Tag: Duran-Elena

Elena

Elena, Duran
Set: SAFE EFFICIENT

Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space: Use the least amount of shapes to convey objective (at least 75% of white space)
Shape of Forms: Square, rectangles
Orientation of Forms: 90 degrees
Size of Forms: The size of the objects should be equal (except for scaling)
Placement of Form: Center
Space between Forms: 0.25 inches

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1: Modify center object
#2: All forms will be centered along an imaginary x axis that goes through the middle of the background (except for emphasis using space)
#3: For scaling: double the lenght of the unit piece (from 1×1” to 1×2” or 1×4”)
#4: For emphasis using space: double the standard space (from 0.25” to 0.5”)

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules?
Vertical symmetry

Explain your process:
I tried to keep it simple by using the least amount of shapes that would allow me to convey the objective. All compositions use a centered x axis and y axis to provide all compositions a very explicit sense of balance and cleanliness. The spacing between shapes was determined by composition number 6.

Set: WHIMSICAL AND DELICATE

Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space: Use the least amount of shapes to convey objective (at least 75% of white space)
Shape of Forms: Square, rectangles
Orientation of Forms: 20 and 30 degrees
Size of Forms: 1×1″, 1×2” and 1×4”
Placement of Form: Up
Space between Forms: 0.1 inches

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1: Modify second object from right
#2: 20 and 30 degree inclination between objects
#3: For scaling: double the lenght of the main piece (from 1×1” to 1×2” or 1×4”)
#4: For emphasis using space: object being emphasized placed at the bottom

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules?
I tried to capture the playfulness and movement of a wiggly dance. I used 1×1” squares to give the pieces movement and lightness.

Set: FIERCE AND DYNAMIC

Visual Language (VOICE)
Contrast of Space: Progression of contrast, (a lot of white space to less white space)
Shape of Forms: Diagonal strips
Orientation of Forms: 45 degrees
Size of Forms: Size varies from 1×1” to 1×11”’
Placement of Form: Along an imaginary diagonal axis
Space between Forms: 0.1 inches

Objective Rules (assignment rules)
#1: Keep top right shape going out of edges
#2: All forms will be aligned to a diagonal axis

Interpretation of Visual Language
What did you interpret to apply your rules?
Diagonal position conveying movement. I tried to capture the dynamism of a sound wave. I started with composition number 6 because that proved to be the most challenging one for me. From there I went backwards to get the other compositions. I modified the size of the pieces in a way that conveys dynamism, and kept the top rigth piece going out of the frame constant because it is a key piece to convey the fierceness of the set.

Data Visualization Workshop: Are LA Police Stops Effective?

TEAM #2 City/Mayor

CONTEXT: This is an internal, actionable report on the effectiveness of police stops for the Los Angeles Mayor. Our analysis looks at the police stop accuracy rate, i.e., the percentage of stops that are immediately followed with post-stop activity (as opposed to unnecessary stops which do not justify further activity). We showcase the 5 most effective and 5 least effective neighborhoods, and then further breakdown the police stop effectiveness by race for each neighborhood.

ACTIONABILITY: This data could be used to identify the top performing police precincts, reward their success, and analyze what specifically is superior in their policies and practices. Ultimately, the goal would be to transfer those policies, practices and perhaps even personnel to the lowest performing precincts.

What is your story?

Working in the mayor’s office, we have decided to create an internal, actionable report for the Mayor that cuts to the essentials of what can be quickly acted upon due to the Mayor’s limited time. We focus on the ratio of “Stops with Post-Stop Activity” / “Total Frisk Stops” in ten different neighborhoods across the city to convey the efficacy of Stop-and-Frisk legislation. We focus on the top five and bottom five precincts in order to best understand which practices lead to their success or failure. Additionally, we break down the police stop efficacy by race for each neighborhood to explore the possibilities of racial discrimination in the law’s application.

How does the selected data support your story?

The data allows us to ask, “Do some people get stopped and frisked for no reason?” The answer is yes, the residents of North Hollywood, West Valley, West LA, Devonshire and Pacific are over twice as likely to be stopped for no reason as the more effective neighborhoods like Foothill, Seventy-Seven, Central Bureau, Mission and Newton.

