As a first step to conduct a visual analysis on the graphic design, I conducted an experiment using tachistoscope.
Experimental Setup:
I recruited 5 participants from my personal network.
Ages of participants ranged between 10 to 68 years old.
These participant were shown the graphic design for half a second each, using a tachistoscope.
At the end, participants were requested to describe, what they perceived in this half second.
Participants' responses:
Participant 1: 3 rows of people over another, it seems people are divided into three groups. In beige , white and grey.
Participant 2: A Statistics with three rows with people, people were wearing white, black and red clothes. Ones with white clothes were the most in number, than red, may be 2,3 people and the ones with black were one or two, they looked like Romans or Egyptians Pharos.
Participant 3: It is like a Egytian picture, I see a lot of people in rows, with Egyptian costumes with brown background.
Participant 4: I see some people who are wearing mummy’s costume and some wolves with human head attached to them.
Participant 5: I see a photo with 5 rows of people, which are placed over one another. Background is beige and people are with black outline.
Repetitive Responses:
Shapes and forms
People5/5
My research notes shows that 100% of the participants saw people in the Graphic. rows4/5
80% of the participants mentioned rows while describing the graphic. 3 rows2/5
40% of the participants mentioned that they saw three rows.
Colors:
white 2/5
40% of the participants observed white color in the graphic.
50% of these participant said that some people in the graphic were white color.
beige 2/5
40% of the participants mentioned that they saw beige color.
black 2/5
40% of the participants mentioned black color in their statement.
50% from these 40% mentioned black clothes of people figures.
while other 50% of 40% mentioned black outline around the people figures.
background:
brown 1/5 , beige 1/5
20% of the participants said that the background was beige, while other 20% said that the background was brown.
Common theme:
Egyptian 2/5
40% of the participants mentioned Egyption while talking about people figure.
Half of these 40% participants mentioned Egytian Pharos.
Other half of these 40% participants mentioned Egyptian picture and costumes.
Gestalt Principles:
As a second part of this experiment. I analysized the Graphic according to gestalt principles. I used Good gestalt guide by Tobias Huber for this.
Conclusion:
Proximity
The placement of similar looking figures next to one another makes it easier for viewer to preceive it as a group.
Figure Ground
There is a clear distinction between the foreground and the background.
Similarity
The repetition of figures to show one group and similarities between different groups makes it easier for viewer to grasp the common theme.
The final picture painted with our visual analysis shows that 100% of the participants saw people. 80% of the participants mentioned rows. Participants gave more importance to colors used in graphic. Surprisingly 60% of the participants mentioned similarity of the graphic with Egyptian figures.
Looking at our findings, we can conclude that 100% of the participants ignored text completely. Although text was used on two different locations and in two different weights, but it was not mentioned by any of our participants.
Emotions and expressions
In order to investigate emotions attached to the Graphic design. I created a semantic differential setup. The setup was made while having three questions in mind.
Questions as opposing properties:
Does colour effect the seriousness of the information presented?
colorful and dull ===> non-serious and serious
What does arrangement say about the ease in reading of data presented visually?
linear and dis-continuous ===> organised and haphazard
If the designer of the Graphic design wanted to make a point?
indifferent and opinioned ===> anonymous and individual
These questions were derived from categories of visual aspect, tangibility, embodiness and sympathy.
Questions were converted into key words of opposite properties by choosing perceivable qualities.
The participants were given the visual input using Tachistoscope for two seconds each.As a second step of this setup, participants were asked to fill the semantic differential setup that I derived from these questions.
This setup was shuffled vertically, so that every time a test participant chooses his answer, he/she questions his/her feelings.
The setup was tested with 5 participants.
Limitations
Emotion and expression is a very deep and complicated topic.
The semantic differential setup was tested only with 5 participants.
This test doesn’t take the previous emotional state or mood of the test participant into consideration.
After the testing phase
The data collected was brought back in order so that they can be analysed.
Conclusion.
The experiment showed some really interesting trends about the design.
The experiment showed some really interesting trends about the design. Looking at our differential setup’s we can say that
This design is colourful but serious.
The arrangement of the data presented makes it look organised.
There is no consensus on uniqueness of the design but participants found that the design is more opinioned or that the designer wants to make a point.
Construction
In this part, I evaluated my design on the basis of:
Arrangement
The format of the piece suggests landscape arrangement. It is arranged in landscape format and the placement of icons also follow the direction of reading.(english i.e. from top left to bottom right)
Overall composition
The composition looks balanced, figures left aligned and all figures look the same height on the first glance, carefull examination shows that it has been achieved by creating a visual deception.
