saul Wurman - Edward Tuffte 1990 - Nathan Shedroff (communicative experiences) - Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchin (design by numbers, systematic way to create visual expressions) As I said before here are the ones that caught my attention but at that moment I was thinking that It would have been a good idea to bring my camera an take pictures, but on the other hand they were not to be good ones, At the end I think it was a good idea because then David make us look for them in particular.

- Fundamental Studies - Institutional Communications and, - New media

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So the final objective of INFORMATION DESIGN would be about asking ourselves the question of how to provide information and how do we enter the mind of our viewer in his everyday context.

Skopec sees Designers as authors not just executors, as responsible persons involved in a Society, who detect problems and create solutions, with conceptual and practical competence, critical and constructive. Someone who raise questions and develop answers.

Design diagram sketch from Charles Eames He showed some work made by some of his students in 1969 in his book An Eames Primer by Eames Switzerland, one particularly caught my attention, “Why do Demetrios. socks disappear in the washing machine? , In this study the student developed a narrative to show the problem and created new experiences on visualization.

This was a very inspiring class, I felt that I have to do a lot of projects whit in I thought that even all this as a motto. I also thought about my final project which is related to problems from orwomen everyday life, and though about how Information design can be useful in that particular context. dinary life could be important to quesAnother thing I thought was about a diagram (pictured above), I saw from tion, and I thought the book “An Eames Primer” by Eames Demetrios, which tells the story of about my research the famous American couple designers. (Who I particularly admire) that book project which is marked me as a designer because of its inspiring ideas and design ethics. based on an ordiI decided at that moment that I had to review that diagram and see what is similar with the one David showed us in class. nary problem.

august 17th, 2004

We started our second class with the presentation of ourselves, the first assignment by David, previous to the class, It was a good opportunity to see how the others were doing “design” wise and get to know them too.

In general the good made a good impression but personally I though that some of the students need to have a bit more background of design, nevertheless they come from different backgrounds the majority from Engineering and I think is a good challenge to have this mix.

Here are some pages from my presentation:

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1980

1968

1990

2004

2000

1994

1986

2002

2003

Finally he concluded with a reflection of what should we as Information designers should be conscious about:

What is relevant?

What are the economical impacts?

Ecological correlations?

What moves people?

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BORN [MEXICO]

GOT MARRIED

1ST CHILD

2ND CHILD

MOVED TO USA

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S TA R T E D GOT BACHELOR 1ST JOB OF GRAPHIC DESIGN [UIA MEXICO] S TA R T WORK TEACHING AT T E L E V I S A [UIA} {MEXICO]

WORK WORDS PICTURES [CHICAGO] SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE [CHICAGO]

BACK FROM T H E S TAT E S [PUEBLA}

S TA R T E D MDI [UDLA]

TEACH UIA {PUEBLA]

VISUALIZATION

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TYPOLOGY OF VISUALIZATIONS

Visualizations can be arranged in 4 mainly categories:

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1.2.3.4.-

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Scatter graph example of the soy bean population using the two traits: height (y-axis) and leaf width (x-axis). From a study of genetics quantitative traits in soybeans in Chile and Minnesota realized by Levi Mansur, Ph.D. and Jim Orf Department of Agronomy & Plant Genetics SOURCE: http:64.226.94.9/soybean.htm

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Visualizations of Data Networks and Relations Area and Space Function and Process

1. Visualization of Data. Helps us transform information like numbers, percentages, statistics, into images we can understand in our minds, abstract data means some measure values. Here are some examples: a) Cartesian coordinated system b) Bar Chart c) Column Graph d) Scatter Graph e) Pie Cart f) Pyramid Chart (food pyramid) g) spectral Chart The graphical representations can vary a lot but is important to understand the idea of “value” it is a measurement we give, when we come up with a system to manage values in our mind and feelings.

To organize the information we could use any kind of criteria, like a sequence, progressive or regressive (tables, rows); or by connecting, relating, comparing elements.

A Visualization is an abstract representation of the reality

2. The Visualization of Networks and Relations. It is used to visualize relations between different items, that can be organized in the next categories: a) By type (periodic chart) b) By Hierarchy (genealogy tree) (animal evolution) c) By relation d) By process (things happening at the same time) e) By function

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3. Visualization of Area and Space. This type of visualization are used to organize spaces, the main characteristic is to define areas, a grid system is a definition of a series of spaces, here we can find common examples as board games, maps etc. Some other examples are a) Grid based map (diagonal directions) b) Geometric simplifies maps (abstract representations of the territory of a country). c) Map simplifies by significance d) Geographical map (real shape abstraction of reality) e) Real Time globe projection 4. Visualization of Function and Process.

This type of visualization tries Here we stop to make a reflexion of the concept of Reality. David to solve another level of comtold us about a book written by Umberto Eco, which tells the sorry of plexity of objects in our world. a King obsessed on representing the idea of “Reality”, To create visuDeals with comparison sealizations is to draw a line between what is real and what we want to quences of dynamic objects, explain, if we get obsessed on the idea of represent the “reality” the focus on their trajectory or the process of abstraction becomes less important. changes they experiment and representing them in the simplest ways. Examples: a) Pointing directions b) Leading direction c) Show movement d) Single image process e) Multiple image process f) Sequence of multiple process

EXERCISE 02

This class continued with the presentation of visualizations, picked by the students. While watching the different visualizations, we found interesting examples, as well as bad ones, we talked about different descriptions of concepts important for the class: VISUALIZATION

The process of transforming something complex in something simple.

And then we talked about some tendencies perceived in the world of communications. People are stopping to read because it is easier to see an abstract image, at the same time they don’t bother to learn complex systems of information.

Two examples of visualizations, Airplane instructions and growth charts (next page)

What is the challenge for designers then, when do we say what we design is complex enough.

