Chana Kraus-Friedberg

Good Visualization:

I like this visualization--I think it's easy to take in the main message at a glance, because it's mostly dependent on the shape/slant of the bars, which are presented sideways. I also like that the color scheme is green, for money (which might not work in every culture but for the US works very well). The different colored bars represent years, and it makes sense that they use a sequential palette, since the years are sequential. I also think it's useful that the numbers are noted at the end of the bars--since there is no real axis, the bars are maintained purely to give people a first impression visual, which I think was an interesting choice. I might have made the lightest green a little darker, but otherwise I think the visualization is very effective.

Bad Visualization:

This visualization is problematic in that virtually all the perception of difference revolves around chromatic color, and the colors used are light, with not a lot of contrast, so a potentially large segment of the population could have trouble differentiating the different categories. If the main point of the graph was that the percentage of children across groups who receive nutrition assistance has increased, then that's something that's easy to see immediately. But the rest of it is not that obvious (for example, if you want the viewer to think about which categories increased more than others), and the fact that the labels on each line are in the same light color as the line makes it hard to read them.

Botanic Tree visualization:

I think these images are interesting, but fairly counterintuitive as they stand. It's possible that this could be remedied by creating a legend, but as it stands there's no labeling to tell you what the different colors or shapes stand for, even if you perceive them immediately. There's also no convention in US culture to cover the shapes and colors that are used. Once you read a little bit of the article, you can see how people who are taught to read this kind of visualization might find it useful, and the parallel between tree branches and a file structure in a computer is appealing, but you would really have to teach people how to use it first. I also think the color scheme would have to be changed to make it color-blind friendly--at least some of the contrast relies on the viewer being able to see green and red.

I have neither given nor received aid while working on this assignment. I have completed the graded portion BEFORE looking at anyone else's work on this assignment. Chana Kraus-Friedberg