nature from nurture a process book

PRISCILLA MOK GRAD STUDIO I / FALL 2011CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

in·flu·ence, nounthe capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others

i

EXPLORE

Framing the Problem

01

Why Design Information?

Searching for Data

REFINE

Choosing the Topic

02

Methods of Visualization

DESIGN

Executing the Idea

03

REFLECT

Learning from Yourself

04

2

3

6

7

11

13

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Table of Contents

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What is a self-portrait?

How do I see myself ?What do I want to tell others about me?

How do other people perceive me?Which facets of myself characterize me?

EXPLOREFraming the Problem

1

The last time I did a self-portrait was freshman year of high school for Drawing I. It

was a simple pencil sketch drawn from a photo of myself sitting on the stairs. Those

types of self-portraits were straightforward, mechanical, safe. An exercise in seeing

negative space, shadows, and lighting. Little to no introspection could still allow

you to complete it.

So it was a surprise when almost a decade later, I received a similar assignment in

our Graduate Studio class. Another self-portrait. But this time, a little different. We

had to create a self-portrait based on data from our own lives, scouring them for

rich data sources that we could represent in a poster so that ultimately, a passer-by

could learn a little bit more about us. It would be more reflective, more introspec-

tive, more remembering, perhaps. Did I want to reflect on places I’ve lived since

childhood? Or perhaps map out my social networks over time? The sky was the limit

on what we wanted to document about ourselves and share with others.

The question is: What do I want people to learn about me?

How do I see myself ?What do I want to tell others about me?

FRAMING the PROBLEM

EXPLORE Framing the Problem

2

To prepare for this assignment, we first learned to re-consider data. Data

in and of itself, we learned, was meaningless. Data could be “Blizzard”

“Speedy” and “Calico” —seemingly meaningless words. But then I would

tell you that they were the names of some pets I’ve owned. Suddenly,

data acquires significance, and it is only when you give it structure and

form does it become (useful) information.

Information is interesting and all, but it can be a lot to sift through.

Think about the last time you tried to absorb a huge amount of informa-

tion in a short amount of time, like from a textbook for an exam the

next day. Exhausting. However, if done properly, visualizing information

allows people to grasp quickly the messages and insights behind

information. It offers another mode of communication which may be

easier to understand, and gets everyone on the same page of what you’re

talking about. It enlightens the audience rather than confuses them.

WHY design INFORMATION?

DATA + STRUCTURE / FORM = INFORMATION

EXPLOREWhy Design Information?

3

The Five HatracksThough well-designed information may include visuals like images and diagrams, it also

includes organizing the information well. Information designer Richard Saul Wurman,

in his 1989 book Information Anxiety, described six ways that data could be organized:

By Location, Alphabetical, Time, Category and Hierarchy (LATCH), which are the “Five

Hatracks” for hanging data onto.

The Hatracks that you choose to hang your data onto, Wurman said, should be

intuitive. That’s why supermarkets are organized by category instead of

alphabetically. Imagine shopping in a supermarket where the beans were side-by-side

with the beef! Also, in organizing data, more than one Hatrack can be used to bring

more clarity to the information. Considering these Hatracks, we then set off gathering

information about our lives and experimenting with different ways of hanging our data

onto these Hatracks.

L Location - For data that comes from various sources, such as maps, floor plans, parts of the body, travel guides, even mental states like “relaxed” and “anxious”

A Alphabetical - For large bodies of data, such as phone books, dictionaries, and directories

T Time - For things that happen in a sequence or things that happen over a period of time, such as stories, timelines, scenarios, narratives, and schedules

C Category - For when you have distinct chunks of information grouped by similar importance with no distinct hierarchy, such as the departments in a department store, or the majors and minors one could pick in a university

H Hiearchy - For when you have information that vary in value and weight, such as things organized by most/least valuable, people organized by rank and reputation, Top 10 lists, and music charts

EXPLORE Why Design Information?

4

above: Initial data set generation, showing in particular video games played and countries traveled to.

EXPLORESearching for Data

5

Gathering data about yourself is fun in a very strange, ego-indulgent way. Starting

off, I tried to just think of various kinds of topics for which I could easily start listing

data out for. I wanted these categories to have lots of data points and still vaguely

describe me—for example, I enjoy trying new foods and playing video games, so I was

able to easily list out the memorable meals I’ve had and rattle off all the video games

I’ve played in my life. But I also wanted to take this as an opportunity to examine

aspects of my life that I otherwise would have never sat down and considered, such

as hairstyles I’ve had over the years or how my music tastes have evolved over time.