FUNCTION AND INSTRUCTION Passenger Safety Information

SOURCE

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The class ended with each student showing their examples from EXERCISE 01. We didn’t have enough time to show each student example to the part that couldn’t show was delayed

A I M O F V I S U A L I S AT I O N

for the next class.

MEDIA

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After viewing the examples David showed us I realized some of the examples I picked were wrong.

First I did my homework without finding out the correct definition of visualization. Being a graphic designer and specially and illustrator I thought that visualization was more like any graphic representation of the reality, now I understood that my examples have to be focused on making complex information easy to understand by an abstraction.

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VISUALIZATION

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We also talked about how is the media affecting things and substitute others and changing how people perceive things, we explore the concept of Remediation, when new media affected the next one. Visual perception is changing continually.

This class started by naming the elementary basics of Visualization:

august 18th, 2004

BOOK REVIEW 01

The classed finished with the first Book Review. It was Understanding U.S.A. by Richard Saul Wurman. This book is a recuperation os statistics and general information of the United States shown as easy graphical examples. The work is the idea of Saul Wurman an Architect of information and a time of collaborators that had the idea of bringing complex information in an easier way. This book explains different ways of how designers think and work

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Anatomy Complexity Semiotics Meaning Principles

Anatomy. Every visualtization has a structure that suggests Content, Representation, Expression & Time (factor that became very important just from last years).

Book cover of Understanding the USA

by Richard Saul Wurman

Content = five Representation = Expression = j Context = j

D ATA A N D V I S U A L I S AT I O N Growth charts

j j j j

d k g h

In the previous example content refers to the word “five”,

SOURCE

the representation would be 5 dots, the expression is a visual representation of five flies -denotes different meaning for everyone-. Finally the context example refers to compare the fly with other five elements like other kind of insects. The previous idea refers to the process of transformation.

EDITOR / DESIGNER

TRANSFORMATION

A I M O F V I S U A L I S AT I O N

Something that has a form and its brought to another form. Here are some important features to take in mind in order to achieve a good transformation:

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Organization: lead by significance of content Transcription: limited by the dimensions of media Characterization: intend by desired expression Dynamic sampling: according to dimensions of time

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Complexity is a mayor challenge in visual communication.

The problem is not the amount of information but to make the right decision of the element involved. One key aspect, to achieve a good visualization is to reduce complexity, in other words make it simple.

A lot of magazines present this kind of characteristic with useless, fast created information. On the contrary, if we combine high functional complexity with high structural one we might get as a result an “overload” of information.

Visual parameters of structural complexity: Shape, Lines, Color, Brightness, Texture, Perspective & Orientation. Are parameters that should be taken in a conscious and selected way when creating visualizations, the more elements and variations, the more complex it becomes.

The amount of elements determines the condition of complexity. The more elements - the more complex a system is.

In the next table there is an example of how complexity works in different levels, this idea is taken from the book “Information Theory” by Abraham Moles.

Airplane

vs.

Cord I used this image of Superimposed Plates as an example of using many elements and becoming complex, it is taken from the diary of Newe’s Pictorical Knowledge. An educational treasury and children’s dictionary. The Home Library Book Company, Volume 6, London (1934)

high level of structural complexity

low level of structural complexity

low level of functional complexity (only one function TO FLY)

high level of functional complexity (a diverse way to function)

Low structural complexity and low functional complexity, refers to something “banal”.

Here are some suggestions: -

Create a broad containment Reduce structural variety Transcribe into a shared mode / language Emphasize intended purpose Make it public and available.

I had a thought regarding this subject, we as Mexicans come from a very visually saturated culture I would say we like to ornate things, almost in a baroque way, we like colors we like shapes. It’s not only the visual part, even when we speak we use a lot of words and talk to much just to say something. My thought was that coming from cultures like this one, we have to really try to make it simple, It is a little more challenging to achieve good visualizations thinking also in the Mexican cultural context.

Then we can say that structural complexity sets the range of functional flexibility.

Another example used to understand complexity is the one of the swiss designer Manuela Pfrunder, in her book Neotopia Atlas of equitable distribution of the world; She use simple figures “rectangles” to represent the world and she could have a high functional complexity with it. If she had used an image instead would have just limited the uses of her visualization.

Reduction of complexity it’s not just SIMPLIFYING... it is a process of translation

Manuela Pfunder diagram showing and abstraction of the world showing an equitable distribution of wealth.

Reduction means, Just saying the facts - Maximize reduction = minimize meaning - Redundancy = makes it an individual matter Our Challenge would be to bring back the meaning of things, instead of creating visuals.

VISUALIZATION

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There are some PRINCIPLES that we need to follow when we create a visualization:

Elements used: 7 elements

1. Work with content that’s worth to talk about (check your content there is enough Info-garbage in our world)

Function of elements: To present the data in graphics, highlighting the total amount, the different values of the categories, the illustration of the woman.

2. Focus to the important point and not just pretend to be important

Styles used: Text in 9 ways, outlines, 9 colors, different colors of the illustrations and the rectangles

3. Show the context, avoid being too abstract.

Dimensions: Time X - Axis, The amount of the sets X - Axis The values (%) of the sets Y - Axis, and two distinct illustrations Z - Axis.

4. Compare, compare, compare... to make sure the audience gets the meaning of your content 5. Open personal dimensions, why your work would be interesting for people, think about what makes your content a personal affair.

august 19 , 2004 th

6. Keep the “functional complexity” simple... less complex things using more Space rather than less space and more Complexity

We started the class with examples of: LEVELS OF ICONICITY

The Levels of iconicity in Information Graphics, determinate de quality of visual representation. We can identify 6 levels that range from “low iconicity” (abstract representations) to “high iconicity” (realistic representations).