The data allows us to ask further, “Is there racial bias in who is stopped for no reason?” Given the national statistics in white versus black treatment by the police, one might assume that blacks are more likely to be stopped for no reason, but surprisingly, this “police stop efficacy” measurement is roughly equivalent between whites and blacks in all the neighborhoods. In other words, when blacks and whites get stopped and frisked in Los Angeles, they have a similar likelihood of experiencing further police activity, which suggests that blacks are not suffering discrimination. One surprising statistic is that Asians are the most likely to be stopped and frisked for no reason; in every single neighborhood, the “police stop effectiveness” is the lowest for Asians than for any other race.

Despite these interesting trends, our data is missing several key metrics: are more blacks getting stopped overall? We do not look at absolute numbers. Are fewer Asians stopped on average? We do not take into account the population balance of the different races in each neighborhood. It is possible that blacks underrepresented in the overall population but overrepresented in the percentage of stop-and-frisk incidents. Also, if blacks have an equal or even slightly higher percentage of post stop activity, is that really because police “accuracy” is higher, or could it be because whites get let off the hook slightly more often? Our chosen metric of “stop accuracy” uncovers surprising insights, but begs further investigation.

What data did you omit and why?

The most significant omission was the data (race and ID number) about the particular officers that were carrying out this law. Though these could be important for discovering the “accuracy” (in terms of the aforementioned ratio) of various officers as well as their personal, racial biases, its is both out of the scope of our report and outside the purview of the mayor to scrutinize individual officers in a city whose police force numbers over 10,000. Following the same logic of including only the information that could be absorbed in a limited window of time, other variables such as time of day, date of stop, and stop type (vehicle or pedestrian) were omitted.

How does the representation support your story?

The representation supports our story because bar graphs are simple to interpret, and keeping the y-axis the same for all graphs makes it easy to make comparisons between different towns and different races. For example, bar graphs made it easy to see that blacks and whites have about the same “stop accuracy” with it being slightly higher for blacks. Simplifying the color of the background and bar graphs makes it instantly recognizable which towns have more effective police stop policies (blue) versus those that do not (orange).

What visual metaphor(s) did you use and why?

The bar graph was chosen because it was the most immediately comprehensible. Though we considered using a map with pie charts and various layers with more sophisticated graphics, owing to the limited amount of time provided by our scenario of meeting with the mayor, we agreed that bar graphs would be the most efficient means of communicating the necessary information. The more effective neighborhoods are coded blue to signify well-being and stability, whereas the least effective neighborhoods are coded orange to signify danger and instability.

Elena

Fierce and Dynamic
1. Tiger
2. Fast airplane
3. Fast, aerodynamic, red car
4. Hawk
5. Snake
6. Wolf
7. Lion
8. Shark
9. Swarm of killing bees
10. Lernean Hydra (Greek mythology)
Whimsical and Delicate
1. Dandelion seeds
2. Silk scarf
3. Butterfly
4. Snow flake
5. Spider web
6. Lace
7. Cotton candy
8. Water droplet
9. Angel
10. Moon
Safe and Efficient
1. Baby bottle
2. Police officer
3. Bank
4. Googles
5. Lab coat
6. Belt
7. Car belt
8. Key
9. Padlock
10. Lock box

