The journey starts with understanding and exploring Information design and data visualization in more depth
Size of Individual's Ego
Perception: How Germans and the Chinese see each other
How to stand in line
Complexity of self-expression
Problem-solving approach
Attitude towards punctuality
Lifestyle: Independent vs. Dependent
These series of infographics show the fascinating cultural differences between the eastern and western mentality. The distinction is made through Color graphics. Color is an universal form of communication. Different colors symbolizes different meanings for people from different nations, culture and societies.People can always understand their own culture and what it symbolizes. So to generalize color and what it stands for does make sense. Here the minimalistic graphics say so much showing so little. A great way to depict a very complex subject with brilliant simplicity.
I was searching for some facts on how play/ sports utilize energy to generate electricity and I found this:
Energy Generating Soccer Ball Brings Power to Developing Nations:
Just in time for the World Cup tournament, a group of enterprising women entrepreneurs has unveiled a soccer ball that captures and stores energy generated by play. Called the sOccket (a mashup of “soccer” and “socket”), the ingenious little ball was created by Harvard alums Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar with developing nations in mind. Kids in countries where electricity is not readily available can play a game with sOccket after school and then bring it home to power a lamp so that they can do homework. Imagine what an improvement the sOccket could make in nations where dangerous kerosene lamps that can start fires or even kill children by causing respiratory infections are currently the only option for light.
A lot of people have started to think various economical ways to generate power. This case study shows how human energy can be captured and reused to generate electricity in an economic way.
Most of the schools in Ghana, Africa are located far off the power grid and can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to bring electric services to the village, or to pay monthly power bills. On average, villagers make less than a dollar per day. A team of science and technology students from Brigham Young University worked alongside Ghanaian colleagues to build and install the power-generating merry-go-round, as part of a senior capstone project sponsored by Empower Playgrounds, Inc. The objective behind this project was to enhance the education by providing power for lighting and also giving children opportunities for fun as in rural villages the kids have no toys. The challenge for these students was to come up with a device that could generate power but at the same time it was fun and not work for the children. BYU engineering and technology students worked more than a year on the prototype merry-go-round which is designed to be built with materials available in Ghana including recycled car parts. To make it fun to ride, the students used a gearbox to multiply the rotation speed and incorporated circuitry to limit the amount of energy extracted from the system.
The spinning is converted through a gearbox. The gearbox takes their rotation and multiplies it by 35. Which then spins the generator and the generator is what converts energy into electric energy. The power generated by the merry-go-round is stored in a car battery that recharges several dozen portable LED lights that can be used in classrooms and homes.
Many families have little or no light in the evenings, relying on kerosene lamps, candles or open flame-bobo lights. Better lighting at home leads to greater literacy and productivity for children and their families.
The amount of power generated from merry-go-round can also be used to recharge cell phones and laptop computers in future.
Young children are the ones who would benefit with the information which talks about the future. They are the today’s thinkers and tomorrow’s doers.Young children learn new things and experiment themselves. Recycling is an important environmental issue and young children being the future of our nations should be well informed about the problems being faced due to growing waste and relevant solutions to conserve our natural resources and protect environment.
I have been studying the lifestyle and likes and dislikes of children.
I was badly waiting for today's tutorial to discuss about the content that i found out for recycling with my supervisor. According to him people at present are well aware about these facts and things are happening in this direction. He asked me to explore and find out something which will benefit general public and government and drive them to think in a new direction. We discussed a lot of possibilities and things happening in the area of recycling and energy conservation. One thing which he mentioned in the discussion stirred my brains. He asked me to think of things which are not been recycled at the moment. It just happened to me in the gym that day when i was cycling, i just realized and thought about the energy which was generated when i was cycling. What if it was trapped and utilized somewhere? what if it could charge my I-pod which i was listening to while i was exercising? I got really excited with this thought. What if the energy generated by all the people in the gym combined together could power electronic items. Human energy is one thing which is not been recycled or reused which otherwise is being wasted and can be conserved. In future with modern lives and more technological development we would need more and more alternative sources of energy . The abundant energy which is generated by billions and billions of people have a great potential and can be recycled to generate power. I discussed this concept with my supervisor, and to my surprise he liked it and asked me to make it better and move forward with it. Finally I have content which has strength and its new and most importantly people would benefit with this piece of information. YAYYY
It was clear from your presentation that you have conducted a lot of research into the theoretical aspects of information design and you understand the interpretation and analysis of data and facts. The field research / visit to the Science Museum was obviously of benefit to you in helping you to realize the way in which information design can be used as an engaging medium that doesn’t necessarily have to be static print based.
You have obviously struggled with identifying the content for your project and this has definitely hindered your ability with visualizing and presenting any information, as you have not had the facts to base it on. There is a lack of visual development. Content has not been clearly identified and explored. There is no experimentation evident and there seems to be a lack of engagement with the subject matter and a real reluctance to try things out. One or two ideas in a sketchbook in this phase is insufficient and inadequate.
At the current time you are not meeting the criteria for the following learning outcomes:
·Apply selected and appropriate research methods to a defined project proposal demonstrating breadth and depth.
·Communicate conclusions clearly to a specialist and non-specialist audience.
In your learning agreement you have stated that will conduct questionnaires to gather views on recycling along with interviewing environmentalists, neither of which have occurred.
You will need to consider the content clearly and in more detail as at the moment it is rather vague and does not have a new or unique angle on current recycling trends. What is the focal point of your project? How does it differ from what the public currently does in terms of recycling? You need to study the content and visually explore how it can be expressed or represented as information design.
Try to identify information that helps to focus on what other forms of recycling the general public could support and various ways in which the local authorities or government could help. You may want to look at the Friends of the earth website as they have 2 current campaigns, which are: ‘Talking half as much rubbish’ and ‘get serious about CO2’
Information like this may help to get the general public to change their habits and lobby local government to change the way landfill and recycling are dealt with.
The content needs to drive the design, but at the moment this is not the case and you don’t have strong content upon which to base your designs.
This needs to be rectified quickly in order for your to progress, otherwise you could waste too much time during the MA phase.
At the current time, work is limited and insufficient for the proposal. You need to engage with the subject, identify relevant content and find ways to present this content in the form of your exhibition.
After reading this feedback i had few questions in my mind:
Apply selected and appropriate research methods to a defined project proposal demonstrating breadth and depth.What is expected here?
What is the focal point of your project? How does it differ from what the public currently does in terms of recycling?What is expected?
what other forms of recycling the general public could support and various ways in which the local authorities or government could help.Explain?
I met my supervisor after reading my feedback to exactly know what has to be done now for the above mentioned points in my feedback report. My supervisor told me that the facts about the recycling which i had shown before and based my visuals on , are not very appropriate and seemed superficial and not sufficient. The idea of showing the recycling issue through in an exhibition was not very convincing for him. He asked me to come up with an improved project brief. Think of the recycling issue in a way that is beneficial and informative for general public.
Things I had to do after this meeting with my supervisor:
Investigate the subject of recycling in more detail
Identify content in detail
Identify the audience accordingly and research into it
Experiment and explore more visual work
And finally Plan for the further work for MA phase.
