Week 4: Elements of Graphic Design

Week 3: Photosynths and Volunteered Geography

This Photosynth I created depicts a multitude of food trucks who all converged on the TLofts at 11500 Tennessee Ave in West LA on the afternoon of Saturday, January 23rd for a fundraiser to raise money and awareness about the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.

I feel like this is a great example of how VGI (volunteered geographic information) can work on multiple levels, and in the context of a Web 2.0+ world. At its most basic level, any VGI constructed Photosynth can give others the experience of being in a certain location at a certain point in time, in a more immersive manner than a simple photograph can. However, it can also help spread awareness about local events and macro events in several ways. For instance, this Photosynth in particular lets a viewer know that:

1. There are luxury lofts that exist in this location, known as the TLofts.
2. There are a multitude of food trucks in the West LA/LA area that serve food from various world cuisines, including sweets and desserts.
3. These food trucks aren't necessarily easily found at first glance, but further research shows that they can be tracked via Web 2.0-friendly methods such as Twitter.
4. Some proceeds from this event went to Red Cross International relief efforts in Haiti, and that there was some sort of catastrophe in Haiti which inspired such a fundraiser. (This is if a hypothetical viewer had been living under a rock for some reason.)

This is especially important given that this didn't get as much media attention as it should have, in my opinion. It combined a uniquely LA experience (specialty food trucks) while integrating current events and an indirect way of supporting the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.

Some potential pitfalls include possible privacy concerns--as these methods become more ubiquitous, people will be captured in certain places and at certain times, whether they wish to be or not. Another potential issue is that of motive. Businesses seeking a form of cheap advertising may employ these methods to try and reach a larger audience. How about paying a volunteer geographer to make sure a certain billboard, poster, or building shows up clearly in their pictures? We can already see this to some extent as Google will soon be selling advertising space in its street-view images of popular destinations such as New York's Times Square, replacing whatever images were on digital billboards and buildings at the time that the street-view images were originally captured.

I highly recommend opening my Photosynth in a new window and viewing it in full-screen for the best viewing experience. Images can be zoomed in quite a bit as I elected to upload all the images in their full resolution. I realize that on a technical level the Photosynth could have been better, as realized by the 61% synthy score that was given. However I ask that you try and overlook the score and instead focus more on the content and its significance.

I've since learned that the algorithms used by Photosynth did not match up some of my pictures very well and I realize why. The large amounts of people present at this event--along with vehicle traffic--made it difficult to get in position for good overlapping images, as well as timing images so that they had the least about of 'noise' in them as possible. I could've made a Photosynth of something less interesting that would've scored closer to 100% (and I did in fact, by creating a Photosynth of a tree and some bushes, but I thought that was terribly boring,) but I don't think it could've approached how interesting and relevant this event was to some of the ideas that were described in the "Citzens as sensors" essay.

Week 2: US Presidential Election Map

My map of the 2008 United States Presidential Election:

Screencap of the NYTimes Interactive US Presidential Election Map:

Critique and three methods for possible improvement:

1. The labeling employed in the map could be improved in several ways. Firstly, it is inconsistent, where some states are abbreviated with their two letter postal code while others are completely spelled out. I understand some abbreviating is unavoidable because of space constraints, but I feel that the map would be clearer at a glance if the labeling scheme were more consistent so that potential viewers are not forced to decipher certain states while the complete names of others stare them in the face.
2. Secondly, the labeling of most of the smaller states in New England and the eastern seaboard are omitted entirely. This could be remedied by employing a zoomed inset of that particular region, or by placing the labels outside of the state (similar to the case of D.C.) and drawing lines that point to each state being labeled.
3. For the purpose of simply showing which states' electoral votes were won by which candidate, the map is adequate but may be misleading. If one were to view the map without any knowledge of how the electoral college works in the United States, one might conclude that the election was not as close as it really was. Information about the relationship (or lack thereof) between the physical size of a state and the number of electoral votes it receives is a potentially significant omission from the map. A number label to represent the electoral votes alongside the state label could be used, or sacrificing accurate physical representation in order to show a relationship between number of electoral votes and physical representation (i.e. relative size of state based on amount of electoral votes it's worth) could be employed.

Week 1: Census 2000

Week 1: Bad Map and Good Map

Bad Map

The map seen above would be an example of a bad map.

First, the compass includes duplicate cardinal directions, displaying E (east) twice which is confusing and simply not possible. Secondly, there is no legend of any kind to convey information about the lines, black areas, and red area seen on the map. Also lacking is a scale, so we have no idea about the relative size of any of the features on the map. There's no title of any sort to inform a potential viewer as to what the map is about. The labels are lacking and at the same time confusing. If one is to assume this is a map of roads and areas, only one road is labeled (M25) while leaving all others blank. Area names are confusing because of their similarity to country names. This is either a strange coincidence in naming, or perhaps an intent to mislead or confuse.

We don't know anything about where in the world this map applies to or what kind of information it's trying to convey. The minimal amount of information provided only serves to further confuse a viewer.

Good Map

The above map of foreclosure/pre-foreclosure rates in the United States is an example of a good map.

It includes an informative title, telling us what the map is about (foreclosure/pre-foreclosure rates), during what time period (Q4 2008) and that the data is being shown as a percentage. A legend is present and is helpful in showing color coding--that red represents a percentage above that of the national average, and blue represents the opposite--with darker shades representing a greater percentage change. The colors used are similar enough to one another (shades of red or blue) but at the same time are distinct enough to be differentiated within the same color type. With that knowledge, one can tell at a glance which areas/states of the United States are experiencing higher or lower rates of foreclosure, and to what degree.

It's a simple and clear map but contains a wealth of information that can be gleaned once the presentation of the information is understood.