Toronto Infographic Draftbook

Project 1 - Toronto Infographic Draftbook

Zainab Alavi (216293573) YSDN 2008 Information Design 1 Gary Leroux Feb 13th 2020

Ideation When we were introduced this project I immediately knew I wanted to do something related to my own culture and childhood.

Growing up in Toronto as a Sri-Lankan Muslim, a visible minority, made me aware of the trends and patterns visible in different toronto regions because I would recognize the way of life or .

With my gransparents living in Scarborough and my family and I living in the Danforth/Greektown area, I noticed immmense trends in the lifestyle that was adopted in each area. Whether it was the amount of coffee shops or chidren resource centres in that area, or the amount of fast food chains in the area; the more I would go to these areas, the more I’d become aware of how contrasting the lifestyles were.

I came up with the following topics after brainstorming: - Number of Coffee shops in area vs. Income in Toronto neighborhoods.

- Education rate vs. Number of community centres in Toronto Neighborhoods - Diabetes rates in Toronto Neigborhoods vs.

Income/Ethnicity etc.

I then proceeded to create some sketches to create a general layout of how my infographic would look like

Inspiration I decided to choose the Topic, Diabetes rates in Toronto Neighborhoods, because I could personally relate to this topic. My entire family has Diabetes, and I noticed a lot of people in the Scarborough area in which my grandparents lived also had this Disease. I wanted to investigate further, and become aware of what exactly played a role in making one area more susceptible to getting diabetes than another.

I wanted to create an infographic which was clean, but also fun. Upon my research, I became aware that Infographics are meant to tell a story..but what was my story ?

I wanted to showcase the unqueness of each neighborhood but also create a fun way to represent the neighborhood.

Ultimately, I decided to compare to highly contrasting neighborhoods in areas such as income, ethcnicity, population and location. I decided to choose Malvern in Scarborough, and Yorkville located in The Annex, because of how different the two neighborhoods were in different sectors and because the diabetes rates in these neighborhoods were so different, and I wanted to showcase what exactly would correlate to this through my infographic.

Research

I did a lot of research and printed out a few pages that contained signifcant information, making it easier to create the infographic, as the more information collected, the easier to create the infographic !

Canadian National Household Survey https://web.archive.org/ web/20110603225424/http://www.statcan. gc.ca/survey-enquete/household-menages/5178-eng.htm Toronto City Statistics: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/ Statistics Canada: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/ prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CT&Code1=5350091.02&Geo2=CMACA&Code2=535 Diabetes Toronto

https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/ health-programs-advice/diabetes-prevention/

Curation

I started by trying to create a sense of the neighborhood through creating a detailed illustration on Photoshop. This showcases the unique architecture present in the Annex Neighborhood. I wasn’t really sure how I would showcase diabetes in neighborhoods, so I just started by trying to showcase the area in the most obvious way.

Critique 1

Yorkville 6%

Malvern 55%

A look into the neighborhood demographics

88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 95k Average income Caucasian ethnicity 88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 55k Average income Indian ethnicity 88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

Toronto neighborhoods and diabetes rates

6%

average income : 75k

55%

average income : 30k After critique, I was told that my concepts lacked correlation to my topic.

I admit, it was hard coming up with a way that would showcase my topic, which was diabetes rates in Toronto Neighborhoods in a way which would not be biased or scrutinizing towards a certain neighborhood. After critique with Gary, I was told to represent my concept in a fun but relating to the topic way such as a picnic or a table or just some way to represent food as diabetes is strongly correlated with food.

Process (again) I drew inspiration from Toronto Public health articles on Diabetes in Toronto. It then hit me, food ! The type of food one ate, fast food vs. healthy, played a huge role in determining the likelyhood of one getting diabetes.

After thorough research, I became aware of how the type of food most common and available in each neighboorhood. There are reasons why some neighborhoods are more likely to have diabetes be it due to income or population, these key factors, atributed to the food available in the neighborhood and thus, affected the diabetes rate in that neighborhood.

6%

Yorkville

Let’s have a picnic

of residents have diabetes

$105,239 average income

Malvern

55%

of residents have diabetes

$25, 677 average income 43,794 residents 41 % South Asian Population

Critique 2 Using the same layout as my first infographic with the houses, I decided to create a story, which would be “Having a picnic in Toronto Neighborhoods�. This way I would be able to show the types of foods available in each neighborhood in a way that would make sense.

Yorkville 6%

Malvern 55%

A look into the neighborhood demographics

Establish a proper hierarchy between text using one factor (colour, size etc.)

Showcase the numbers in a more creative way (e.g pie charts, bar graphs, visual representation)

Create a picnic blanket or table so the foods are not just floating.

88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 95k Average income Caucasian ethnicity 88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 55k Average income Indian ethnicity 88% Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

Create a short blurb to create a sense of importance between both neighborhoods.

Re-iterations A week before the final submission, I made a few key changes. Namely, the hieratchy of the titles, and the information being present, I scratched out the ethnicity part and replaced it with population. I decided to just present 3 main statistics in each neighborhood as it would allow for a clear and non-biased representation of the topic.

Final

Let’s have a picni c in Toronto Neighborhoods

Yorkville

9,990 residents

tes iabe D e

5%

Malvern

Diverse and eccentric. Tons of fast food chains make it super convenient and affordable to grab a bite.

of residents

h iabetes eD av

$105, 239 average income

residents h of av

Luxurious and exclusive. Restaurants here offer fresh and locally produced meals for high prices.

55%

$25, 677 average income

43, 794 residents

Conclusion This was a really fun and challenging experience for me. Creatng my first ever infographic was so much harder than I thought it would be. From going from showing two houses with numbers just floating beneath, to creating a fun visual graphic that displayed the topic of “Diabetes Rates in Toronto Neighborhoods” in a clean, happy way was very rewarding for me.

Design wise, I learned how important it is to create a story within your infographic. Without it, the design just seems out of place and boring. I realized this, and once I incorporated the Picnic story into my design, it became more fun and interesting.

Personally, I think it’s really important to raise awareness on how there are such vast differences in the lives of people living in different parts of Toronto. due to factors such as income and population. It’s important we become aware of how, we can ultimately take control of our lives and lead it for the better. I believe by showing the statistics, Torontonians can become more aware of how to live a better life through the choices they make, regardless of where they live.