7. Consider “Magic 7”: Don’t push readers to concentrate in more than 7 different codes at the same time, (like items, colors, forms, etc.)

- Symbolic representation

8. Explain with PASSION... Every elements used, the content, the scale, values, tell about your source and other information that might be interesting.

- Iconographic representation - Simple illustration - Illustration - Realistic illustration

Next we proceed to make an exercise in class, the idea was to make a Formal analysis of the image on the side:

- Photographic image

T Topic: Women consuming patterns

- Hyper reality scans

Data used: Percentage, absolute number, time

Low iconicity requires more translation of meaning, but it is easy to learn. On the other hand High iconicity has easy translation but difficult meaning. With the advance in technology people can create high iconicity environments with less effort, and it has become an omnipresent media. We have to use it with measure.

How many values?: 13 variables, for each variable, we have 2 values. (26 values) Types of variables: 3 types Order: nominal Type of visualization: Spectrum chart

Women consuming patterns

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We continued with some examples of a book by Harry Robin and Kevles, Daniel, The Scientific Image: From Cave to Computer — An examination of the efforts of scholars and scientists to conceive, document, describe, classify, order, and analyze natural phenomena with the aid of illustrations.

also an ordinary user of the system The first maps were more trying to show the geographical information, and were worried to show it accurate. And it was difficult to show what was happening in the center of the image.

Then, we saw examples of another book, called “Familias” which showed very detailed photographs of families around their work and the environment they live, the social representation of each of the pictures was really good and question ourselves about the important to pick the right level of iconicity in our representations and the awareness of starting from the user context.

The first considerate modification of the design, were done in 1926 where there was a removal of the detailed surface and a compression of the outlined proportions.

In 1931 Beck showed his design to the authorities they printed it but took it away and the public started to ask for it.

As the system grows the diagram had to changes and Harry contributed with a lot of very clever ideas like the way to represent connection between stations and the refinement

Then we proceed with the second book review: Cover of the book Mr Beck’s Underground Map

in abstract forms. There were situations in which people took Beck’s ideas and show them as their own.

BOOK REVIEW 02

It was “Mr. Beck’s Underground Map: A history by Ken Garland” Published by Capital Transport Publishing, 1994.

This book follows the history of the design of London underground system directional map, from its beginnings until today. It is an important diagram not only respected by the international community but also loved by British people and it has become almost an icon of its country. The story focus on one person that got an idea in 1931, that according to Ken Garland says “was a stroke of genius”. Mr. Harry Beck a junior draughts man that suggested a different approach to map the railways.

The book also emphasizes a situation common to a lot of designer when developing an idea. It tells us how we can find obstacles and restrictions outside our reach. Like Mr. Beck found that the Chairman and power executives of the British Undergrounds System rejected his idea, and in a way became an obstacle for him. And finally how Mr. Beck with his search of the perfect design and continuously modifications of to the map reaches a good solution. Mr. Beck was

One of the latest examples of the diagram adapted by Journey Planner in 1994.

Some other cases, he was forced to make some changes by the authorities of the company. Finally around 1959 he made a diagram with improvements some made by him and some others borrowed by its own followers that we could say has the flexibility to accommodate almost effectively the actual and planned map of the last 30 years.

The appendix showed drawings, general information and sketches about Harry’s work. I found one particular interesting where we can see the diagram’s evolution and the comparison between the true geographical scale measurements.

Harry Beck in 1965, holding the exercise book sketch made in 1931

Exercise This class ended with another exercise, to select one example of our visualizations and analyzed them

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Using the same criteria that we used for the “Women consuming patterns.”

We start the class with our homework exposition. Here is the order, topic and comments of each one.

Claudia showed “Symbols used in printed documents”.

The basic problem is that this example is not really a visual transformation of any data.

much elements and styles, it was an example of too much complexity to show information that it makes difficult to understand.

august 20th, 2004

Luis explained “one video game map”. It is a map because it doesn’t have numbers to indicate order, if we can’t see instructions it is a plane. In addition, in this example we understood that each legend is a variable and the numbers that there appears are values.

Jorge talked about a diagram showing “Industry activities of England.” In this pie chart we saw that we can use column to explain something different, but we should be careful because if we don’t use it well, we can send a wrong message in the visualization.

Jaime Roque shows the “levels of the car”. With this dashboard we understood the importance of a clear expression of several and difSince one of the examples I choose was a dashboard I found Jaime ferent elements at the same Roque’s example particularly interesting, and I think after his time. Because the user example I understood the idea of variables and values much better, could get confused if the because I was getting kind of confused. Then Omar started visualization doesn’t show explaining his visualization, and I thought his example was also very interesting but the result was too conventional, I tried to let him the real information.

Viry exposed a little manual of instructions of “How to use an HP scanner”. This visualization helped us to understand the difference between values and variables.

Jaime Lasso talked about the “presidential election in Venezuela.” In this example we saw that the background is not a third dimension, is just a decoration. However, there are some cases it could contain information. We should be careful in this aspect.

Here David had a very good observation, saying that he have noticed that in a lot of magazines, they use graphics deliberately with complex representations even to explain the simplest issues.

That is only to appear serious or difficult but in a way it is not helping the user to understand the information

Nora showed an animation about the “Sun Lighting inside a house.” This representation had many variables and values; however she said that we can understand this kind of visualization if we analyzed each variable and element separately.

know that his idea might be better to explore in a more open context,

Omar Sosa explained but then we took too long, discussing the same things until David “The behavior of a mathstopped us to the next example. ematician algorithm”. His visualization is an example that some representations could be good in some groups of people, but if we want to show it general audience we should do I in a way that it explains by itself.

Janet talked about “The body Temperature” . In my sketch graph we saw that some elements in the visualization have a style and others don’t. It doesn’t make sense to talk about style when you have some complex elements (e.g. and image of the human body).

