Week 14- Spacing

In an infographic, spacing is very important in order to maintain consistency and fluidity. A viewer will notice when pictures and text are unevenly spaced, and it creates an eyesore that defeats the purpose of the infographic. In my final project, I tried my best to create even spacing and text to avoid creating a distraction to the audience. Specifically, in my infographic I aim to appeal to potential recruits by showing off our stats and top performers. Avoiding potential eyesores is key in trying to get my message across to recruits. In my rough draft blog below, I had some uneven spacing and pictures that didn't properly show Benedictine Baseball.

After getting the feedback of family and friends, I decided to put in more pictures directly related to BenU Baseball as well as fix spacing issues and updated stats. The final draft our my blog avoids eyesores while showing off recruits what BenU Baseball is all about.

Week 13- Final Project

For my final project, I looked to create an infographic for the Benedictine University baseball team. The goal of my infographic was to create an appealing graphic for recruits to take home when they come on their visits. The infographic I'm designing will have our top stats and records to show that Benedictine Baseball is the place to play. In this rough draft, I have a few of our top categories. I look to improve my visuals as well as add pictures of our players. I plan on adding more aesthetic features as well as update the statistics on the infographic.

Week 11- Tableau

In this week’s assignment, we were instructed to explore Tableau Public. In past business analytics courses, I have had the opportunity to explore Tableau. This infographic development website is my personal favorite, mainly because of its easy-to-use nature and the unique infographics posted by users in the Tableau gallery.

This time around, I did some more exploring into the gallery that Tableau provides. In the spirit of March Madness, a unique infographic caught my eye. A user posted an infographic posting the top 50 salaries of head coaches in NCAA D1 Men’s Basketball. As seen below, the user provided horizontal bar graphs in order from highest to lowest. I also thought it was unique how the user highlighted the salaries coaches whose teams made the tournament this year. This infographic goes to show how easy it is to input data into Tableau and present it in a way that catches the attention of the audience.

Week 9- Updated infographic & storytelling

For this week's post, the chapter discussed has to do with storytelling. In creating infographics, it's important to paint a picture for the viewer. In doing this, you're essentially telling the audience a story in terms of the message you're trying to convey.

This week I also put together a rough draft of what I plan to do for my final project.
The infographic I decided to update and put together an idea for the 2018-2019 Benedictine Baseball team. In my final project I would go more in depth in terms of team statistics, especially after more games are played this season. The ultimate goal is to use something like this as a recruiting pamphlet on visits for potential recruits.

Week 8- Thinking like a designer

In the last couple weeks, our main focus has been to think in terms of a designer. Ultimately, this means that when we make our infographics we have to think about the audience and how we plan to grab their attention. Knaflic highlighted three main points in making an infographic: affordances, accessibility, and aesthetics.

This week, I also determined who my client would be. After doing some research and narrowing down my options, I've decided that doing a recruiting infographic for the Benedictine Baseball team would be a good idea. Not only is this right down my alley, but it also would prove beneficial for our team in the upcoming seasons as I hope to help our team recruit prospects.

For my specific infographic, I plan on compiling our team statistics over the last few seasons and coming up with averages, while posting them to an eye-grabbing infographic. This would allow our potential recruits to see how well our team has done in the past few seasons. My goal in this project is ultimately to help our team continue to succeed and recruit high-level talent from around the country. Here is an example of something similar to my idea.

Week 7- Think Like a Designer

In chapter 5 of Knaflic's book, it is discussed how we should think like designers when we make our infographics. In this chapter, she highlights three main points in terms of what we should be thinking about when we create our infographics. The first point she discusses is the importance of affordances, which are defined by her as the inherent qualities in an object that make it obvious how to use. If the viewer if an infographic does not understand how to analyze or comprehend the infographic, it defeats the purpose of the design. The second point Knaflic emphasizes is accessibility. In order for our infographics to be effective, they must be accessible to everyone. This also means simplifying presented information and utilizing text. The third point discussed by Knaflic is aesthetics. Infographics often times need to be aesthetic and grab the eye of the viewer in order for the creator to get their point across.

