Relationships | infovis-2015

General Description: With this display I'm trying to make a brief comparison between Chen and two other pitchers, who all entered the Major League Baseball (MLB) from Nippon Professional League (NPL) in 2012. This display serves to show my audience where they were from (which teams they had played for) and where they are now (their current team).

Emulation Description: I emulated my visual language model through the use of circle elements, realistic portraits (though not photo cut-outs in this case), and simple straight lines. I emulated the color model by using the same color combination for texts and lines. I emulated my typography model by using Arial Narrow Bold for the title and Arial Narrow for the labels.

Displays that exploit the visual potential of relationships

Critique #1: Woosuk Seo

For the 1st display, he could tell that the display was showing a comparison between the 3 baseball players who started out in NPL and moved on to MLB in the same year. However, he was a bit confused about the orange line (he wasn't sured if it meant anything specific). It took him a bit of time to understand the series's position encoding since he didn't know about the players, but he eventually figured out the different levels on the series represent different players across the time. He suggested adding their names somewhere to make it more clear.

When he saw the 2nd display, he said he preferred it because it is more obvious on the series encoding ("the players are separated into different lines") and showed the changes in League a bit more clearly from the annotation. He suggested keeping orange line for Chen's series since it's the color for my main focus. He also suggested keeping the logos for NPL and MLB somewhere next to the annotations so that it gave a more straightforward, visual representation of the 2 different professional leagues.

Model Emulation Feedback

When I showed him my models, he said my display emulated my visual language well in the use of circles and lines. He recommended me to convert the images for other players into grayscale, since my visual language model differentiate Ronaldo from other players by keeping Ronaldo in full color while others in black and white.

Revisions based on this critique

For the 2nd display, I changed the line for Chen from dark gray to orange. I also included the logos for NPL and MLB next to the annotations to enhance the visual representation of the 2 different leagues. In addition, I converted the images for the other two players to grayscale to match my visual language model.

First Iteration

Final display:

Second Iteration

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei-Yin_Chen

Critique #2: Andrew

For the 1st display, he noticed the 2 logos for NPL and MLB and guessed they represented different times on this timeline-ish series. He could guess that the players on the left were the same players on the right back when they played in NPL. However, he thought the connection wasn't so obvious because of the zig-zag in lines. He recommended using different colors for each line series and starting each series with the players' names to make them more accessible to the audience.

For the 2nd display, he liked how it started with the names which helped him identify the players. He could tell that there was an invisible line that separates NPL and MLB (from the spacing and the annotation. He recommended including an annotation or something to emphasize the year 2012 since that's the year of the transition. He thought the white space was a little awkward, but it worked anyhow. He suggested playing around with it by placing the name next to the first circle of each player. He also said if my main focus is on Chen, I might consider changing the color of his line to orange.

Model Emulation Feedback

When I showed him my models, he said my display emulated the visual elements from my visual language well. He also said the color definitely matched my color model.

Revisions based on this critique

I moved the names of the players to right next to their first circle. Based on this critique in the 2nd display, I also chose to change the color of the line for Chen to ensure that my audience know that he is the person of my topic in this infographic.

Critique #3: Adrian

When I showed him the 1st display, he pointed out that it was hard to distinguish the players from one another. He could guess that each level represent one player, but grouping or labeling them will make the encoding more obvious. He found it hard to tell the story behind because the display was layout in a horizontal style and his immediate focus was on the center. He said making the display layout in a vertical style might help.

For the 2nd display, he said it was more straightforward. He liked it more because it had more annotation and the overall was easier to understand and read.

Model Emulation Feedback

When I showed him my models, he said I emulated the basic visual elements ok. However, he said he felt like my 2nd display could've used more visual elements from my models, as it appeared very simple at this point. He suggested trying to experiment more by taking the small visual elements from my model and add them to the circles or overall display.

Revisions based on this critique

I experimented to include more visual elements from my visual language model by taking the year annotation (orange background with white texts) and using it as the annotation for the teams that the players have played for.

Critique #3: Kerstin

She could clearly see that the display was making a comparison between 3 players and showing their progression along their career. She liked how Chen was in color because that drew her attention right away. She felt the names looked better when they were aligned in the previous version, so I could try switching back. She suggested that if I was to show the transition as the main focus of the relationship, I should try adding dotted lines or boxes around the players for each league just to show them in groups rather than individuals.

Model Emulation Feedback

She said the display emulated my visual language well. She especially liked the choice of text-background combination and visual of the team name labelings.

Revisions based on this critique

I rearranged the player names so that they are aligned again. This critique also inspired me to add the semi-transparent orange box as background for each league group.

Critique #2: Youta

He pointed out that the display felt kind of like a timeline display on the first sight because of the "emphasis" on time. But he said the display was very straightforward in presenting the subjects and offering visual comparison between the 3 players.

He suggested that, if I wanted to place more emphasis on the relationship (all 3 transferred from NPL to MLB at the same time), I can try to place a box around the players for each league, or just remove the time labelings to reduce the emphasis on time. He suggested that the logos could've been bigger if they are part of the prominent visuals in my display.

Model Emulation Feedback

He said I emulated the visual elements from my visual language model well, especially after the revision. He liked how I kept Chen in color and changed other players into grayscale because that placed a strong visual focus on Chen.

Revisions based on this critique

I added the semi-transparent orange background box around the league group. I've also removed the time labeling above each player circle in order to reduce the time element from this display. I chose not to enlarge the league logos because they serve as mere side elements rather than the prominent visuals in this display.

Critique #1: Halle Friedland

She said the display showed a good transition of the players from NPL to MLB. She thought I made some good changes from the previous feedbacks. She liked the team name labels because they made it more apparent to her that they've played for different teams (otherwise it's hard to tell just by looking at the pictures on the first sight). She said using the orange line for Chen and converting the pictures for other players to grayscale were good choices because both decisions made it clear that Chen was the center of my topic. In addition, she thought moving names next to the circle is good, since in the previous version there was white space that made the display looked awkward.

Model Emulation Feedback

She thought my display emulated my models well in the use of visual elements and choice of colors. She said the choices I've made from the earlier critique definitely enhanced my model emulation.

Revisions based on this critique

I have not made any revision based on this critique because I received all positive feedback from her. For example, she liked the addition of team name labels, which helped her identify that these players have played for multiple teams.