Pachon showed an info graphic of “the percentage of risk on an airplane flight”. In this example we found too

This image taken from the website wwwtofteproject.org of Sustainable Design in architecture was done by Medora Woods Activist and Shara Nettleton Architect. It is an diagrammatic animation aimed to show the amount of light that enters a cabin during different times of day and seasons of the year. By moving the sun through the path marked as a dotted line in the diagram of the cabin, you can see how the light enters the room, and by selecting the yellow squares you can see the light behavior through the year.

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The last one was Tonatiuh, who showed the photograph of a traffic sign “warning the presence of a kiwi.” This was a very simple example, however we will understand better this example when we see the semiothic theme.

ISOTYPE 8 RULES

1. To avoid comparison by using sizes, avoid semantic confusion, target numbers must NOT be represented by large signs.

2. Content organized in lines and groups of icons helps reading and counting.

ISOTYPE MOVEMENT ISOTYPE (International System of Typographic and Picture

3. Content should be always organized by it’s expression (they even showed occupations in their drawings)

Education) was created in Vienna at the early 19th century with the settlement movement for workers to represent the new ideas in urban development. Otto Neurath an Austrian economist, sociologist, philosopher and revolutionary was the founder in collaboration with his wife Marie, and Gerd Arntz.

4. Distortions like perspective makes difficult to compare values.

“Ruhe und Ordnung” illustration by Von Gerd Arntz, ISOTYPE

We saw graphic examples of their Visualizations, which revolutionize the visual language worldwide. Their main objective was to motivate workers politically, and to question the historical and social conditions. The visual argument was based in simple examples intended to convince people that things could be better.

It’s better to remember simple pictures than forget exact numbers.

Vienna Method, Otto Neurath

5. Comparisons soul be aware of mathematical correctness.

6. Things should tell what you are talking about.

7. Each sign may contain further emotional expressions.

The way they worked represented a good example process for information designers. They had to understand the content and TRANSFORM it into a visual model.

ISOTYPE

DATA RESEARCH

“Typisches”, sample of statistics by ISOTYPE

Process

TRANSFORMATION MODEL

Their worked really inspired me and made me think about ways to get to involve people not only as an audience, but to get them involved in a way that results with an action. I think that if we understand the people and the context as designers can CHANGE the world we live in. I particularly liked the idea of creating a Museum of Information where people go to get informed about the society and aspects as health, industry and family.

VISUAL ASSEMBLING

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We dedicate part of the weekend to make research about the Zocalo Project. In the last session we made 4 groups:

august 23th, 2004

Technical communication

Entertainment Education

ISOTYPE

user instructions

NORTH

SOUTH

EAST

WEST

Tonatiu Jorge Nora

Jaime L Jaime Janet

Luis Omar

Viry Omar Claudia

Activities and Uses

Function and Purpose

History and background

Space and Orientation

business communication public space

Isotype influenced a lot the world of communications, and different cultures, we have notice influences in Mexico too in 1930, ISOTYPE affected the design of graphics of some books of education in Mexico.

Each of the teams will focus on some aspects. Our team had to focus in the Activities and Uses of the Zocalo. We got together and planned how to cover different aspects of the observation. The general plan was to follow some kind of criteria in the observations, based on what we were doing in the class of “Research methods I” we decided to set some boundaries in our observations: Notes and sketches from my notebook about the Zocalo Project.

- Define time (month, Weekdays and Weekends, morning, afternoon and night - Identify users - Identify and classify activities - Define place The class session started with the plan of the day that consisted on two book presentations and the advances of the research in the Zocalo Project of each team.

Cover of the Book Information Architects

by Richard Saul Wurman

BOOK REVIEW 03

The book reviewed was “Information Architects” by Richard Saul Wurman, the content is related to the definition of

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Uses and Activities at Cholula’s Zócalo Master of Information Design Methods of Visualisation David Skopec

Information Architects. David explained the background of Wurman, and he mentioned that he is a former architect that worked as a statistic, where he got interested about data visualization, then he found the concept of information architect and founded his enterprise called ACCESS. Wurman found a comprehensive way of represent complex data but his main achievement was in getting notable information designers as collaborators, between them we found Nigel Holmes, he was the one who established the idea of giving a visual interpretation of some comparison will be the adequate way for people to understand. Bruce Robertson and Donovan and Green.

Jorge Gutierrez Rodriguez Nora Morales Zaragoza Tonatiuh Ramírez Roch

BOOK REVIEW 04

The next book was “Visual function” by Paul Mijksenaar.

Visual Function is an overview of the possibilities of information design and its impact on the world around us. Paul Mijksenaar provides an opinionated survey of the discipline of visual information design and discusses examples in graphic design and mapmaking Mijsenaar emphasizes three elements that should be in any design: durability, usability and beauty. He analyses many illustrations based on those three concepts. The conclusion of the presentation is that is a book worth reading because it helps designers understand the methods for today’s and get them to discover their own creative solutions to the challenges of transmitting information.

Book cover of “Visual function”

by Paul Mijksenaar.

At the end of the reviews the teams showed their advances in their research, David explained the logistics that would be applied for each team and Next I’ll show part of the advances our team showed that day: In concluscheduled the meetings in sion I thought we detected some interested issues about the activities and order to give more time to uses people realize in the Zocalo of Cholula. The rest of the teams offered the research.

good ideas and concepts that complemented our findings.

David said that we need to clean a little more our observations and shared the information in order to come up with an specific idea.

