A1-DanielaRosner
From CS294-10 Visualization Fa07
[edit] Bad Visualization
Source: La Cocina Peruana: paso a paso (Ed. 2007)
This Peruvian recipe provides instructions for how to cook Lomo Stogonoff (Pork Loin Stroganoff). The position, color and text choices fail to effectively encode the informaiton most important in this recipe: the ingredients, the preperation steps and the time it takes to make. Instead, the visualization relies on us reading text in a two-column format. The dish sits to the upper left, the ingredients sit in the lower left and how to make it is listed on the right. The contents are difficult to interpret without reading through the details of the last two sections. Also, the designer makes minimal use of consistent graphic forms, such as typographic choices, and the designer's applicaiton of the color palette is redundant, used for decoration rather than to encode any information relavent to the recipe. Lastly, the photos are less descriptive than the photographs of the apple below because they show more of the state of the dish than the process. The images leave out features of the technique that would be difficult or important during the cooking process.
This set of graphics describes the recipe for Pork Loin Strogonoff. The content is laid out in a two column format such that the position of data in the second column is chronological, and position in the first column is not. The chronological data in the second column describes the steps one takes to make make the dish. Text and images represent this nominal data. The first column includes the title and image of the dish to be created, providing an overview of the finished product. In addition, the first column shows a three dimensional plaque containing the ingredients, nominal data, displayed textually in the order they will appear in each step in the second column. Color is not used to encode any variables. Size of text is used to differentiate the titles of each section from all other text.
I chose to redesign the image by using simply position and color to encode each variable. Time is represented on the y-axis and nominal data on the x-axis (ingredients). Color encodes the preperation steps.
This second version makes more appropriate use of the timeline on the y-axis and labels each recipe step using a discrete, continuous plot. By dividing the timeline by each preparation step with numbers and rectangular shapes, each column of time on the y-axis is labelled discontinuously.
[edit] Good Visualization
Source: The Professional Chef | The Culinary Institute of America, 7th Ed." (2002)
Visualization depicting apple-cutting techniques. The text below describes in more detail the simple cutting procedures illustrated in the photo above. The photographs provide a nice overview to each technique and the text provides a second level of detail. The designer also made use of a three column grid to minimize the amount of work readers' eyes do to get the at a glance overview and find more information.