In the WSJ article posted, I was intrigued by the interactivity of the infographic. I was mind-blown of the new speeds that 5G data brings, and the WSJ writer did a fantastic job illustrating this to me, the reader.

In viewing this infographic, I was allowed to click a button and watch in real-time how fast 5G is compared to both 4G and 3G. This infographic was accessible to me, and it was easy to understand the data presented. Aesthetically, the infographic at hand caught my eye and had a unique design representing a character in the 'Bird Box' film.

Week 6- Potential Clients

In my previous posts, my infographics were downloaded as PNG files rather than PDF files. After I downloaded my infographic as a PDF, I realized that the image was in a higher resolution. Looking at my previous posts, there is a clear difference when files are posted as a PDF. Here is an example of an infographic posted as a PDF, shared through my google drive infographics folder.


Potential Clients

1) Benedictine Baseball- As a player on the team, I could easily talk to my coaches and help prepare an infographic for recruiting purposes or for fundraising.

2) Milwaukee Lutheran High School- As an alumni, I can reach out to my principal and ask their needs in terms of infographics and other data presentation needs.

3) Driveline Baseball- I could reach out to management at Driveline Baseball in Seattle, WA and offer to make an infographic to present the data that they analyze.

Week 5- Clutter

In my Week 2 infographic, I laid out my five-year plan in terms of my career goals. In this infographic, I planned out what I believe would be an ideal career path in the first five years after I graduate college. I talked about how I hoped to obtain a job with MillerCoors and begin to work up the ranks, going from Sales Representative to Supply Chain Analyst in the first five years. In this original infographic, it is seen that I used an array of colors that seemed to clash and distract the eye of the viewer.

After asking some friends about how to fix this issue, they helped me come up with a color scheme that would better fit my career plan. In this infographic, brighter and more vivid colors are used when presenting this information, allowing for the viewer to not be distracted by any color clashing. In data visualization, it is very important that the eye of the viewer is taken in account for, as they are the sole purpose of the infographic.

Week 4- Data Visualization

In the TED Talk: The beauty of data visualization, David McCandless talks about how visualizing data can be compared to building a landscape. The viewer must be able to read the data presented like a map, with easy directions and guidelines. He also uses the phrase "data is the new soil." He explained that data is a ubiquitous resource that can be used for many types of new information and insights. This data gets irrigated by networks and connectivity. The data visualization and infographics that result from this is compared to flowers blooming.

In the data visualized here, David McCandless explained this balloon-like data. Those at the top of the picture are ingredients in a study that provide conflicting evidence. As the viewers' eyes go lower, they see that the balloons become lighter in color, indicating lesser evidence within the study, based on the size of the ingredients. It was a very unique way to present data, allowing the viewer to clearly understand the visualization.

Week 3

In the video posted on LinkedIn, it highlighted best practices and common mistakes of data visualization. In terms of design best practices, the video showed characteristics of great dashboards/infographics.

The first characteristic of a great dashboard is one that is very well organized. In the infographic below, it is well organized and attracts the eye of the viewer. The second characteristic of a great dashboard is one that is condensed. The infographic below is condensed and presents information in a  short and sweet way. The third characteristic of a great dashboard is one that is audience and objective oriented. This infographic does a great job at targeting its audience and achieving its objective of informing the gaming community. Lastly, the fourth characteristic of a quality infographic is one that uses clear and concise media in communicating its message. This infographic presents clear data graphs and visualization tools to communicate its message to the audience.

Week 2- Career Plan Infographic

In my Canva Infographic, I decided to choose a template that would help me set out my 5 year plan. It was a very simple way to allow me to visualize the goals that I have set out for my career. The goals I have set for myself are clearly subject to change, but it was a good start for me in terms of visualization.

In choosing a template, I had a lot of options. I chose this template because it was rather simple, and the color scheme provided a unique way to attract attention. I really liked how Canva gave you the opportunity to further customize your infographic, with the ability to change the size, color, and font of anything in the design.

Week 1-Sample Post

Hi, my name is James Wright and I'm a junior here at Benedictine. Looking forward to blogging and learning more about this class.