Zócalo: In México, principal square “plaza” of a city

ACTORS

ACTIVITIES

OBJECTS

Gender Woman Man Children

Basic meeting point eatting carrying walking running parking wondering transport laughing singing playing talking reading communicate waiting feeding reunite relax distract photograph

Wearing clother hand bag or bag caps/ hat/ helmet umbrella handbag cellular ball vest

Age Child Young adult Adult Old Rol Police Maintenance (Zócalo employees) Visitors (user) Local Tourist Foreigner Politician Merchant (beneficiaries) Animals pigeons crows squirrels dogs bees flyes

Entretainment & Social byking riding horse motorcycle driving car fliying kites going in fair rides jumping tumbling flirtting Poilitical Meetings Take voter card Party events Commerce selling buying

Transport / gear car stroller weeling chair transport product doley cart supermarket bags containers charola wagon basket tray stand Pertmanent objects monuments signs trees beanches fence amusments speakers posts fountain tents stages informations stands signs light generators sound area garbage can

SERVICES According to Rol microphone flyer money notebook walkie talkie stools chairs loadspeakers buckets and water Products Food chicharron chips potatoes fruits honey candies ice cream churros Entretainment kite bubbles balloons CD books newspapers For wear clothes (belts) caps umbrella jewllery

washing watching car restaurant watching TV security shoe polishing rides (cars & amusement) maintenance

PLACES parking green area kiosk paths (corridor) amusement park explanade

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People use in different ways, objects in the park intended for certain use.

Fences Intended use: To define areas Commercial use: To hang product, to hang bags, to support stand and rest Visitors: To lock bikes and leave pets Maintenance: to lock garbage cans Monuments and signs Intended use: To show information to people Commercial use: Visitors: read them and some put graffiti on, put lost things, children to play FAIR

EXPLANADE

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Trees Intended use: give shade Commercial use: post advertising Visitors: sit below to protect from shade, YA to hide and kiss, CH to play and climb Maintenance: To put light generations Benches Intended use: to sit Commercial use: to rest Visitors: to eat, to watch kids

PARKING

We also realized a series of interviews that started with this question.

There is a lot of kids working in the weekend as merchants, flyers givers, operators of amusement machines.

What do you do when you come to the Zócalo and why?

People use different objects to transport their product

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS (to open a topic)

Different people answered different things: To relax, to sell, to make business, to show my work (merchant), to “pasear” (wonder), to “dar la vuelta”, breath some fresh air, to eat, to watch people, to watch people and imagine what they like to do (woman), to watch squirrels (girl), to bring kids to play, to distract, to forget about things, to buy, to catch cats (kid), to use it as a meeting point and go somewhere else, to know the place, and people (tourist). To make my duty, to serve and protect, aid lost children or aid in an accident, against theft (policeman).

buckets, doleys, bags, etc.

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Same objects have different usage for different people in the Zócalo Bucket washing car man means a basic tool for his job CH mean a sitting place.

Sales woman of fruit a carrier

august 24th, 2004

We continued with some examples or advances of the other teams and come up with more ideas of how improve our observations and analysis.

Some of the functions of Zocalo are described in the next diagram:

as center of culture

Information Political Historical communication between the government and public

Commerce

CULTURE

make money

public space Entertainment and Leisure

DEFINING A TOPIC OF THE ZOCALO

FAIR

EXPLANADE

All the teams except East one presented today, we shared information and started to think on transforming all the data to the creation of possible models that can give us a close Zocalo perception. We have to think models that apply to a visualization staged at the same Zocalo and here are some ideas:

KIOSC

After reviewing the table shown in page 0.33 we thought about simplifying the categories and add one category of time Day, afternoon and night. That way we could follow the “trace” of the actors in Zocalo with objects and situate their actions in a place and a time. (next diagram) page 38

PARKING

People use certain areas of space in the Zócalo for different activities Entertainment and Social

Commerce

Political

Maintenance and security

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ACTORS

ACTIVITIES

OBJECTS

Age Adults children young Adults old Adults

as place passing by staying wondering

Wearing clothes vest hand bag or bag caps/ hat/ helmet umbrella ball

as group families individual animals Rol Police security Politician Maintenance Merchant (Zócalo employees) Visitors (user) Local Tourist Foreigner

Entretainment & Social riding horse fliying kites play flirtting eat Poilitical Distribute political ideas Commerce selling buying Maintenance clean protect

Transport / gear weeling chair transport product doley cart supermarket bags containers bucket wagon basket tray Pertmanent objects monuments signs trees benches fence amusments speakers posts fountain tents stages informations stands light generators garbage cans fountains

Here we are exploring ways to show paths in places, in the diagram on the left created by Steve Tolleson from his book “soak wash rinse and spin” He shows 8 hours of (office) traffic. He defines people by their Initials and names key spaces in the office The map on the next page, shows the three main uses that we detected of the Zocalo. First we think people uses the Zocalo as a place they pass trough in order to go to other places. The second

TIME movable objects ball buckets notebook stools chairs water

PLACES

Monday

DAN

Tuesday

DAN

Wednesday D A N Thursday

DAN

Saturday

DAN

Sunday

DAN

parking green area kiosk paths (corridor) amusement park explanade

one is people goes there specifically to do some activities, and spend more time. The final use was, that people use Zocalo as a meeting point. These are relevant findings in case we want to consider users of the Zocalo.

Products Food chocolate icecream chart

The final example we show was actually a board game like monopoly, for us it was a good way to show what happens in Zocalo. By giving some values to the actors we were suggesting people can understand the corridors and actions that takes places there. Davis said that the Visualization that we were suggesting was a simulation.

Entretainment kite books amusments For wear clothes (belts) caps umbrella jewllery Services monuments washing watching car restaurant watching TV security shoe polishing rides (cars & amusement) maintenance

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EXPLANADE

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PARKING

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august 25th, 2004

Then we proceed with one book review: BOOK REVIEW 05

This book was Information Anxiety by Richard Saul Wurman, In this book he explains us how dramatic the information explosion of our times. The “knowledge explosion” bombards everyone with much more data, information and knowledge than he or she can usefully assimilate. The abundance of content can engender an uneasy feeling of inadequacy or anxiety. Somewhere within the overwhelming onslaught of content, we fear, may be a key nugget of data or perceptive insight that makes the difference between success and failure in some aspect of our lives. In this landmark book, Wurman offers many practical suggestions for effectively communicating and coping with the onslaught of informational events in your life.