Afterwards, I practiced organizing these data based on Wurman’s LATCH principle:

some were sorted by location (such as places traveled to) and others by category (such

as the platform the video games I played were based on).

SEARCHING for DATA

above: Exploring various ways of representing life data (such as drawing hairstyles visually).

EXPLORE Searching for Data

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We shared our ideas in class, and I felt like I learned a lot about aspects of my

classmates that I would’ve never been privy to were it not for this project. It soon

became apparent that we would have to start honing in on our topics. I continued

brainstorming, hoping to have an a-ha moment when I knew I had found a topic I

felt would be able to accurately portray me. It wasn’t an easy task, since I felt so

many things defined me, and yet I didn’t want to be defined by one single thing. For

example, I didn’t want to be known as the “gamer girl” or the “foodie”, even though

I knew it was perfectly fine to explore that one aspect of yourself.

“For Good”While brainstorming, I started thinking about how sometimes people can have a

real impact on your life. Though it may be inconsequential things with some people

and more profound with others, I kept thinking about how just because of that one

person, you’re a slightly different person than you were before you met them. And

perhaps it also had something to do with the fact that I’d just seen the musical

Wicked again recently, since the lyrics of one of the songs started playing in my

mind’s ear when I was mulling over this topic. The song was called “For Good” and

was essentially about two friends bidding farewell and reflecting on how each friend

had changed the other “for good” (used here for its double meaning to mean “for

the better” and “permanently”).

CHOOSING the TOPICI’ve heard it said

that people come into our lives for a reasonbringing something we must learn

and we are ledto those who help us most to grow

if we let themand we help them in return.

Well I don’t know if I believe that’s true but I know I’m who I am today

because I knew you

Like a comet pulled from orbitAs it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulderHalfway through the wood

Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But because I knew youI have been changed for good

“For Good” from WickedStephen Schwartz

REFINEChoosing the Topic

7

above: Marking potentially viable topics with stars, including the final chosen topic.

REFINE Choosing the Topic

8

Creating the Data SetWith these thoughts swirling in my head, I began to think about ways in which

something that I do or believe now can be specifically attributed to one person. I

started listing examples that easily came to mind. I had initially chosen three of

Wurman’s Hatracks to organize my data with: Time, Category and Place. My data set

listed each person’s name, what their influence on me was, and the year and place

where it happened. I had planned to organize what their influence on me was based

on category, but I eventually found out that creating too many categories (such

as food, music, beliefs, activities, career, etc.) might be too confusing since each

category might only have 1-2 data points.

Taking a step back from my categories, I realized I could aggregate these narrow

categories into broader ones. For example, people who have influenced me in what

I like in terms of music, food or films could be combined into the category [people

who have influenced] “What I like”. By doing so, I ended up creating three broad

categories for my data: People who have influenced “What I Like”, “What I Do”, and

“What I Believe”.

above: Creating items for the data set by hand, listing people in my life, what they influenced me in, when and where.

WHAT I LIKETastes and preferences, such as in music and food

WHAT I DOHobbies, career, lifestyle and activities

WHAT I BELIEVEBeliefs in my purpose in life, world view and goals

REFINEChoosing the Topic

9

These broader categories would encompass the smaller ones I had

initially came up with. By doing so, I also created a hierarchy for my

data set based upon the profundity of what the influence was. I also

realized that “Place”, which was initially part of my data set, really

wasn’t all that necessary. Sure, it might have been interesting to see

some of the places in which I interacted with these people, but I

decided that people would be more interested in seeing how important

I considered these influences rather than where it happened.

By no means does categorization indicate that people who influenced

me in terms of “What I Like” had a less profound impact on my life as

a whole. The data set is just a small snapshot of the no doubt count-

less people who have influenced my life over the years, and this chart

just aims to illustrate a number of these influences, large and small.

above: My data set in Google Docs, after changing my categorization system to include hierarchy.

REFINE Choosing the Topic

10

METHODS of VISUALIZATIONWith a fairly robust data set, I started brainstorming ways of visually representing the

data. This proved quite difficult, since it was hard not to automatically put all of your

data points on a timeline and call it a day. I did succumb to the timeline approach in

my sketches once or twice, just to get it out on paper, but I spent a lot of time think-

ing of ways other than a timeline to show my data.

