This charts project was particularly challenging but not for the reasons I had expected. The first challenge was that I hadn’t given myself enough time to meet the deadline; I had around 72 hours to gather all my data, arrange it and then design it to make it a presentable infographic. The second, and most surprising challenge I found, was finding the data. In class we’re often led to our sources because we know what we’re searching for, that is, the topic is given to us. But when you have no clue and are left to search the vast expanse of the internet for something relevant and, add to that, credible, the search gets even more complicated.
After figuring out what I wanted my chart to be about and finding the data that I wanted to work with, the other complication arose of making sense of the data. I decided to show how the number of Americans with higher education degrees had increased over the last seven years through a line graph charting the percentage change. I also decided it would be relevant to show two pie charts showing the composition of the candidates from the total population in 2014 and 2009.I thought about gathering data before 2009, but the problem was that one of the links were broken for the year 2008, or the year 2002. So I figured 2009 was just fine.
The execution part was surprisingly not as difficult as the search, I had enough time to complete the chart, add in all the pointers and color everything to a key. I figured this part would’ve been more difficult given my limited skills with illustrator but I was mildly taken aback by the final chart.
A big issue I had with the chart was that there was way too much space which I had to fill in with the keys. Also the pie charts took on an odd oval shape after I scaled them to fit the grid.
For the next assignment I plan to start earlier and have a clearer idea of what I’m presenting and how I’m going to present it, to create a better infographic.