A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England.

(Wurman 32) This is not to mention the relentlessly dramatic expansion of electronic information on the Internet, which is probably doubling the production of information every four years.

It is like a great reflection of our times and he uses quotes of other people to get his point. We spend the majority of our waking hours with information. It is interesting to note that we are not entirely new to information overload.

DATA IS NOT KNOWLEDGE

He finalize by saying some suggestion to all kind of students.

We must keep in mind that information or raw data is not knowledge. Individuals achieve knowledge by using their

own experience, distinguishing the important from the irrelevant and making critical value judgments. Just being in print does not make something accurate.

We started the day with the review of the book: BOOK REVIEW 06

Book cover of “Information Anxiety”

by Richard Saul Wurman.

“The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” By Edward R. Tufte, a specialist in the field of science and statistics in the context of various fields (economy, information design, sociology etc.) The book is divided in two parts, Graphical Practice and Theory of Data Graphics.

The first part describes principles for the graphical display of information, how truthful information is, and its sources.

The second talk about perception, sense and substance of data.

The second review of the day was Information Anxiety 1, by Richard Saul Wurman an architect whom contribution was to create useful and understandable data. The content of the book is how to overcome the huge amount of information we are exposed in our everyday life.

He give us general advise about this problem that causes us anxiety. He describes the ways to organize the information in category, time, and location, alphabetical and in continuum.

There are two important things to remember

What- is need How- is designing

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Other advises focus in listening and conversation and the importance of listen. He also says that language is important to express thinking, and ask us to Ask, listen, and be aware of words. The more you learn about the language you use, the less anxious you will be about communicating. He recommends that we need to learn from life and Learning comes from relationships.

THE WEST TEAM

Showed their findings in History and Backgrounds of the Zocalo in Cholula. They showed a time line to represent chronological events of the Zocalo of Cholula in this chart we could see: XII century the arrival of “Toltecas”

Finally he talks about Maps, they are not just for geographical stuff, is a way to structure data, and how Technology brings huge amount of information. And that information is

1513 Spanish take control of “Chollolan” 1519 Cortez arrives to “Chollolan” “The Killing” 1535 San Pedro Cholula gets the City title

a product to profit with.

------------------ C o m m e r c e a c t i v i t y ------------------------

David made a final reflection. Talking about usability and needs he questions that everything has to be “easy”, he says that sometimes is good to challenge the user, confront him or her to complex systems. That we, as designers need to “push” them a little. We have to be able to decide what is important about the content in order to transform it.

1549 San Gabriel church created the plaza use as a big market 1646 Casa Reales “Portales” established XVIII San Rafael fountain (writing in the monument) ----------------------- F a i r a c t i v i t y

------------------------------

1855 Monument to Santa Anna (First evidence of a 15 day fair)

Then we followed the group presentations:

1910 Celebration of Independence 1921 Reconstruction of the Portal 1924 Electric street car 1947 Pavement the paths 1513 Spanish take Control of Chollolan

1519 Cortez arrives to Chollolan.

The Killing

1950 First Fair, as we know it

1535 San Pedro Cholula gets the City title

1960 Park and Boulevard (gardens and boulevards)

XII Arrival of Toltecas scaping fron Tula

1549 San Gabriel´s church. La Plaza Mayor appears as a big market

1646 XVII? Casas Reales San Rafael fountain "Portales"

1855 Monument to Santa Anna. First evidence of a 15 day fair

1921 1924 1947 Reconstruction Electric Pavimentation of the Portal streetcar

1910 Celebration of the Independence centennial

1960 Park & Boulevard

1969 Remove Market and Boulevard

1978 Remodel Plaza de Armas

1969 Remove Market to the market building a few blocks away

1989 Remodel Park

1978 Remodel of “Plaza de Aromas” = explanade 1950 First fair as we know it

2004 Annual Fair

1989 Remodel of the Zocalo

Historical events Extructural evolution Social events

It was also mentioned that there was a movie in 1950

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“Enamorada”, by (Emilio) “El Indio Fernandez” that takes place in the Zocalo of Cholula.

They showed pictures and drawings of Zocalo. Their sources were merchants, photographs, interviews, newspaper stands and a restaurant nearby.

They ended the presentation showing 3 line chart models where with historical events, Structural evolution and social events Their basic problem is how to represent the historical segments in an accurate proportion.

THE SOUTH TEAM

Showed models representing areas in Zocalo and its function or uses that varied in topics like illumination, Access for disabled people, corridors or paths, Objects for interaction (Garbage cans, benches and Phone cabins) location, Leisure activities, proportion of shadow provide by trees they also showed a table showing the “Main” functions in Zocalo and people and a bar chart comparing months with events activities.

august 26th, 2004

THE EAST TEAM

Showed translucent Maps showing relations of measurements, free circulation and directed circulation, information signs and green areas, commercial and amusement areas.

Cholula location of map in the country, access from pyramid and from N, S, E, W David said that in a few days we have collected a huge amount of information and found ways to understanding it.

With the models we reduce the amount of data. He asked us to divide in two teams chose what kind of information we want to visualize and do it with different Zocalo elements.

The clue is to synthesize our ideas, in one idea and use the Zocalo to express it.

The whole group was divided in two main teams. We had to share information and define a Topic from where we needed to create the model. So we decided to have another book review and two big consultations with the teacher.

BOOK REVIEW O7

Information Anxiety 2 by Richard Saul Wurman.

