Assignment 1 - Milestones

For Assignment 1, we are supposed to develop a static, time-­series infographic as a confirmative analysis based on the history of data visualization called Milestones, created by Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis at  http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/

Phase 1 - Ideas Generation

When I first looked through the website, I was overwhelmed by the data that ranges all the way from pre-1600 to 1975. Also, I was unclear of what the infographic is supposed to present. However, upon several clarifications with the tutor, I decided to focus on data from just 1 particular milestone instead of finding trends among the milestones.

Some of the milestones that caught my attention include

• Fisheye view
• First digital computer
• Mapping prostitutes in Paris

However, I was faced with much disappointment as data from each of these individual milestones is insufficient to create an infographic. Also, most of the information provided are not in English, which hinders my progress. Nevertheless, I continued my search and finally found an interesting milestone that I could use - The development of CHARTBOOK

In 1975, the U.S. Bureau of the Census developed a chartbook that consist of income data for people aged 14 and above, between 1948 and 1979. Numbers provided in the chartbook is increasingly gaining importance as they have helped organizations with social planning, industrialization, commerce and transportation. Hence, I decided to present data found in the chartbook (as seen in image 1) for my infographic.

Image 1

Phase 2 - Draft 1
As I have no prior experience in creating infographic, the most intuitive software that I could thought of to create my data visualization was Excel. With the data that I insert into the excel sheet, I tried out the different charts available in the software and discovered several interesting trends!

• Although the income of males are significantly higher than females in America, the income gap is decreasing
• Although the income of whites are higher than blacks in America, the income gap is decreasing

As such, i decided to present the data in the form of line chart and pie chart in my infographic (as seen in Image 2)

Image 2

Phase 3 - Critique
After submitting my draft on to the forum, this is the feedback that i received from Zhi Wei

Hi Tong Wei,
I have a few questions and comments regarding your assignment.
Not too sure what does the numbers on the graph represent, i.e. is it the number of people who are living at the poverty level?
On the side note, perhaps showing the percentage of those people affected by the income gap versus the total population might help in discovering new information.
All the pie charts could also be of the same size if possible.
Lastly, not too sure if the numbers of the gender segmentation should be together with the racial segmentation as they overlap in data.
Hope the comment is useful. Other than that good effort

Subsequently, I also received feedback from Ambalica.

Hello,
I like your idea, and the representation of having the graph and pie charts all together. However, I have a few concerns:
1. The units on the y-axis are not self-explanatory. Are the numbers representing salary, or is it population? Just adding the units should help.
2. As mentioned earlier, the pie charts should be of the same size. Also, it looks a bit crowded on the right, so maybe you can decrease the size of all pie charts, at the same time making them all the same size.
I like the explanation provided at the top, but since the infographic is about Income Inequality, probably your heeading should be related to that. It is difficult to make the connection between 'chartbook' and 'income inequality' by just looking at the infographic.

In addition, my tutor also advised me during the tutorial to separate the graphs comparing gender and races, since there is nothing to compare between these 2 categories. Also, she mentioned that the colours of the lines that I used in my line chart are not intuitive (e.g. using orange and yellow to represent Whites and Blacks respectively).

After the entire critique session, the changes that i decided to make to my infographic are as such:

• Change the title of my infographic
• Separate the line chart into 2
• Label my graph axis appropriately
• Change the colour of the lines for the line chart to more intuitive colours
• Use human figures instead of pie charts such that the infographic looks more attractive

Phase 4 - Final Product
After much work, here is the final infographic that i came up with:

Image 3

On the left of my infographic, I used line charts to plot out the median income of the population from 1968 to 1997. The line charts demonstrate the prevalent income disparity between genders and races over the years. It can also be observed that while income inequality between genders is greater compared to race, income disparity in general decreases over time.

On the right of my infographic, I used human figures and percentages to compare the proportion of income in year 1968 and 1997. This presentation enables readers to know the exact proportion of income change. The exact proportion can also be compared between gender and race as well as between the years, providing information in addition to those found from the line chart.

As it my first time learning how to use a design software like Adobe Illustrator, I had alot of difficulty coming up with an appealing infographic. Also, I know nuts about designing infographic! Hence, I felt that the learning curve for this module is very steep for me! Nevertheless, the first assignment was a good learning experience and a good skill to pick up!