Scholars Notebook Entry: Markel’s Design Principles

23 September 2020 “Markel’s Design Principles”

1) Explain in a few sentences how you intend to use 2-3 of Markel's design principles in your
definition.
One of the design principles I intend on using in my definition would be alignment. By
lining up my subsections on an imaginary line, I can help the reader understand my text more
clearly. I plan to align every section of my paper that talks about a new topic on an imaginary
line. To go along with alignment, repetition would also help the reader understand which text
include similar information. When applicable I will include headings on sections that are
important such as “Function”, “Structure”, “Helpers”, “Current Research”. Finally, the use of
proximity will be important too because I will rely heavily on images to convey my definition. I
will need to ensure that I have visually appealing text alongside my images.

2) Read exercise 4 on page 11 of "Markel on Design," the PDF under Week 5 Action Plan.
Complete exercise 4 for only TWO of the graphics (a-d). Your choice!

c) The use of a pie chart is an efficient way to show proportionally how much of the Hillway
Corporations expenses go to every department. It does a good job of showing contrast between
departments by color coordinating each one accordingly. The proximity of the key showing
what each color represents is great as well. But there is a huge flaw. There isn’t enough
information to show exactly how drastic the differences are. The expenses could total $10 and
each department might be using dollars, or it could be $1,000,000 and each may be using
hundreds of thousands. If I were to revise the graph, I would include what the total amount of
the expenses were and the amount each department used. I would have the total somewhere
towards the left opposite of the key and the individual amounts directly into each section of the
pie that corresponds each department.

d) This graphic is effective in demonstrating that different components in a PC range in value.

The graph does a good job showing the range of prices from the lowest item, keyboard, to the
most expensive item which was the monitor. Although, there are many changes I would do if I
were to revise this. First of all, there are no currency values on the numbers located on the y-
axis. If it were U.S. dollars, a $ sign would be helpful to include. The different components on
the x-axis is good but it does not look visually appealing to see the line decrease then increase
again. I would rearrange the components so that the graph is increasing through the entire
graph. Also, the use of a line graph isn’t the best. I would have opted to use individual points
directly above each component. At the end the graph would have a currency value to go along
with the numbers on the y-axis, the components would be in order of increasing value, and
there would be points on the graph which are seen having a positive slope.