Main ideas of the book The book is a manual for those who give shape to the INFORMATION - It deals with MEMORY and INTERESTS - It’s about to GIVE PERMISSION to people to act - Shows Anxiety as the gap between the things we know and what we must know - Presents the “TOOs”: Complementation and adaptation of the technologies, instead of the actual and the past.

- The books really critics the actual way of learning

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Zocalo’s project - It defines the huge needs of making relations and connections - Defines one goal: To focus the information searches to be easy to handle and meaningful

august 27 h, 2004

Omar gave us a very detailed analysis and personal conclusions of the book. I can resume it by saying that it is a follow up to the first edition “Information Anxiety”, that teaches critical lessons for functioning in today Information Age. In this new book, Wurman examines how the Internet, desktop computing, and advances in digital technology have not simply enhanced access to information, but in fact have changed the way we live and work. In examining the sources of information anxiety.

Omar thought that the author is really in a structural position about information. He enhances to handle the information in a structure according the perspective of the user, emphasizing his objectives and moreover, his interests The book is full of information, With this book we ended the review session, later we were supposed to it really got me anxious at the received a review from the rest of the students by mail. Unfortunately first moments, but on second some of the books reviews had not arrived yet. thoughts, it resulted an example of what it is about. The book is a model itself of the information world.

TOPIC IDEA We continued the class with our topic idea which was to come up with a visualization of the activities and uses of spaces of the Zocalo through time by using balloons, because one of the restrictions were using common elements on the Zocalo.

Before we came with this idea we had to explore a lot of alternatives, and ideas. The balloon one seem our strong one and David was enthusiastic to here, what comes next is the story of the process of elaboration which took form of a presentation the next day.

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METHODS

This project was done for the “Methods of Visualization” class at the Master of information Design in the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla. It was developed in a period of two weeks and it is an exercise about Cholula’s Zocalo.

to put it back at the Zocalo utilizing very simple materials taken from there. We feel this was a new way to visualize information and in a way we are sharing this walk with you come with us in a walk trough Cholula’s Zocalo.

Cholula is one of the most antiques cities in Mexico and the Zocalo is a central square where people visit and interact.

The beginning of the project started with 4 groups, North, South, East and West, that were given the task of collecting observations regarding four general aspects: - History and Backgrounds - Activities and Users - Function and Purpose - Environment and orientation The collection of information included a lot of materials, photographs, videos, sketches, and involved a lot of different sources, interviews with specialized people, visitors, journals and books. We found a lot of topics and information to share. Then, we divided again in 2 groups and synthesize the information selected a relevant topic and transformed it, so it would be understandable and clear in order

Cholula’s Zocalo is a place where a lot of things happen, people of different backgrounds and perspectives interact in different ways with objects and places. We notice and aspect particular interesting related to the function of some areas of the zocalo and the way people interact with them.

We detect three main functions related to activities: CONTEXT: Cholula’s Zocalo is a place where people from different socio-economic level interact.

Ecological Economical Entertainment and social Political

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METHODS

The Zocalo has very distinctive areas, we notice that people use certain areas for certain activities. We also notice the way people interact with certain areas of the park has not been always like that, even the structure of the park have change considerately depending on those activities, if we see it from the perspective of time.

The Zocalo of Cholula have had a lot of events that some how shaped the structure until what we see today, So what would happen if we relate the amount of activities and categories of uses in certain areas of the Zocalo at different times in History?

FAIR EXPLANA-

KIOSC

PARKING

VISUALIZATION

METHODS

VISUALIZATION SYSTEM

Since we had to use just elements of everyday use at the zocalo we decide to use balloons as representation of the four categories of activities going on in the Zocalo, each Balloon then corresponded to an activity.

Hearts = Entertainment Shreck = political Dolphin = ecological Nemo= economical.

So if there was a place with a lot of economical activity we will put more quantity of balloons from certain shape.

0.53

We will tie the balloons with a cord and on the bottom with some stones. The height of balloon will correspond to different times in history, the highest corresponded to the year 2004 mean while the lowest in height corresponded to earlier years.

Now we put groups of balloons in certain areas of the Zocalo where we detected changes of activities during those years. The ďŹ nal idea is that with a glance people would see the changes of activities in the explanade during time.

We thought also that people from outside the Zocalo (like the ones located in the pyramid) would be able to see the whole installation of balloons that way we are covering not just people that are in the Zocalo but possible target viewers.

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FINAL VISUALIZATIONS

The model that we created was difficult -but not impossibleto put in the real zocalo so what we did is, that we created three scenarios of how the visualization was supposed to look and we retouch some pictures for the presentation, here they are:

What we have just seen is the effort of two intense weeks of work, where we had the chance to learned a lot about visualization methods. But the worked didn’t finished here, because of time restrictions we weren’t able to present everything as we were imagining it, so we made a final paper of this project and send it to David the 13th of September.

Next is an overview of the ideas and methodology used in order to achieve the results of this project.

When we thought about the balloon idea we were thinking on how to mark the years, one idea was to make them with small stones like the picture below. That idea latter was left behind but here we can see how we picture it.

Universidad de las Americas, Puebla Master in Information Design

Cholula’s Zocalo Walk Through

A visuailzation for some particular issues of Cholula’s zocalo

Janet Alvarez Jaime Lasso Nora Morales Omar Sosa Omar Valdiviezo

Methods of Visualization Professor David Skopec Autum 04

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PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

As I said before this documentation hasn’t ended, Indeed the most important part is still to come, I am referring to the final project of the class.

august 31 to november 29th st

After the classes finished we have to come up with a project for the Visualization Methods class. In my case I wanted to use something related to my Master Degree Research project which is a Design information tool for women, specially mothers to help them organize their everyday lives. So here is my final project for this class:

PROPOSAL FINAL PROJECT WOMAN / TIME

My project is to develop a visualization model that show how five Mexican women, from different backgrounds and different social contexts and ages, spend their time in a regular day. There is a particular stress on how they organize daily activities and what are their organizational empirical strategies or if they use technology artifacts or tools what is the interaction with them.

