Des Moines Park and Recreation department is in charge of the Parks.
'Park and Recreation Mission
Helping Des Moines Live Well, Play Hard and Protect the Earth
Responsibilities
The Park and Recreation department is responsible for the management of 76 parks, 3,800 acres of parkland, 42 miles of trails, and numerous municipal facilities.
The Park and Recreation department is responsible for managing over 16 different programs in the area of sports, urban conservation, environment education, sport instruction, sports tourism, neighborhood beautification, water recreation, volunteerism and stewardship.
In addition, Parks staff plans Special Events throughout the year, such as, the Father-Daughter Dance, Free Flicks, Hoopin' at the Dome, Earth Day Trash Bash, Mayor's Annual Ride for Trails, Carp Festival, and many other events.'
The user of the Gray's lake map would be anyone who goes to parks, but seems to focus on family or group activities through planned events that occur throughout the year. The re-design would need to be accessible to people of all ages, but emphasizing adults & parents (since parents would be the ones taking their kids to the events that Parks & Rec. have planned).
Demographic 18~60 approx.?
Activities:
bird watching sessions at 11:00 a.m. every Wednesday and the 9:00 a.m.
Saturday Yoga in the Park sessions on the north shore June through September.
Kite flying has been added every fourth Tuesday from 5-7:00 p.m. now through October
canoe and sailing lessons weekly throughout May, June, July and August with expanded frequency and age brackets.
Moon Float from 9-11:00 p.m. the fourth Saturday of those months.
nature scavenger hunt
native plant sale
rowing and sailing clubs’ open houses
fishing clinic
flower pounding
sand sculpture activities
leaf boat building
insect identification
butterfly tagging
fairy house building
landscaping how-to
fish printing classes
May 22 - Gray’s Lake Carp Festival for youth and adults, with registration at 8:00 a.m. and activities from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. that include tournament fishing as well as lessons and carp lake ecology.
Gray's Lake Amenities:
Beach
Boat Ramp
Boat Rental
Grills
Ice Skating
Nature Trail
Off-Street Parking
Overlook Terraces
Picnic Tables
Playground Equipment
Pond, Lagoon, Lake
Recreation Trail
Restrooms
River
Well designed Map:
Comments:
I used to live in Virginia, and so I went to the DC zoo fairly often. It was years ago when I last used it, but pulling it up online still proves it's easy to use. I like how the map was designed with minimal text and use of icons, though I do believe it could be more clear if there was a key for what the icons meant. Overall though, it's pretty simple to figure out what is where in the zoo.
Comments:
I found this map through Google, and I don't even know what it's for. It confuses me because of all the icons all over the map, and even though a key is provided, I still don't understand what the map is supposed to be getting at. All the overlaps of the map elements make it a jumbled confusing mess.
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RR Questions:
1. Define the differences between icons, indexes, and symbols. In order to demonstrate your understanding, cite an example of each that was not provided in the reading.
Icons- Literal visual representations; drawing of a cow looks like a cow, drawing of a pig looks like a pig etc.
Indexes- Create connections between objects, using that which is easy to describe to identify something more obscure; sunglasses could represent brightness outside, or a winter coat could represent 'winter'.
Symbols- more abstract and may represent things that don't have physical form; swirly lines used in video games to represent 'wind', even though it isn't physically visible.
2. What new principle or theory presented in this reading is of the most interest to you? Why?
I found the Principle of Closure to be a fairly interesting one. I've heard something like it before, how our minds will fill in what's missing from a shape or form even if the form isn't in it's entirety, but even then I still find it fascinating. Perhaps the reason I find it so intriguing is because it just shows how powerful our minds are, being able to 'fill in the blank' per se, even if a figure or object isn't all there.
3. Identify three tips (from any of the four Quick Tips pages excerpted) that you would like to apply in this information design project. Why are you choosing these particular ones? How do you intend to implement them in your process?
1. 'Don't decorate, design'; I would like to apply this tip not only in this project, but it all of my projects. Over the years I've been at Drake I've always had a hard time with this particular aspect, as I constantly want to 'decorate' the work I do. It's unnecessary and clutters the design, so I'd like to get more straightforward design approaches in, instead of worrying about making something 'different' or 'unique'. Not everything has to look different, especially in terms of a project like this where we'll be designing something that the general public would end up utilizing in a real scenario. I intend to implement this by trying to avoid any decorative aspects of the project, and rather focusing on the important things such as the information and hierarchy.
2. 'Create the Perfect Match'; I've used this tip before, but it's definitely one to keep in mind for any project when trying to decide what typefaces to use. Combining a Serif and Sans Serif font not only helps with hierarchy of the design, but also helps with legibility. In most cases, Serif fonts don't work particularly well in body text outside of books (even then, you see less of them in book body copy these days) so they tend to work better as headlines. I intend to implement this tip by picking a Serif for headlines & larger title segments, while using a Sans Serif for the body copy.
3. 'Learn the two-step'; This is a tip that I haven't used very much at all up until this point. Combining different text weights with color or size shifts are also a useful took for hierarchy, especially for a project such as this where we're designing around existing information. I plan to implement this rule with any captioning or comments I may need to include.
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