Human figures placed on left side, are move very little on left with every row. They are moved almost the same distance as they have in between them.
Balance
Placement of figures looks balance.
Figures have been distributed evenly through-out and differences in rows are even, which is pleasant to look at.
Figures in a new row are always reduced slightly as compared to ones above them. Slight reduction of size makes it harder to be prominent to a naked eye. Red Mexican figure is the only exception, which is bigger than the rest of the figures.
Color contrasts
Contrast of saturation and contrast of hue is used in this piece.
On first level, hue of beige colored background creates great contrast with saturated colored figures and makes them prominent.
On the second level, contrast between darker skin tones and lighter clothing makes figures easier to differenciate. This rule has been reversed for figures representing white population.
Generative principles of axis and grids
All graphic elements used in this piece follow left alignment. Human figures are placed on a modular grid, which changes gutter spaces between two figures according to its need.
Meaning in composition
This composition is a diagramatic representation of numbers.
Conclusion.
The study of construction shows, that there is a huge amount of effort has been put to make this graphic. Huge importance was given to the reading of this design and graphic rules were used to enhance the flow of eye in the direction of English reading.
Excursion
After getting construction analysis of this design, i got really interested to design it for a mobile screen.
What motivated me?
Firstly, the construction analysis made me respect, this design, this design methodology and the team behind it even more. The team of designers and scientists used all these different rules to make reading of this design easier.
The second reason of this excursion was to give tribute to Otto Neurath, who gave huge importance to modern technologies of his times. I am pretty sure, he would have made new rules and guidelines for Isotypes on mobile screen, if he were alive.
After trancing the graphic on Illustrator, I placed all the figure intuitively on the artboard
I center aligned all the elements of the Graphic.
Since in the original graphic, figures were reducing in descending order in every row, so i applied that rule of construction in the mobile design.
In this step i fixed the gap between the figures and the shifting of every row equals to the same gap. To keep the whole composition compact but still close to that of original design.
In this step, I try to co-relate figures presented with relay of the design, by adding more rows of text to the relay.
The Problem
The relay and label on mobile screen was so small that user would hardly see it.
I considered the functionality of interaction and applied that in the design to make it more readible and relevant for the mobile device and screen.
Conslusion
Semiosis
In order to evaluate design in terms of semiosis. I looked at the design as the combination of signs and used lazy multimodal analysis to extend it's meaning.
The first figure shows a human, which seems that we are refering to a human by similarity and convention, it is standing still on the side, without any movement. It is passive in it's behaviour. It is wearing grey suit clothes and it's skin color is white. His clothes and skin color represent a certain group
The figure is a conventional icon and it represents a quantity. The is made more clear by anchor text, which behaves like a label (figure-label) and fixes the meaning of one figure to be 50 million people of that group. It controls the meaning of each figure.
The first figure on the second row, also represents a human by similarity and convention but symbolises a different race with changes in its clothes and skin colour.
Similar figures are repeated to represents a group and a bigger number.
The meanings of groups has been extended by another set of labels or relay (group-labels). It extends the meaning of every figure group represented in the Graphic.
It defines the skin colour of the figure and which nationalities it represents.
The Group label or relay and the figures are related with one-another interns of similarity of layout.
The heading of the graphic and the combination of all figures are correlated for what is presented on the design.
Conclusion.
The meanings in the signs and labels of this graphic are quite explicit, which also makes the reading of the Information easier.
Aesthetics
In this chapter, I tried to answer the question of Aesthetics why and how do I find something pleasant and specially why this design.
How did i go about it?
In order to understand my personal aesthetics and taste in design.
I started by developing mood boards. The first moodboard had domestic objects that I like. I wrote things that define those items. The second mood board had some graphic elements that my design has.
I used Immanuel Kant’s idea of Aesthetics which we discussed during our lectures.
Domestic items on the mood board were later put on index made on Immanuel Kant’s idea of Aesthetics.
The lower portion of the index somehow defines my approach to design also. I give more importance to the functionality of the design and try to avoid elements to free beauty.
Now looking at the placement of these elements, I asked myself, If i would plot this design on the index, where would i plot it?.
This helped me to reflect on my choices and how i like to work.
Conclusion.
The design of this graphic can be placed as good stuff, because I prefer to use these type of info graphics in my works,
because it works for me . All the aspects and elements of this graphic are useful, from icons to the label nothing is extra.