What is an influence? I began to consider what “influence” was in an attempt to come up with more

inspired ideas, but it actually complicated things as I realized “influence” could be de-

fined by seemingly countless antonyms. Is it someone leaving an impression on you? A

memory? Or must it involve concrete behavioral change? Based on the fuzzy, muddled

boundaries that seem to surround the idea of “influence”, I began to also think about

incorporating these ideas into the visualization, such as using watercolors to run into

each other to allude to these loose boundaries or the idea of “ripples” of influence

emanating from an individual in my data set. One motif seemed to be recurrent in a lot

of my ideas: the circle.

above: Exploring ideas about representing the nature of influence.

REFINEMethods of Visualization

11

METHODS of VISUALIZATION

CirclesThinking about these circles I kept drawing a bit more, I recalled hearing that some cultures don’t think of time

in a linear manner; rather, they consider time in a cyclical fashion, such as the Mayans. Putting the two ideas

together, I tried using circles as devices to show things radiating out from the center as well as to depict time.

Developing this idea further, I decided that I would create a polar grid. There would be one point of origin--the

top--to show my birth year and present time. Each line would represent the lapse of one year; and a darker

line would mark a decade. Within this polar grid, I envisioned three circular regions emanating from the center,

representing the three categories, with the center representing “me”. Data points would be placed on this polar

grid based on which category they were in and what year it happened. Each individual data point would have

the person’s name and a brief description of what they influenced me in. Lines would connect the data point

back to the center of the circle.

In class, I drew a rough version of this idea on the whiteboard (left) and received some helpful feedback. Some

thought that the lines weren’t necessary since they didn’t add anything to the data points. Others commented

on the hard delineations of the three regions in my chart; after all, aren’t the three categories technically in-

terrelated? It reinforced my initial instinct that “influence” was a fuzzy, amorphous concept, and I felt that I

needed to work that into my visualization somehow.

above: Fleshing out the initial idea of concentric circles to map out time and the three categories.

REFINE Methods of Visualization

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Based on this idea and the feedback of the class, I began to develop the idea

in Illustrator. The polar grid, the timeline and the three regions of “What I Like”,

“What I Do” and “What I Believe” were quick to render; yet, after creating them,

I was stuck on what to do next. Here I was with this data set of people’s names

and how they influenced me. It seemed visually uninteresting to just transfer this

data onto my diagram. In my initial sketches I had thought about creating icons

representing what the person influenced me in. As I thought about it, I realized

icons for music and food might be easy, but what about more abstract concepts

like “drive” and “work ethic”?

About FacePerhaps I could make icons or small visual representations of something else? I

began to play around with first drawing a simple sketch of my father’s face and

placed it on my chart. I drew a few more faces and asked for feedback from my

classmates. I thought that they wouldn’t care for the faces, since they didn’t

know who it was, but I was surprised by their responses: Though they didn’t know

who the person was, it was still interesting to see who I was talking about. They

compared it to reading a magazine article about someone unfamiliar, but since

there was a picture of the person, you were able to connect a face to the story.

I should’ve known, really. My cognitive neuroscience background had taught me

all about faces. For example, humans have a dedicated area in their brains that is

specialized for processing faces (and if you injure that area your facial recognition

ability is impaired), and faces are some of the first things newborns respond to.

EXECUTING the IDEA

DESIGNExecuting the Idea

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Initial VersionsAfter receiving some positive feedback about the faces, I decided to copy many

of them to simulate the effect of having lots of facing representing data points

on my chart. I was unsure of how to delineate the three categories on my chart,

however, so I thought I would try coloring the faces different colors to as a key

for each category (left, top). Light gradations of gray circles would remain in the

background to demarcate what area the data points belonged in. I wasn’t fully

satisfied with this first version, however, because I thought the overall chart was

very drab since the gray circles were so predominant in the image. Also, I didn’t

want the faces with the green backgrounds to all look like they were sick!

So, I decided to try adding more color to the chart. I took each of the circles and

gave them each their assigned color for the category. Since the faces would get

lost in the colored circles, I gave each a white background and kept them as line

art. I kept the hint of color on each face as a shadow and to reiterate the color

system used in the chart. Stepping back to look at these changes, I was beginning

to feel that the design was finally starting to come together.

Details, DetailsAs I moved closer to the version that would be the final product, I concentrated

on more of the details, recalling some of the initial feedback that I received from

my classmates. I softened up the hard boundaries between the circles with various

gradients, to convey that these categories are very loosely defined. I added a key

of sorts to the top of the chart (since I didn’t have any memories at the age of 3

anyway) to show what each category was. I also concentrated on the following

details in the run-up to producing the final design:

above: Initial version of the design, with the faces having the most color.

above: The design after a few more iterations (and a few coffees too).

