“The main way you organise something is by deciding how you want it to be found” — Richard Saul Wurman, Information Architecture
This statement, by data visualisation expert, Richard Saul Wurman, has served as the guiding principle for the development and finalisation of this Assessment.
The CV provided by Lachlan presented as complex and text-heavy, offering both opportunity and challenge in its adaption to an information graphic. Although listed with insightful and valuable experiences, the consequence of spreading this over three pages prohibited the reader to see Lachlan’s as a whole. Rather it forced the information to be taken in as disjointed chunks of content. Compounding this was his decision to group skills and experiences under each respective employer. Whilst there was opportunity to present Lachlan’s career, experiences and achievements in a more cohesive, holistic manner, the need to condense three pages of content would be the challenge.
By using the visual metaphor of an electronic keyboard, the complexity of the CV content could be presented in a visually simple manner without reducing its volume — multiple pages of content could be presented in a single image.
Style:
The decision to avoid visual references to skeuomorphism and instead find inspiration in ‘flat design’ / ‘material design’ proved to be advantageous. The stripped back visual style synonymous with flat design enabled the CV’s content to take priority, helping to simplify a potentially complex graphic. A restricted colour palette also aided this and the use of blue helped to maintain a look and feel appropriate to a corporate audience. Finally, rather than create a literal visual the subtly disoriented layout helped to create a more engaging and intriguing image.
Clarity:
Lachlan’s career was visualised by using three of the five LATCH principles (Wurman, 1989) — ‘Category’, ‘Hierarchy’, and ‘Time’. Instead of relying upon time as the primary sorting method, content was also grouped by category and as well as overlaid with a value indicator (hierarchy) such as level of experience or aptitude through the use of the keyboards dials and slides. The use of balance, colour, hierarchy, line and shape assisted in retaining an accessible image, despite its complexity.
Here for good:
For a design project to be successful a designer must consider more than just the design brief. To this end, ‘Here for Good’ acts as an invaluable guiding principle, challenging us to think about bigger environmental and social issues, both tangible and intangible.
Although subtle, this project’s design was resolved with ‘Here for Good’ in mind. The structure of the CV intentionally places monetary-based quantitative information such as portfolio size at the very bottom and instead forces the viewer to look at values-based qualitative information, placed above it. By doing so the design places greater emphasis and value on the person and their interpersonal skills, and not just their revenue capacity.
On a more practical level, the reduction of three pages to a single page also reduces paper waste when printed.
References:
Klanten, R., 2008. Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design, Volume 1, Prestel Pub.
Klanten, R., 2010. Data Flow 2: Visualising Information in Graphic Design, Volume 2, Prestel Pub.
McCandless, D., 2012. Information is Beautiful, Collins
Mollerup, P., 2015. Data Design: Visualising Quantities, Locations, Connections, Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Woolman, M., 2002. Digital Information Graphics, Thames and Hudson
Wurman, R., 1989. Information Anxiety, Doubleday
DSGN6027 Design Contexts 