In the spring of 2018, I took Doug Scott's Information Design course, and it quickly became my favorite class I took during college. He is an incredible professor, and I genuinely enjoyed every assignment from his class.
One of the assignments was to create a visualization of a process, in a minimum of 10 steps. It could be an orderly sequence or a simultaneous view, but the idea was to use as few words or labels as possible.
My dad is a physical therapist, and for the majority of my childhood, he worked with amputees. I had gotten a personal walk-through of the process when I was younger, and I was interested in how to visually communicate all the steps.
Below is the final image, and after that is the process of creating the final product.
After I began researching the process of making prosthetic legs, I chose to focus my attention on an above-knee prosthetic. I researched more, and broke the process up into 10 steps.
1. Talk with doctor
2. Make plaster cast of stump
3. Make positive mold from cast
4. Make diagnostic socket with PETG (Vivak)
5. Test diagnostic socket
6. Adjust socket with heating/remolding, or foam
7. Pick style: suction, vacuum, or pin/silicone
8. Single stage lamination (add: nylon stocking, nyglass stocking, spectracarb, carbon fiber)
9. Assemble
10. Physical therapy
No matter what I do, I always start on paper. I made a rough sketch, where I got the basic concepts and colors down, then a more final sketch, with lots of detail. I transferred them to my computer so I could trace my sketches and make a digital version.
Based on feedback from professor critiques, I expanded the detail in Panels 3 and 4 to better show all parts of each step (the pouring and wrapping, respectively). I made the amputee more clearly expressive in Panel 5, and moved the bump to the inside of the prosthetic. After researching how exactly you assemble a prosthetic leg (step 9), I changed my illustrations to be more accurate. And finally, I gave all the people facial expressions, and I gave the doctor some shoes.
In the final version, I made Panel 5 clearer; the amputee got a head, and was saying the word "bump," with the image of a bump next to it. In Panel 7, I gave the amputee the rest of his head (this guy can't catch a break), and gave the doctor a body. In panels 6 through 9, I changed the shape of the "bump" to a small bump, rather than an amoeba, and I gave depth to the empty casts using a gradient. In Panel 9, I more accurately positioned the pieces for assembly. In Panel 10, I moved everything towards the center to get rid of the awkward interaction of lines on the bottom right.
Below is the final version.
I was proud of this piece, because I think I communicated each step well, using only a few words. The assignment lasted three weeks, so we got three rounds of critiques. If I was given more time, I would have spent more time on the illustrations, like the facial expressions and details. I would add more detail overall, and more background to the last panel (physical therapy). I am happy with it as is, however, given the original time limits and constraints.