DESIGN Executing the Idea

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ColorsI tried to make sure the colors I was using were consistent and distinct enough from one

another. Most of the colors are muted to lend more prominence to the text and the faces. I

used dark blue for most intimate category, “What I Believe” because I’ve always considered

blue to be a deep, reflective color.

KEPLER ITALIC CAPTION

KEPLER STD DISPLAY kepler std italic Kepler Std

MONICA YUE /

friend

naturefrom nurture

TypefacesI used a combination of serif and sans-serif typefaces in this chart to convey a range of feel-

ings. The polar grid reminded me of vintage cartography, which was why I used the elegant

serif typeface Kepler. However, I didn’t want the chart’s “voice” to sound stuffy, so I used

Officina in the vignettes, which were the parts where I was telling the audience stories.

Macro/Micro StructureI considered the macro/micro structure of the chart, and how the experience would be for

viewers at various distances. I made the chart large enough to see from far away, particularly

the title. However, upon closer inspection, the viewers will notice another structure: the

name of the person, their relation to me, a sketch of their face and a brief vignette of how I

remember that person influencing me. The briefness of these stories allows the viewer to take

in the information in small chunks without having to commit to reading the entire piece.

TitleOne of the finishing touches before completing the final design was deciding on a title. Yet,

it was also something that I had thought up very early on. The title is a play on words from

the catchphrase “nature vs. nurture” that is often used to refer to characteristics or qualities

that either originate from genetics, the environment, or an interplay of both. By calling it

“Nature from Nurture”, I was referring to how the chart shows various characteristics I have

(my nature) are derived from the people I’ve known.

DESIGNExecuting the Idea

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Final Design Solution:

above: Scaled-down final piece. Actual piece is 42 inches by 42 inches.

DESIGN Executing the Idea

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For me, it’s a rarity to be able to reflect on a completed piece of work, since

most of the time you’re focused on the next thing you have to do. When I

do, though, I find it rewarding to be able to look back at the entire process

and the finished artifact and be able to see the distance that was traversed

from when the project first started. More valuable, though, are the insights

and lessons learned during the process.

The Process Though I felt the overall process went smoothly for me overall I think I

still learned a lot from this project. I felt like in the beginning stages of

generating ideas for the topics, I spent quite a bit of time thinking of con-

cepts, trying to look for one that would accurately represent me. I ended up

generating pages and pages of ideas. I feel that in the end, no artifact will

be able to fully capture the essence of an individual, since even this chart

only illustrates certain aspects of me. I also experienced how helpful it is

to get feedback from others early on in the concept stages. Before graduate

school, I often came up with ideas on my own and had such fully-realized

visions of the execution I wouldn’t feel like I needed feedback until I had

completed the entire thing. I feel this is definitely something to keep in

mind since I did end up incorporating a lot of ideas from my classmates in

the final design.

LEARNING from YOURSELF

REFLECTLearning from Yourself

17

I also learned the importance of printing out test pieces before sending a final design

off to be printed. Working with such a large format, it was very important to make

sure that the colors and size of the text were correct, so our class printed test strips

of our posters to verify how these would look in print. Although my colors came out

as predicted, I know that for others, some of the colors were unexpected and needed

adjusting.

The OutcomeOverall, I am quite happy with the finished piece, since I feel it represents many

things I consider to be quintessentially “me”. Initially, I had intended to use size as

another cue for hierarchy (with larger data points in the center, getting smaller as

along the periphery), but I don’t think that was very apparent in the final piece even

though I did do scaling adjustments to each data point. I wonder if a larger variety

of faces would have made it more interesting; yet, I suppose it also tells a story

about my life to see recurring faces for people who have had a consistent impact

throughout my life.

I enjoyed sketching out the faces, even though it was a somewhat tedious task. I

feel that because I chose to draw them, the faces became more “interpretative” and

less objective, i.e., this is how I see someone instead of this is how they actu-

ally look in a photograph. In the end, I think it makes it more personal. I found it

nostalgic to go through old photos to find ones that I could use as references for

my sketches, and I hope that I will be able to use this project as a good reason to

get back in touch with the people I’ve lost touch with, and to thank those who have

been a significant factor for where I am today and where I’m headed in the future.

REFLECT Learning from Yourself

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