Briefing

We were tasked to create an infographic pamphlet and an accompanying digital counterpart surrounding an issue that intrigued us enough to last the full semester. After discovering claustrophobic images of Hong Kong apartments, I decided to dedicate my semester to the investigation of slums; my focus was to advocate a positive change in the landscape of the urban poor through these findings.

Each piece is separated into four parts: a debriefing that delved into the situation of slums worldwide; a triptych of case studies (i.e. Kowloon Walled City, Pruitt Igoe, and the Tower of David) that illustrated attempts to reform slums to varied results; an infographic that visualizes the correlation between indicators of living standards and the presence of slums; and lastly, a call to action for readers that wanted to find out more.

Changing Directions

Although the printed piece was started first, it wasn’t until we began the digital counterpart when I found a consistent visual language. With the interactive pamphlet, touchpoints and navigation may not be clear to all readers; a starter guide and tips throughout helped remedy any confusion.

Abstractions

To pique the interest of readers, case studies were preluded by alead-inpage that featured a description of the site, a pronunciation guide for foreign names, and illustrations that showed its general architecture.

Taking Advantage of the Medium

With the tablet came much more freedom to explore different ways of interacting with the information. One instance was the implementation of scrollable frames to show population trends over large periods of time. Another successful example was the modelling and animation of key structures in case studies to relay information in ways not possible with print.

A Companion

The printed pamphlet was entirely revamped after the completion of the interactive counterpart. Distilling the many spreads of the digital component to static pages proved difficult, but resulted in an alternative view of the same dataset. The synoptical variation of the pamphlet became a companion to the tablet version, and provided the reader a different approach in exploring the implications of slums.

This project is in development, but will be finalized by the Grad Show on April 19.