Project 1: Data Mapping

For Project 1, we will explore how information is transmitted through visual representation. Data mapping or data visualization comprises a wide range of methods, but their focus is the same: to communicate something to a specific audience for a particular purpose.

Each student will produce a data map. The choice of what data to present, what audience to target, and what purpose to accomplish is up to the student. Examples of data maps include INA's Interactive Mapping, INA's Iconographics, Worldmapper, The Shape of Song, and Joseph Jacinto Mora's "Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula."

To produce their maps, students will do critical research over visual rhetoric. Students also will analyze the work of others and their own work.

A student's data map may be delivered in a print, digital, or other format, but all projects must be organized, accessible, and professional.

Project Deliverables:

• thorough design plan
• data map
• postmortem

Due Dates:

• Data map first drafts due by the beginning of class on Tuesday, Sept. 11, to the Project 1 First Drafts gallery
• Data map second drafts due by the beginning of class on Thursday, Sept. 13, to the Project 1 Second Drafts gallery
• Project 1 final draft (design plan, data map, postmortem) due Tuesday, Sept. 18

Grading:
Breakdown

• Design Plan = 10%
• Data Map = 80%
• Postmortem = 10%

Rubrics
Excellent design plans will:

• account for all the design plan elements outlined in Compose, Design, Advocate
• proceed through a structure based on the sequence of design plan elements in Compose, Design, Advocate
• provide a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts
• speak in third person about the data map and how it functions, not in first person about the designer's process of creation
• speak in present tense about how the data map works, not in the future tense about what it will or might do
• demonstrate thoroughly what rhetorical purpose the data map intends, who is targeted, and how the message is to be delivered
• demonstrate coherence between the design plan and the resulting data map
• be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

Excellent data maps will:

• communicate data in a clear and organized way through a primarily visual format
• reveal information not easily transmitted in another format
• achieve a specific rhetorical purpose by targeting a specific audience
• have an appearance appropriate to the audience and situation, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

Excellent postmortems will:

• account thoroughly for all the sections of the postmortem form
• focus on the designer's process of creating the data map
• provide valuable insight into project successes, difficulties, and what lessons have been learned going forward
• provide documentation that would be necessary in a professional setting
• be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

Applicable Resources:

• Beyond Words excerpt 1
• Beyond Words excerpt 2
• Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 1
• Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 2
• Design plan tips
• Design plan rhetorical elements
• Project 1 postmortem

Applicable Links:

• Drafts from previous students
• Google search for "data visualization"
• Del.icio.us links tagged with "mapping"

Project 2: Packaging and Promotion

For Project 2, we will work with a very familiar subject: commerce. More specifically, we will be dealing with pragmatic issues of product packaging and promotion. Like all acts of communication, particularly those that are explicitly persuasive, advertising is thoroughly rhetorical.

Each student will select five songs from our class song pool. These five songs will be used to create a compilation CD. Each student will produce an appropriate complete package for the CD (covers, jewel case liner, disk with label, etc.) and one promotional material that targets a specific, appropriate audience. Promotional materials include, but are not limited to, the following:

• animated .gif banner
• Flash banner
• radio spot
• video spot
• newspaper advertisement
• magazine advertisement
• flyer
• poster
• other

CD packages and promotional materials should be complete and of a professional, marketable caliber. Each CD package and promotional item should be accompanied by a thorough design plan. Neither the CD package nor any promotional materials may contain any copyrighted material.

To produce their packages and promotional materials, students will read critical texts over package and promotional material design. Students will also analyze existing professional examples and their own work.

• CD package (with design plan)
• promotional item (with design plan)
• postmortem

• CD package design plan draft due 9/25
• promotional material design plan draft due 10/2
• CD package draft due 10/4
• promotional material draft due 10/11
• Project 2 final draft (CD package and design plan, promotional material and design plan, postmortem) due 10/16

• CD package design plan = 5%
• promotional material design plan = 5%
• CD package = 40%
• promotional material = 40%
• postmortem = 10%

• account for all the design plan elements outlined in Compose, Design, Advocate
• proceed through a structure based on the sequence of design plan elements in Compose, Design, Advocate
• provide a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts
• speak in third person about the data map and how it functions, not in first person about the designer's process of creation
• speak in present tense about how the data map works, not in the future tense about what it will or might do
• demonstrate thoroughly what rhetorical purpose the data map intends, who is targeted, and how the message is to be delivered
• demonstrate coherence between the design plan and the resulting data map
• be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

• achieve a specific purpose by targeting a specific audience
• have a professional, polished appearance appropriate to a commercial product
• demonstrate coherence between the design plan and the resulting work
• display grammar and mechanics appropriate to situation in both material and design plan

• account thoroughly for all the sections of the postmortem form
• focus on the designer's process of creating the data map
• provide valuable insight into project successes, difficulties, and what lessons have been learned going forward
• provide documentation that would be necessary in a professional setting
• be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics

• Twitchell - "What We Are to Advertisers"
• Calfee - "How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit"
• Hine - "What's in a Package"
• Solomon - "Masters of Desire"
• Marchand - "The Parable of the Democracy of Goods"
• Photoshop CD templates
• MS Word CD templates
• Illustrator CD templates
• Freehand CD templates
• Design Plan Tips
• Drafts from previous students
• Song List
• Project 2 postmortem

• Copyright Navigator Map
• Amazon (for CD package analysis)
• Gladwell's "The Science of Shopping" (this came up in class discussion—it is about how store layouts affect behavior)

Project 3: Client Service Learning

For Project 3, we will be working with a client organization to revise its website. Class members will work in small groups each comprising three or four members. Each group will produce a revised website, but only one will be selected and used by the organization. Only the group whose website is selected by the client will receive full credit for the "final website" grade component. All groups will remit their master website files to the instructor. The selected group will provide assistance to get its design up and running on the client's server, but the group is not expected to provide continuing support. The groups are as follows:

To produce their websites, groups will do rhetorical research through course readings and activities. Groups will also use specifications and feedback from the organization's contact.

At the end of the project, each group member will complete a postmortem that evaluates the contributions of the various group members, including himself or herself. The group's postmortems will be the basis for each student's "individual postmortem" grade component.

• design plan
• final website
• individual postmortem

• draft design plan 11/1
• revised design plan 11/20
• draft website 11/20
• final design plan 12/6
• final website 12/6
• individual Project 3 postmortem 12/7

• design plan = 10%
• final website = 80% (only the group whose site is selected will receive full credit for this component)
• postmortem = 10% (formed from a student's average numerical score on his or her group's postmortems)

• explicate the goals of the website and how it achieves them
• demonstrate analysis of the website's audience, context, purpose, strategies, medium, and arrangement
• be in a concise, professional, polished format appropriate to the audience and situation
• display grammar and mechanics appropriate to situation

• be made according to the specifications of the organization
• respond to feedback provided by the organization's contact person
• target a specific audience for a specific purpose
• have a functional and useable navigational structure
• have a consistent, appealing visual style
• be thoroughly professional and polished

The postmortem grade is formed from the average of a person's evaluation scores.

• "Feuds in Student Groups"
• Project 3 postmortem

• Current Coalition for a Safe & Drug Free Tippecanoe County website
• Open Source Web Design
• CSS Zen Garden
• Color Schemer
• Daily Color Scheme
• Webmonkey web design tutorials and resources
• Creative Commons search engine
• Purdue Library royalty-free images
• List of Content Management Systems (Keep in mind that our client may or may not be comfortable using a CMS. If you want to use a CMS, you will have to discuss with your client what doing so would entail.)
• The client's new name
• New client alcohol prevention logo
• New client organization logo