Methodology and Research Strategy I believe that in order to understand how people live what ���

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are their opinion and what they feel about something we have to observe them very closely, that is why I deliberately pick ethnographic observation, and a qualitative methodology.

Qualitative research lets you get information more profound but in a way specific. I am particularly interesting on how to show results from qualitative studies with good models, because, so far the models used to input information and show results are based in quantitative methods, which are

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what science has set as a format already. It was very important to me that in my research I should consider many aspects of the observation at the same time, from behavior feelings, spaces and the interaction with the subject with them as well as the subjects feelings.

The criteria to pick the subject was arbitrary within the people I have contact with, being a woman and a mom particularly help me to have at least a link to the person and some how already share a level of trust.

OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES

Mainly I supported on books to understand qualitative methodology, I did a direct observation technique called “shadowing” technique which is mainly follow my subject with a video or camera during all the day thorough all her daily routine, and ask a few questions about their behavior.

For that I had to prepare an open protocol juts to follow some sequence but it didn’t worked like a standard interview. As complement for the observations and because it was practically impossible to follow a person during a day I came up with and idea. I made like a diary or day planner which I used like a recording instrument for activities and feelings of my subjects. I called it “Dairy of a day” in that notebook my subject register all the information and marked special feelings or interruptions with stickers.

I also linked that with the spaces they interact during the day. I found this as a good tool to develop my research and also think they like the idea and felt very comfortable with it.

I am not going to tell all my findings of the project because that really corresponds to the other paper of the class.

This whole class was a very interesting experience for me

conclusion

I really like the way you teach and all the projects. This documentation in particular, I thought it was going to be just extra work, but now that I have done it, I realize that it has helped me for my research, and also it had made me realize my own process of learning.

As an example, I always try to take notes of the class, and in my notebooks I write thoughts that come up in the moments, book suggestions, things to do and even grocery list, but they always stay there, even when I am doing projects I can read the information again, but to have it in a formal documentation, gives you the opportunity to share that information, and since you are reviewing it from a context perspective it is like taking the class again, and now I have it in the computer too. Of course I am going to have mistakes, specially because some Minutes were not very good, and some book reviews never make it, but as a whole concept I think is very innovative and I am going to punch it with my students to. For me is like having a mirror of yourself in front of you.

On the other hand let me tell you that this documentation left me with hunger of knowing more about a lot of other aspects we barely touch in class, like I want to know more about Manuela Pfrunder and Otto Neurath. I wish I could have more time.

I also wanted to thank you because your process of working in teams gave me the opportunity to realize how I behave like a team member, and showed me the importance on appreciating team achievements and when to let my ideas go.

VISUALIZATION

0.61

METHODS

bibliography

Since we couldn’t find all the books that you suggested from your list, and since this is a documentation project, I took note of some books that you suggested or talked about in class. They are marked in the section of whish list as books that I am hoping to find and read one day.

Bertin, Jaques and de Gruyter, Netze; “Graphische Semiologie - Diagramme.” Karten Walter; 1974.

Demetrios, Eames; “An Eames Primer.” Rizzoli, N.Y. 2001.

Garland, Ken; “Mr Beck’s Underground Map - a history by Ken Garland.”

Capital Transport, 1998.

Mijksenaar, Paul; “Visual Function - An Introduction to Information Design.” 010 Publishers; 1997.

Mijksenaar, Paul; “Open Here - The art of instructional design.” Piet Westendorp, Thames & Hudson, 1999.

Tolleson, Steve; “soak, spin, wash, rinse.” .” Princeton Architectural Press, New York 1998.

Tufte, R. Edward; “Visual Explanations.” .” Graphics Press; 1997.

Tufte, R. Edward; “Envisioning Information.” .” Graphics Press; 1990.

Tufte, R. Edward; “The Visual Display of Quantitive Information.”

Graphics Press, 1983.

Wurman, S. Richard; “Information Anxiety.” Doubleday; 1989.

Wurman, S. Richard; “Information Anxiety 2.” Que; 2000.

Wurman, S. Richard; “Information Architects.” Graphis; 1996.

Wurman, S. Richard; “Understanding children: the guidebook for children 0 to 3” Top, Civitas, 2001.

Wurman, S. Richard; “Understanding Understanding USA.” TED Conferences Inc. 2000.

VISUALIZATION

METHODS

wish list Card,K. Stuart, Mackinlay, D. Jock and Shneiderman Ben; “Readings in Information Visualization - Using Vision to think.” Morgan Kaufmann; 1999.

Eco, Umberto (The story of king in Italy that becomes obsessed with the idea of representing the reality).

Harris, Robert L.; “Information Graphics - A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference.” Management Graphics; 1996.

Kahn, Palu and Lenk Kris; “Mapping Web-Sites.” 1995.

Livragh, Giancarlo; “The Power Point Disease.”

Maeda, John; “Design by numbers.” The MIT Press; 2001.

Moles, A. Abraham; “Information Theory and Esthehic Perception.”

University of Illinois Press, 1971.

Müller, Karl H.; “Symbole, Statistik, Computer, Design: Otto Neuraths Bildpädagogik im Computerzeitalter.” Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1991 Pfrunder, Manuela; “Neotopia, Atlas of equitable distribution of the world,” Seiten, Leinen, vierfarbig, 2001.

Robin, Harry and Kevles, Daniel; “The Scientific Image: From Cave to Computer” Shedroff, Nathan; “Experience Design.” New Riders; 2001.