Final Project

Final Projects for 415 should aim to help a targeted group of users take specific action(s) in a particular setting. In line with current expectations of the field, your projects must also prominently employ information visualization (though not necessarily information graphics per se). That is, as we research and draft your projects, our emphasis will be on creating visually enhanced information, whether in the overt form of charts, calendars, flyers, and graphs or more subtle elements like document covers or tables of contents with appealing fonts and clear information hierarchy.

Examples of good Final Project ideas include a set of dietary brochures and flyers distributed for parents and children at a local pediatrician's office, a guidebook on car-detailing tips for customers of a regional auto care store, a fall women's fashion guide sponsored by a local shop and inset in the Targum, and a pamphlet on visiting a particular Chelsea street's art galleries aimed at guests of proximate hotels. Note: please do not propose a guide to New Brunswick restaurants or bars, as such projects never ever turn out well!

As these examples suggest, your projects need a

1. Sponsoring organization, some entity that would fund your project and provide potential clientele and possible distribution space — plus constraints on your content (eg it might want its products or services mentioned, its publication style emulated, or its favored ideas touted). Note that you needn't necessarily contact a sponsoring organization, but you must choose one and research its likely audience, constraints, etc.
   
   
2. Specific audience and location, both of which may or may not be dictated by your sponsoring organization. For example, in the case of the pediatrician's office project above, clientele and location would be strictly dictated by the particular office (and you would investigate issues such as the available space and its current literature, as well as customers' socio-economic profile). Note that you might pick an audience and location you want to target, and then seek an apt organizational sponsor.
   
   
3. Researchable content: the primary requirement here, along with researching the most up-to-date info in your chosen area, is that you narrow document's purpose: focus on enabling particular set of activities your users will do. Please don't attempt to cover a field so wide that you can only scratch the surface (and you may conceive your project as the first part of a longer series, if that helps). For example, in the case of the pediatrician's office project, trying to cover multiple aspects of child health would have been far too much, and even children's dietary issues is a stretch. By limiting your area of interest — and then limiting it further according to what makes most sense for your audience, location, sponsor, and the small size of the project — you'll be giving yourself the opportunity to produce content genuinely worthwhile, rather than generalized.

The size of these projects should approximate a medium-length term paper, 7-10 pages. Before submitting the final version of your project on the last day of class, you'll also find and briefly analyze sample documents similar to the one(s) you intend to create, submit and revise information graphics and rough drafts, write a short planning memo (as if written to your sponsor), engage in peer review, and present a draft to the class during our penultimate week.