facebook

=Facebook: A Global Linkage between People= Tak Yee Chan toc

Rationale
My chosen media is Facebook. Facebook acts as a global linkage between people. I focused on the relationships between Facebook and Facebook users, as well as some controversies about Facebook, the functions and people involved in the creation Facebook. Since it is a global linkage between people, I used a globe to present this idea. After a few experiments with the layouts, I found that a circular form or a globe shape is actually the best and easiest way to present the complicated relationships between all the concepts of my topic. I used curve lines and arrows to present the inter-relationships between all the concepts rather than straight lines as to show to three-dimensional form of the globe as well as curve lines show a more clear and interesting map. The solid lines show the major relationships between categories of concepts and the dotted lines show some secondary or less important relationships between concepts in different categories. The small words on the line are verbs indicating the relationships between concepts. For the color scheme, I chose the very recognizable "Facebook-blue" color as the color of the globe just to make it more relevant to Facebook and I used a gradient in the background as to show the three-dimensional form of the globe. And the typeface I used throughout the whole concept map is called Klavika which is the Internet typeface used in the Facebook logo as to make the whole layout more consistent with the Facebook logo I put in the map.

Research Summary
I tried to analyze the interface, the functions and the layouts of Facebook.com as for my research. And then I tried to look for history and more information about Facebook from wikipedia. I found some news articles talking about how the Founder of the Facebook created Facebook and what kind of controversies Facebook has dealed with. Then, I came up with my concepts.

Research
I tried to analyze the layouts and interface of facebook.com, as well as its functions provided to users. And I research on the history and the founder of Facebook.com.

Some information from the links belows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=502875 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_features-hacker-dropout-ceo.html

The very well-known facebook logo, with a recognizable blue color. The typeface used in the facebook logo is called Klavika. Klavika is a kind of web-used or Internet typeface.

Brainstorm
first brainstorm concept map done in the first class

a list of concepts related to the topic: facebook

preliminary maps




working on cmap software

I tried to add some features of the facebook to the map, which is some kind of block-shape layouts and the recognizable blue used by facebook. But it didnt work well at all and all the arrows were so confusing.
 * added with some visual elements:**



some simple lines layout...it looked weird...

There were 3 different layouts of concept map I found on VisualComplexity.com that I really like:

And finally I decided to use the method of the third globe-like design to create my final concept map.

Initial Concept Map

 * Rough sketches of my initial concept map:**

Layouts with visual elements

 * Experiment in Illustrator - half-done layout**
 * v.1**

this is not the final version of my concept map, I still need to explore more on the combinations of color because some colors are not really readable on the "Facebook-blue" background.


 * v.2**

the contrast between black and white is too strong i think... but some of the texts are more readable on a white background........................

the black one looks too ugly...i guess i will keep on experimenting on the white one...


 * v.3**

I replaced the reddish orange and dark green colors with lavender and yellowish orange colors respectively. They are more readable on the "Facebook-blue" background.


 * v.4**

I tried to make it three dimensional by using a gradient. I am not sure if this looks good...a little bit weird???

semi-Finals
During critique in the last class, someone suggested making the gradient darker instead of white in the centre. So I tried it out.
 * FINALSSSSS-variations** (p.s. v.5 is not much different from v.4, so I decided not to post it up)
 * v.6**

Added more arrows and lines within the globe. And some changes to the colors of the text.
 * v.7**

Try a softer navy blue at the centre.
 * v.8**

Another blue color.
 * v.9**

I used a softer light blue color in this layout.
 * v.10**

FINAL FINAL Layout
I like v.10 the best. The softer blue makes the text more readable and I like the gradient to be lighter in the centre and darker at the edge. So I decided to choose the v.10 as my final layout.



file download: http://2005-w08.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/2005n_pro01_08_tchan.pdf

YEA DONE!!!

Resources
__Facebook__. 22 Jan 2008. Wikipedia. 24 Jan 2008. .

__Hacker. Dropout. CEO.__. May 2007. Fast Company.com. 25 Jan 2008. .

Heinen, Felix. __Felix Heinen Graphic Design__. March 2007. 22 Jan 2008. .

__Love will tear us apart again.__. Plus Minus. 22 Jan 2008. .

__Mark E. Zuckerberg ’06: The whiz behind thefacebook.com__. 10 June 2004. The Hardvard Crimson. 24 Jan 2008. .

__Visual Complexity__. 15 Jan 2008. .