Elena

For this project I decided to create new associations with a common object (i.e., an egg) using a surprise factor. Once I decided to use eggs, the obvious thing to do was to modify its content, but I wanted people to engage more than one sense during the experience, so I thought about changing their smell too. Once I defined what to do with the objects, I started thinking about how I could set up the experience to emphasize the surprise effect. Then I remembered a talk I attended to last semester where it was mentioned that a good way to do so is to have three identical objects (in appearance) where the first two are “normal” and the third one is “especial” or “unexpected”. I liked this idea a lot because, besides allowing me to fulfill the goal I had in mind, it allowed me to reconceive this activity as “telling a story”. The story starts with a common and well know object (i.e., eggs). You are prompt to analyzing the first one, and after doing so for a while you get to the conclusion that it is, indeed, just the typical egg you are used to. Then you go to a second egg. You might expect it to be somehow different, but, disappointingly, it is not. It is another typical thing. Finally you get to the third egg, and you probably do not know what to expect anymore. Most likely you will not find anything extraordinary. But then, when you interact with it you discover something weird. Why would an egg smell like peppermint, mandarin, or ginger? It makes no sense, and you want to keep analyzing it. Then you find something else that is completely unexpected: when you lift it the egg is extremely light, when you shake it does not feel like the other eggs, or it clinks. Now you are surprised! (climax point.) But the story does not end here, you need to discover what is inside the egg. So you break it and find an empty shell, a stainless steel chain or green jelly. What?! Now the new associations with the “special” egg make sense, but you still do not understand how the trick was carried out. So you keep looking… and once you figure it out the story comes to an end.

I got exactly the responses I was looking for: surprise!
The instructions for the first group were to smell and break the three eggs, in the assigned order. The first group was pretty disappointed when they broke the second egg and did not find anything exceptional. They wrote “Broke like an egg. Again! Damn!” However, when they got to the third one they mentioned it smelled to toothpaste. When they broke the egg they didn’t expect to find a green gelatinous content. Their first guess was that it was a dyed, hardboiled egg.

The second group was told to smell and shake the three eggs, one by one. As expected there was nothing special about the first two eggs, but when they smelled and shook to the last one they heard a surprising sound (for an egg). It clinked!

The third group was supposed to smell and lift the three eggs. At the beginning this group was the least surprised. They didn’t get very surprised when they got to the last egg. Although it was lighter than the other ones, the weight difference was as shocking as I expected. Nevertheless, when they broke the egg and found an empty shell they were equally surprised as the people in the other teams. Additionally, they mentioned it smelled like an orange.

Elena

For this project I decided to create new associations with a common object (i.e., an egg) using a surprise factor. Once I decided to use eggs, the obvious thing to do was to modify its content, but I wanted people to engage more than one sense during the experience, so I thought about changing their smell too. Once I defined what to do with the objects themselves, I started thinking about how I could set up the experience to emphasize the surprise effect. Then I remembered a talk I attended to last semester where it was mentioned that a good way to do so is to have three identical objects (in appearance) where the first two are “normal” and the third one is “especial” or “unexpected”. I liked this idea a lot because, besides allowing me to fulfill the goal I had in mind, it allowed me to reconceive this activity as “telling a story”. The story starts with a common and well know object (i.e., eggs). You are prompt to analyzing the first one, and after doing so for a while you get to the conclusion that it is, indeed, just the typical egg you are used to. Then you go to a second egg. You might expect it to be somehow different, but, disappointingly, it is not. It is another typical thing. Finally you get to the third egg, and you probably do not know what to expect anymore. Most likely you will not find anything extraordinary. But then, when you interact with it you discover something weird. Why would an egg smell like peppermint, mandarin, or ginger? This makes no sense, and you want to keep analyzing it. Then you find something else that is completely unexpected: when you lift it the egg is extremely light, when you shake it does not feel like the other eggs, or it clinks. Now you are surprised! (climax point.) But the story does not end here, you are dying to discover what is inside of the egg. So you break it and find an empty shell, a stainless steel chain or green jelly. What?! Now the new associations with the “special” egg make sense, but you still do not understand how the trick was carried out… and once you do the story comes to an end.

