Exploiting the visual potential of appearance
Using the appearance of the guns the viewer will learn what percent of mass shootings are committed with each weapon. The images are meant for the viewers to recognize and connect to the topic of the infograph which is Mass Shootings in the US.
I have based my two appearance displays on two displays in my visual language and typography model. The first features an image in the middle and the circles around the image that represent the percentage. The second features the same set up with the percentages spanning to the right. Both of these displays and the accompanying typography are in my model.
All the colors featured in my two appearance displays are also featured on my color model. The background color is the same and the blues and red are the same. The blues and red are commonly featured together on my color model like I have in my displays.
Critique
Joseph Chou
For the first display, Joseph was drawn to the icons and the circles first. Joseph said his eye was drawn to the red icon first. Then the text. For the second display, Joseph was drawn to the the bars first and the title of the icons. Next to the icons and circles and last to the title.
Joseph preferred the second display because it is easier to compare the three types of guns and how often they are used in mass shootings.
Joseph highlighted how the icons were similar to my visual language display. In addition, the font and bar graphs were as well. Joseph also saw that the colors were also the same for my display but the darker gray was a new addition.
Response to first critique
Joseph mentioned how the light gray was not in my color display. I replaced the light gray with the light blue/gray. In addition, his eye was drawn to the red icon first. This was not my intention so I made all the icons red.
Olga Andreeva
For the first display, Olga was drawn to the circles and described it as a pie display. For the second display, Olga was drawn to the bars and described it as a bar chart display.
Olga preferred the first display because it was visually appealing to use the circles to show the percentages. She also liked that they were more separated.
Olga noticed the use of circles as a big part of my visual language model. She also noticed that the colors of the font matched the colors of the icon and that was not featured in my visual language model.The color model matched my displays accurately.
Response to second critique
Olga was drawn to the circles first which is a huge portion of the display but I want to highlight the guns so I made the guns the red color to hopefully draw the eyes first. She mentioned that the colored font was not a feature of my visual language/typography model. I decided to keep the colored text but changed them all to blue to match most of the colored font in my color model.
Yu-won
Yu-won was drawn to the circles in the first display and thought that the writing was an afterthought. You-won noticed that the second display noticed the rectangles and again saw the writing last.
Yu-won preferred the first display because of the way the circles displayed the information. She thought it was more clear than the second display.
Yu-won mentioned how the first display was the same as my color model. She also noticed how the use of circles were relevant in my visual language model. She also noticed how the use of lowercase and capitalization were utilized in my typography model.
Response to third critique
Since Yu-won saw the writing as an afterthought I changed the color of the percentage to highlight its importance. I did not change the size of the writing because that would not match my visual language/typography model.
Using the appearance of the different guns used during mass shootings highlights the violence and seriousness of the info graph topic. The rings around the guns represent the gun usage percentage in mass shootings. The red guns pop on the page and remind viewers of the grim acts that have been committed with these weapons.
I have highlighted the percentage to draw more attention to it because it is the main information a viewer should gather from the display.
The added title explains the visual display and matches the subtitles in my typography model. In addition, the dotted line underneath is from my visual language model.
The colors closely match the color model. All of the text is colored blue expect for the percentages to highlight its importance. The rings exactly follow the color model.
Critique
Matthew
First Matthew saw the three different types of guns and then his eye was drawn to the circles where he notices two colors. Next he looks upward to the title. The title gives him a sense of what the display is about. Once he reaches the title, he understands the meaning behind the different types of guns and is drawn to the smaller text. He accounts the percentages to the circles and their colorings once he reads the text.
Matthew liked the red color of the guns because it stands out above the muted blues. He liked that the title described what it was about well and did not understand what it was about previously. He had a hard time understanding which color (the dark blue or light blue) was supposed to represent the percentage until he read the text.
Matthew said the colors aligned with the color model in that the three main colors were featured and the background color was the same. He mentioned that the direction of the circle percentages was the same as my typography/visual language model when he looked at the "Education Level" display.
Response to first critique
Since Matthew did not know what the display was until he looked at the title and the title was the third thing he realized, I made the title bigger to match the size of my visual language model titles.I also made it clearer that the percentage aligned with the lighter blue since the percentage text is colored the same color. This works better with my color model because the light blue is used the least in most displays and as a highlighting color in other displays.
Nick
Nick noticed the different kinds of guns first on both iterations of the display. On the first iteration of the display (display #1) he noticed that the circles represented the percentages. On this new iteration of the display he says that percentage circles stand out a bit less since the blues are so similar. Nick notices the percentages more on the new iteration because they are in a different color than the other text.
Nick preferred the new iteration over the old. He liked the gun icons and how they drew the eye first and that the percentages were highlighted in the text. However, he preferred the different color guns because it represents that they are different and are associated with different percentages.
Nick saw that the main colors emulated my color model. He mentioned that the circular display on my visual language model under the title "Gender" had the percentages going in the opposite ways of each other/mirroring each other but said that that might be unclear for three icons.
Response to second critique
I have kept the colors of the gun red to make the guns pop and ensure that I only use the three colors in my color model. In my first iteration I used four including a gray that was not featured in my color model. That did not work as well and if I were to make the guns a different color I would need an extra color to make the circles.
Nick also mentioned that the percentages in the "Gender" display go opposite ways in the circles. I did not change this on my display because there are three instead of two circles. If I were to go different ways the symmetry would be off because the middle would have to choose a way of either the left or right circles. It would just confuse the viewers.
Chueh-chen
She noticed that it was about guns first and that each circle held a different kind of gun. Her eye was drawn to the title then to the percentages and text.
She preferred the second because the percentages were in a different color. She said that it emphasizes the numbers and makes the text easier to read.
Chueh-chen said it was clear that I followed the three main colors, dark blue, light blue, and red, in my color display. She also noticed that the title I used followed the section dividers of my visual language and typography model with the capitalized font and the dotted line. She did notice that there was a title underneath the title that I used such as the "Gender" one or the "Education Level" one that I do not have on my display.
Response to third critique
I did not make this change because this display already has a lot of text and the title does not require a subtitle since it is only one display and not four combined. In addition, those subtitles are only used in one display of my visual language model.
This display highlights the guns used during mass shootings. The red guns invoke the seriousness and violence of the acts committed with these guns. The display utilizes the appearance of the guns to bring the heaviness of the topic and relate the information to what viewers will recognize as opposed to just showing the names of guns ("shotgun", "rifle", "handgun"). The display will educate viewers of the percentage of times the weapons are used in mass shootings. One of the messages is that these guns are common in appearance but aren't typically related to committing mass murders but more generally related to recreational use or hunting.
I made the title larger to draw more attention to what the display is about. This matches the size of the titles in my visual language model.
I made the light blue the color of the percentage in the circles to match the fact that the light blue is used least often in my color model and used as a highlight in some displays in my model. In addition, the light blue is the color of the percentage text to relate to the percentages on the circles. This makes it clearer and keeps the majority of the text blue to match my color model text.