If we take anything out from this design, it will change the whole structure and create a huge information Gap.
On one hand it gives a humane way to represent information but still, on another hand it tries to avoid any problem of Interpretation and
understanding by keeping everything literal and minimum to necessary details.
Socio-cultural Background
In this part of the report, i tried to answer questions related to the social and cultural background of this design.
For what purpose was this designed?
The selected designed chart is from the book Die bunte Welt (The vivid world). The purpose of this design was, to educate and to awaken the interest for important questions of life in general masses.
Who designed this for whom?
The design as a part of the book, was conceived, written and designed at Gesellschafts und Wirtschafts (Society and economy) Museum Vienna in 1929. Some of the most prominent members who were part of the design process are Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath and Gern Arntz.
This chart was made for schoolchildren and adults with limited formal education. It is important to mention that unlike some noted examples of modernist graphic design, it was not initially developed by artists but people who had science backgrounds.
What technique was used?
The technique used to make this design could be mentioned in two parts.
Technique of data selection
This technique was defined as Transformation by the founding member of this design.
Otto Neurath explained set of rules followed to select data and change visuals as, ” There are many transformation rules, some hundreds of them. Since the application of these rules cannot be standardised, but each new picture needs, as it were, a somewhat new invention of combinations. There is no possibility to transfer the rules in a simple way, one has to become acquainted with the whole structure of rules and learn how to weight them from case to case i.e. transformation needs rules plus more routine.”
(Otto Neurath, 1944)Technique of production
Symbols were cut in lino and printed.
Lettering was printed from metal type (Futura) and placed so as to range from the left.
To which style does this refer?
This chart refers to the style of Figurative Constructivism.
What is the socio-cultural precondition for this?
This design refers to a condition where more people could understand pictures.
This could mean that audience was
illiterate or not formally educated.
illiterate in the language of design.
either too young or foreigner.
literate in another language.
not from the origin, where it was presented.
either tourists or an immigrants.
This could mean that design was made for a diverse audience.
What is the discourse?
Infographic is representation of information using graphical principles and Rhetorics.
Too much information on a topic outside of one’s scope of expertise can be really overwhelming.
The expert might be interested in every detail about the topic.
But the same amount of detail would scare the viewer with less knowledge of the subject.
Conclusion.
Infographic informs the viewer about the overall theme, without overwhelming them with minor details and by creating visual Hierarchies with in the given information. Viewers can read and understand data that is of interest to them.
It allows them to get information on their own pace and by reading one thing at a time.
Infographics provide information in a manner, which is simplified to reach a maximum number of viewers without making them feel inferior.
Practices
In this chapter I looked at practices, the design in real world and how people confront design. These observations are put in the form of design fictions, where different characters are interacting with design. Some are doing it with a purpose, others are just consuming it for fun. The first design fiction story is about interaction of people with information while taking design decisions, others are simply the end user of these designs.
In the Newsroom
“It is already 8,o clock and reporter is changing the details of the story every few minutes, Is he not aware that we have to send the newspaper for printing at mid night”, shouted Mahem from the edge of her office.
She is really stressed and frustrated today, she wanted to put a story about deaths of bikers in road accidents in Karachi, but the reporter can’t find any trustworthy source of information to go with the story.
Just at the point, she felt thought of Maya. She got an idea about how can she deal with the issue. She called her sister who works as Deputy secretary of Police Karachi. “Hello Maya, I need a huge favour, lease use your contacts and get me the report about total number of deaths in this year due to traffic accidents on motor bikes”
Maya was silent for a second and replied that she has a report but it is about total number of deaths in the city. The report is 40 pages long and she din’t get the time to go through it because it has lot of numbers.
“ Please send it to me, I will dig into details and this is exactly what I am looking for” were those spontaneous words that came out her mouth.
After two minutes she had a new e-mail in her account, she called Jaideep and Faiza in her office. “Faiza , you are aware of the story we are publishing tomorrow about bike riders, look into this report and send the data to Jaideep asap.” She now turned to Jaideep. “J D , you have 20 cm and 6 columns for this info-graphic, Faiza will send you set of numbers for causes of deaths in the city and information about the number of deaths due to accidents on bikes,
Use this data, and do your magic. I am fine with icons, graphs, pie charts anything! “ Jaideep knew his work, this drill is not new to him, he was about to leave Maham’s office but he waited and asked, “ What if we use the map of the city and divide the data on different geographical locations where these accidents happen the most.” Maham agreed, Jaideep and Faiza left the room, while editing the news story, she was continuously looking at her mail box, because she was expecting a preview of the infographic for tomorrow’s publication.
