Information Visualization
- by Shekhar Parkhi
Displays that exploit the visual potential of time
Evolution of the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries
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In these displays, I am trying to show the viewer the various major milestones in the construction of the Suzzallo and Allen libraries. I am exploiting the visual potential of time using a timeline, along which the major events are shown pictorially, along side the years in which they look place. The pictures used are real-life photographic images of the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries across the past several decades.
The first display shows the timeline vertically, the years moving forward as the viewer sees from the top to the bottom. On the other hand, the second display uses a stepped version of the timeline, starting from the top left corner and ending at the bottom right corner. Time moves forward as the viewer sees from the top to the bottom as well as from the left to the right.
The colors used are similar to the ones used in the model inforgraphic. The text font is the same and it is purple in color, as in the model to be emulated. Moreover, the title is written on a gold ribbon-like strip as in the model inforgraphic.
The entire display as a whole is layed out just as the model infographic, with the UW logo, title, subtitle, purple background a distinct columns in white, inside which the actual content is put.
The only place where I feel that I departed from my model inforgraphic was that I had used real photographic images in my display, whereas my model inforgraphic did not have any. However, I felt the need to do so as a timeline display of the evolution of the Suzzallo and Allen libraries was crutial in an inforgraphic about them as they are of historic importance to the University of Washington and the vision behind building the Suzzallo library was for it to be the "soul of the university". In order to not depart terribly from the model infographic, I used the grayscale (black and white) version of the images, rather than the more colorful ones.
Critique Feedback
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The first two people from whom I took feedback pointed out that they felt that the title for the display, "Important phases in the construction of the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries" was not that appropriate, due to the fact that the images did not really show any construction details of these libraries. It felt more like the images showed how the libraries evolved over time.
The first person commented about the second display that he felt that the images should not be shown as a downward ladder, but rather as an upward ladder to show the progress of the libraries over the years.
The second person pointed out that only the first image has a border and only the last image is in color, and all the images are not of the same dimension. All this hampers the consistency of the display.
The third person suggested that the length of the title needs to be reduced. She also recommended spacing the images as per the actual time gap between the years. She liked the second display better as it was not a monotonous linear time line, but rather in the shape of a ladder which correspond to the stages of the evolution of the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries.
Taking all the feedback into consideration, I decided to change the title to "Evolution of the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries". I also removed the border from the first image, converted the last image into grayscale and made all the images of the same dimensions. Moreover, I changed the second display into a rising ladder, instead of a falling ladder and showed the years incrementing upwards instead of downwards. However, I did not space the images as per the actual time gap between the years, but rather kept equal spacing between them all, as I felt that keeping unequal spacing between them would not give a continuous feeling to the display within my layout.