Portfolio

Design Memo

This memo aims to define the rhetorical situation of the infographic and provide an analysis of the design decisions.

Rhetorical Situation:

The infographic was designed with the intention of communicating complex data in a visually appealing and accessible manner to a general audience. The topic was how algorithms and social media affect online artists. This topic is incredibly important, not only to me as a small artist, but to all the artists on social media trying to get their artwork seen. In the current age of social media, content that is quick, snappy, and efficient is what is favored by the algorithms so I decided to lay out why art isn’t appreciated by the algorithm. The target audience for this infographic is anyone on Instagram, while specifically catering to artists and their followers. It’s meant to inform everyone about the algorithm, explain to artists why their art might not be doing well, and encourage users to fight against the algorithm to see the posts that often get swept away. 

Design Decisions:

1. Visual Hierarchy & Flow: 

To ensure clarity and readability, the infographic was structured with a clear visual hierarchy. The top section, also known as the attention grabber, plays on a popular meme format of “Expectation vs. Reality”. This is meant to engage the readers with the problem, without having to explain it with a lengthy, in depth description. From there, the rest of the infographic flows the viewers attention throughout the subsections, allowing for sporadic jumping around if desired. The infographic ends with the call to action and culminating message of the post to support these small creators because of everything that is working against them 

2. Data Representation & Data Humanism:

In representing the data, I employed a combination of graphs and a timeline to convey key messages about the topic. For my first graph, I did a bar chart to compare algorithmic trends over time, using quantitative data to show what type of content is pushed more by the algorithm. I followed that with a timeline that shows when these shifts to the algorithm were put in place. The next graph I used is a pie chart that displays the opinions of people’s perception of the algorithm. I think this qualitative data shows the audience exactly what it needed to: that the majority of people distrust algorithms.