Characteristics, properties, and emotions typically associated with your original object

Mine
Healthy
Fragile
Egg smell
Food
Normal egg weight
Liquid inside
Roundish

Group 1 (Smell and break)
Smells like an egg
Strange

Group 2 (Smell and shake)
Fart
Toilet
Hard boiled
Cooked
Fresh

Group 3 (Lift and smell)
Bad
Neutral
Goose
Smells bad
Unbalanced

Characteristics, properties, and emotions associated with your new object
Group 1 (Smell and break)
Toothpaste
Jello!
Hard boiled and dyed

Group 2 (Smell and shake)
Pepper
Instrument
Dance

Group 3 (Lift and smell)
Orange
Crisp

Roommate Searching Tool for Craigslist

Roommate Searching Tool for Craigslist
Group: Siqi Wang, Justin Berner, Elena Duran L. Meghana Battini
Text by Justin Berner

The product is for students who is new to the area does not have a place to live, but are looking to live with new flatmates/roommates. Currently, roommate-hunting websites primarily present a lot of information about the personality of the roommate and the specifics of the apartment, but they provide little information about the dynamics of the neighborhoods in the area. Our user can thus first discover the neighborhoods in which they would feel most content (i.e. a neighborhood with nightlife, restaurants, parks, etc.) before diving into the personalities of possible roommates.

Design Flow:
After deciding whether they are offering or seeking a roommate, the user puts in a range of prices and possible roommates. Then, they go to a map that has circles overlaid it to represent both number of matches (size of circle) and the most salient feature of that neighborhood (color of circle). The user can be taken to a screen where they can choose from a predetermined set of tags to help refine roommates. Once they have a sufficient number of tags, they can go to a new page with a group of circles with photos of prospective roommates. They can then click on the roommate to see a list of social media characteristics (top songs, top photos, mutual friends, etc.) and then from there they can click a button to contact this person.

The desired feeling that the product should evoke would be someone between the classic feeling of craigslist/newspaper browsing for roommates and the more immersive, navigational feel of applications or social media. It should try to take some of the uncertainty out of this process since it is geared towards those who have little-to-no knowledge of the area.

Elena

This owl was a hand-made present from my sister. It is the only “toy” that made it into my suitcase when I was moving from Ecuador to here. This object means a lot to me for three reasons. First, she invested her time to think about it, design it and make it. Second, she gave it to me on a normal day, it was not a special occasion such my birthday or Christmas. There was no excuse for it, she gave it to me just because she felt like it (I felt special!). Third, it is made of recycled materials which resonates with my beliefs about taking care of the planet. When I look at my owl the words that come to my head are love and family.

It was very interesting to “take it apart” and think about all its constitutive parts from different perspectives (scientific, formal, representational and interpretative). I would say that looking at all objects, people, things and thoughts in this way, all the time, would be most certainly overwhelming. However, I appreciate to know that this way of seeing the world around me exists, and that I am capable of using it whenever I need it. I think this skill would be very useful in academic settings when I am trying to understand something new, or when thinking about a new design. Nevertheless, I can also see myself thinking in this way when I am just walking around, enjoying nature and thinking about how certain things work.

Overall, the essence of the meaning of the object has not changed. It still makes me think about my sister and my family. However, now I might see it differently… I think it would be accurate to say that I have expanded the way I think about it. Never before I stopped to think about where the different parts came from, how many people were involved in their creation, or the science and technology behind them.

Elena

I got excited about this activity from the moment I read the New York Times article “The Miracle Fruit, a Tease for the Taste Buds”. I had no idea a fruit like that existed! To be honest I think my expectations were too high. Please, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the experience a lot; however, I think my predictions were a little unrealistic. I thought everything was going to taste very different. As a consequence I was not as surprised as you might have expected.

My associations didn’t change dramatically. Probably I got the weirdest ones after eating a grape. What automatically came to mind was: a) sweetened figs, b) something this sweet cannot be healthy.
I think it would be okay if something like this would happen once a year, but I wouldn’t like it to be all the time. I love lemons and limes the way they are! Nevertheless, I’m also aware that sooner or later I would get used to it (it will be the new normal).

Something that would have been amazing (although I’m not sure if possible at all) is not to have been told about the specific effects of the fruit. We could have been prompted to work in pairs. Student A would pick some food from the table, while Student B would eat it with his/her eyes closed (careful with food allergies!) Then Student A would ask Student B to guess each one of the options and to tell him/her the associations that come to mind. The process should be repeated exchanging the roles of the students. Finally, the food would be revealed in the order it was tasted. I believe the surprise effect would be maximized in this way.