In the Gallery
It is from those days when the weather was more beautiful than the one I usually dream about. Gardens were full of cherry trees and creatures like me, from a different geographical location. This was our second month in Japan, I moved here with and for Zubaida.
She was transferred here for work. I don’t question my love for her. But I was going out of ideas for what to do. Think of a devil and devil is here, there was a ring on my phone. It was her. She asked me if I would like to go to an exhibition with her. I wanted to decline her offer, but I can’t do it all the time. I agreed, washed my bored face and made myself on the way with the help of Google maps. I reached venue before her. It was not a surprise for me. In last sometime she had been working a lot.
I know I am really good in giving excuses for interacting with locals here. But I had to trust myself. The person on the counter could also speak English, It was a lucky day for me. I bought two tickets, left one on the counter and told him that Zubaida will come and pick it up. I sent a message to her, I am inside, pick your ticket from the counter by telling your name.
I entered the Gallery, I was confused but a guy was more confused than me. He was looking at a diagram for last few minutes. I wanted to ask him,” what are you looking at”. I din’t have to ask, as I looked at the diagram myself. I was surprised, it was in Japanese but I could still understand most part of it. These charts had information about professions, about religions, about difference between wages and many other social issues. I started following the footsteps of the confused guy.
I made three stops and now I was at the fourth chart, someone knocked on my shoulder. Zubaida is finally here. She looked tired and sorry. She told me that she is really embarrassed to be 90 minutes late. It took me as a shock. I was not expecting it to be so late. Did I spend 30 minutes on each chart. I couldn’t spend the same amount of time now, looking at her face. I accepted that I will have to skim through this exhibition with her but with a promise that tomorrow I will come to the same exhibition.
Unwanted consumption
Matthias is a vivid facebook user. He can scroll for hours. It helps him to see what his friends and family, around the world, are doing. He looked at a cute picture of a new born baby from his friend. The second post is a graphical chart. But the post is sponsored, It is something related to credit. He is not interested to get any sort of credit no matter what the company claims. He ignores the post and moves forward.
Being specific
Marcin is making a report about effects of rent freezing in Berlin and it’s effects on his company’s business. He works for a property management organisation. He found one report from Deutsche Bank. He skims through the report and read headings where necessary. Until he sees a bar chart representing Migrants by regions. He starts looking deeper into data. The information kept him captive for few seconds until he decides that it is not something that helps him in this assignment, but he can surely suggest his Manager that they should start focusing on migrants, so that they reach their target goal occupancy for this quarter.
Interaction in infographics
Salma is writing a paper about changes in wages during corona times. She usually refer to visual capatilist while looking for data. She found an interactive chart about impact on covid on minimum wages. She looked for the impact in Germany. She takes a screen shot. She is also interested to take a look how it is effecting USA. She clicks on USA and data appears infront of her. She also takes a screen shot. She closes the internet explorer and get to her report to make use of graphics that she found online.
The Number song
Number, number everywhere.
Numbers here, numbers there.
Information, Percentage, Facts, Figures and everything else.
On Tele, on Web, on paper, on handy on my desk.
BUT DO THEY MAKE SENSE.
Sometimes yes, sometimes No.
He says yes, I say No.
He says No, I say Yes.
We say Yo, we say Nes.
Number, number everywhere.
Numbers here, numbers there.
Information, Facts, figures and everything else.
On Tele, on Web, on paper, on handy on my desk.
They can be made cute.
They can be made useful.
They can be made interesting.
They can be made propagating.
BUT WAIT.
They can also spread a PROPAGANDA.
Hire a professional.
Let him decide.
What goes in, what stays on the side.
If it is relevant.
You will stay.
If not interested.
You saw and moved away.
Number, number everywhere.
Number, number
OH Number, number
OH FUCK OFF! DON'T SCARE ME WITH ALL THESE NUMBERS.
HYE SWEETHEART COME TO DADDY LET ME EXPLAIN THESE NUMBERS TO YOU
Conclusion.
These different stories show only one thing, that unlike other forms of designs, infographics should provide clear, relevant, and interesting information. Else it takes a fraction of a second to decide if one wants to stay and understand the information better or it doesn’t deserve their time. I assume that it could be a result of information overload.
The purpose of this design was, to educate and to awaken the interest for important questions of life in general masses.
