Summary
"The challenge in creating a good infographics was to turn something extremely complex into an understandable, attractive informative graphics, and to give less sophisticated audience a better understanding of the technological innovations taking place within the company" I believe this quote is the main care of what we are studying in this class. Another challenge is that it is true that engineers are the one with the knowledge, but we as designers are here to help communicate their knowledge to anyone who need to understand the process of the given subject.

We as designers need to really understand the data, and process them ourselves in order to create a really good graphics. We need to immerse ourselves in the subject and do our own reporting. We constantly need to search for ways that graphics can support the stories. We want to help people to understand what is going on in the stories. As a famous proverb say a picture say a million words. Find a balancing act for each infographic; provide enough detail to illuminate the content, but showing too much content may alienate some readers. The main point is that a good information designer needs to know their subject, and have a passion for it.

Generalizations are not dumbing down. It is a way to make sure that every audience can understand the message that we convey in the images.Other way that Funnel incorporated do to help people understand their maps quicker and easier are by icons. Icons are embedded into the maps. The icons would also provide the client with a set of hieroglyphics symbolizing each product or service.

Topics Covered
Alejandro Tumas
The New York Times
Funnel Incorporated
White Rhino
Nigel Holmes
The Wall Street Journal

Two links germaine to topics covered
1. http://www.designcrux.netfirms.com/designex_infographics.html
The acticle is Exploring Visual Information Design. It states that visual information has the difficult task of revealing the vital essence of a situation without needless complexity. The article will help us to achieve those things.

2.http://www.instantshift.com/2009/06/07/infographic-designs-overview-examples-and-best-practices/
A site that shows a variety of a very good infographics examples with some explanations of how to make a good infographics.


The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics

Summary

The first part talks about how Carbon Smolan Agency maintain one of its biggest and profitable client Morgan Stanley. There is one project when CSA helped Morgan Stanley to develop an architecture for its calender of events. CSA quickly create a clear informational hierarchies for everything from invitations to signage and programs. The calendar was so successful that it was embraced with 99 percent adoption rate worldwide.CSA also regulary work on Morgan Stanley overall graphic standards.

The second part teach us how important packaging needs to meet performance objectives, just like the product itself. Focus on product features , so that the consumers can figure how the features become beneficial by themselves. Heavy emphasis on white space can help the products to stand out more in the market clutter environment.

Pentagram design show us the importance of having a grid system in a cover design as readers usually only have seconds to scan it. That is why we still need to use retrained type and restrictive color palette. Hayman have been working for Time magazine cover for three years. We learn that the goal of any collaboration between designer and client is the development of relationship and trust. "Information today is a commercial product, nonetheless, the array of detailed yet redundant information from various sources prevents us from seeing the forest for he trees"

Topics Covered
Carbone Smolan Agency
Smart Design
Addison
Pentagram Design
Simon & Goetz Design


Two links germaine to topics covered
1. http://www.ebendesign.com/portfolio_main.cfm
As a creative services agency, Eben design work with companies and organizations during periods of growth and transition that can put their leadership, teamwork and vision to the test. They undersatnd that the importance of clearly defined values and ethics in helping clients Brand Well, especially in times of change.

2. http://hovie.com/web_shoesnfeet.shtml
Seattle graphic design firm, Design Hovie Studios, Inc., has designed the new web site for the Shoes N Feet.

Topics covered:
Color
Type styling
Weight and Scale
Structure
Grouping
Graphic Element
Imagery
Sound and Motion

Summary
Designing a web site, the importance of color is always overlooked by many web designers. But, keep in mind that we depend on our company and our company depends on your website and your website really depends on the color. Thus, the color should be one of your first concerns when the web site design. More difficult to read the text on the screen compared to paper and you'll have to choose colors that will work well. Through color you can make your guests feel comfortable, relaxed, confident and also surged.

Web browsers can only display 256 colors and even some browsers can only see 216 colors. If you want the colors you choose for your website, will appear for all people, exactly as designed by you then go ahead with the 216 color palette. Always use a color safe web browser.

Color combinations are also very important. Some color combinations are not as impressive as the Blue Text Yellow Background. That is why the black text on a white background is the color combination of the most easy to read. What can the purpose of any web designer? Clearly, to make web pages interactive and interactivity comes with the colors we choose for a web page. Color affects our feelings, our perceptions and our interactions.

If you are trying to create contrast with fonts you should avoid using two very similar font faces and sizes. The similarity of the fonts tends to create confusion and blur the design. However, it can be very effective if you make the font sizes very different, or mix the lightest version of the font in combination with the boldest.

2 links:
Principles of a good website design
Principles of a good website design: contrast, repetition, alignment, and and proximity

Color lovers
I think this is a really awesome website that have everything you want to know about colors.
It has pattern, palettes, trends, news. Totally a website for a color lovers.

Summary

Topics Covered
Sitemap
Blueprint
Research and testing
User center design

Working in a big picture is a lot easier especially when we are dealing with a lot of complex data and group projects. A sitemap or similar flowchart outlining can help us a lot when dealing with this kind of project. There are a lot of ways to create a sitemap. We can draw it using illustration, lines, or just a simple index / listing. Just remember to be clear and precise in the sitemap. Since it is often the first thing that the clients would likely to see after the creative brief.

Just like sitemap, blueprint is also a document that often found in interactive design which basically covers all the planing of the project. It is a wireframes flesh out of a project. We do not need a lot of details like typography, shape, and color in a blueprint. Without blueprint, designers can ind themselves working so hard in a detailed part of the project just to find out that they need to change some part of the project.

Most of the time, the blueprint/wireframes will look a lot different compare to the final design. It is because blueprint does not to be ugly or beautiful, as long as people can understand the information that they contain. It is a good wireframe.

"Test early and often. Iterative testing means you don't wait to test until you've spent weeks or monnths on the project"

After we've done everything we can from the scenario, blueprint, persona, and many others, in the end we arrive at the final step which is to actually test our design to real users before launching it.

2 links:
Sitemap tutorial
A detailed tutorial of how to make a good sitemap for a website

User center design
a very nice website that taught us methods to approach a user centered design. They really cover everything from how to use the design to why using them. The six methods are:
1. Focus Group
2. Usability testing
3. Card sorting
4. Participatory design
5. Questionnaires
6. Interviews