My visual explanation project seeks to explain the way dogs are mitigating desertification in Mongolia. I think there are three components that are most important to understanding this concept. The first is the issue of desertification in Mongolia, where the country’s history and economy are driven by pastoral nomadism, but as nomads lose goats to predators and starvation during Mongolia’s harsh winters, they have have had to increase the number of goats in their herds, that coupled with the general effects of climate change erode more Mongolian grassland, increasing desert coverage. The second component is the long history of Bankhar dogs in Mongolia, the herders’ companions who protected their herds from predators, but that were bred less and less in the years following the Soviet occupation of Mongolia, leaving the herds without protection and contributing to the conditions that encouraged nomads to increase their herd sizes in the first place. The third component is the role Bankhar dogs play in mitigating desertification, where without them, nomads must increase the sizes of their herds and overtax the grasslands, but with the dogs the present, the livestock are protected from predators and from certain accidents (i.e. getting lost, injuring themselves, etc.), so the nomads will not lose so many goats, and they can then keep their herds smaller, lowering their demands on the land, and allowing more grasslands to flourish.
I tried to create four levels of information in my draft. The first was my title, “Fighting Mongolia’s Climate Crisis with Dogs,” which I hoped summed up what I was trying to explain, and would give the reader a good impression of what they would learn from this visual explanation. I denoted that this was my first level with a bigger font size and putting it in all-caps, as well as placing it in the middle of the page.
The second level was the three components I outlined above: “Mongolia’s Desert Problem,” “The Dogs of Mongolia,” and “Putting the Dogs to Work.” I wanted to make sure people would read it in that same order, so I put “Mongolia’s Desert Problem” at a slightly bigger font size than the other two, per Sheila’s suggestion, and had its information take up the whole width of the page.
The third level was the imagery I created, that I hoped would give a general impression of what I was explaining. However, I think these images would be greatly improved with the addition of labels (as Sheila pointed out in her critique of my draft), i.e. labeling the dog vs. the predator vs. the goat. I could also improve it with better use of color, such as denoting the different players (nomad, dog, goat, predator) with their own specific colors.
The last level was the actual text/information/explanation. I think, frankly, that in this draft I had focused less on this level than on the previous three, and that after looking back at this, and after writing out the main concepts I was trying to explain, I would probably like to use the explanation I used above in my next draft, though divided up and sorted under the different graphics.
I used a fairly granular grid to make my draft, which I oddly did not save (and so will have to recreate for my next draft!!), but I don’t think I used it to my full advantage. I feel like there is a lot of empty white space. I sacrificed a lot of information because I thought it would be too much for a high schooler audience, or I just did not think it was necessary, but looking at it now, I think I was wrong. Further using the Proximity Gestalt Principle and better implementing my grid, I think I could include more information on the text level or graphic representation level (that I have in my explanation above) that could improve my next iteration.
Design For Understanding 
Your design looks good! It’s easy to read with a clear entry point, and everything is aligned nicely. I appreciate that you left some white space and is not overcrowded. I kind of like how you put the title in the center, but would make sure that it’s evenly spaced between the top and bottom sections. Your visual images are nice, in which I think making the dog a different color/shade would help emphasize the change in the herd. The information is straightforward, and easy to understand, but while reading, I also felt like more details could be included in the descriptions. For example, in the section that you talked about bankhar dogs, I want to know what’s so special about them, and if other dogs are used as well. It would be good to mention the timeline of this whole process. Another thing I was wondering in the last section about putting dogs to work is if nomads are no longer needed to control the herd because in the graphic, it shows only the goats and the dog. Overall, everything looks clean and nice!
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Structure and Design:
To me, the overall structure is pretty clear even though because the title divides the poster into two different parts, I thought there were two sections at first. I don’t know if that is a problem, but to make it simple, you can probably make a vertical poster so everything can be read top to bottom.
I think the spacing is a little weird. The title, while does a good job at being the entry point, is not “centered” between the top and bottom parts. You do have plenty of space between each element otherwise. The sections are clearly indicated, but it can be done better, in my opinion. You can try using different colors for the big title and subtopics. As you said in the text, there are three levels. They are clear, based on the use of different font sizes and colors.
I like the graphics you used because they are consistent and simple. I can see why you choose to use only black, but that can be confusing. When you put a bunch of black figures together, it seems difficult to distinguish what each shape is. Maybe you can try putting color in? If that doesn’t work, maybe use more distinctive graphics can help too.
One thing I think you definitely need to change is the desertification graphic. Since you can’t really show it on a map, maybe show the area of dessert on a graph.
Overall, good structure and design but can be improved at certain places.
Content:
Your title is pretty good. It is engaging and clear. I know what topic I was going to read about. However, you didn’t have any sub-title explaining it further. Maybe you could add below the title something like “How dogs help maintaining small herd size”.
Going down to the different subtopics, I appreciate the introduction to the desertification problem, but I think you may’ve spent too much on it. I think that part should be brief and the part of putting the dogs to work should have been longer as it is the topic of the poster. Also, since the paper is about dogs, maybe you can also introduce the dog better, such as describing its special characteristics. You did talk about what the dogs do, can you also expand on that?
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Sophie,
Overall your poster is very effective in what you are trying to convey, but there some details particularly for the graphics that help improve your work:
Structure:
I like how the title is the center of the poster, and I can clearly identify your three different sections. Even though I do naturally read the āMongoliaās Desert Problemā first and then the two other sections as described, I feel that from afar having the top part only have one section and the bottom part having two sections might be a bit confusing. Because you have three clear sections, perhaps making the poster āportraitā instead of ālandscapeā could help you easily create three distinct sections that have a natural flow from top to bottom?
The different levels are clear because of the font sizes/colors, but perhaps you could use more color for the graphics. I know that the center part is the title/level 1, but maybe making the text a more saturated blue can distinguish it even more from the subtitles? The third and fourth levels are well done because they are very equal and there is no conflicting information. I like how you kept the text size/color consistent and only bolded what was necessary.
Content:
Your title is very straightforward and I definitely understand what you are trying to achieve here. I think it would be very beneficial for you to add a subtitle section where you can explain the main points from your articles to really hook the viewers in.
In the first section, I understand from your graphics that the number of goats increase, but itās hard to understand the time scale that this happens on or conclude anything else without reading the descriptions. I feel like you can somehow combine the evolution of herd sizes with the ā20 year ago/todayā part. This will help create a visual link between increased herds and increased desertification. Also, since we will be presenting this to high schoolers, maybe adding a little globe with an arrow pointing to Mongolia to make it look less abstract?
For the second section, when you introduce the bankhar dogs, maybe having a more visual representation of the dogs with details about how they are so helpful to the nomads can be important. When I looked them up they are a lot bigger than I thought, and since this particular breed is essential to the project from my understanding, giving more details about them can be good!
In the third section, at a first glance, it seems like the presence of the dogs eliminates some of the goats, so maybe you can find a way of indicating without dogs/with dogs sections.
Everything you have included in the poster is very clear and I understand everything you are trying to convey, so now to refine your poster you can find ways to transform your text and incorporate them into your visual design.
Design:
The design is very consistent throughout your poster, which makes it very understandable. I think if you used more colors to distinguish the goats from he dogs from the predators this would make it easier to distinguish these different species. If there is a way for you to add green for grass to help indicate that not only desert acreage increases but that the grasslands are disappearing? (Also, minor thing but from afar it looks like the two graphics tied to the ā20 years agoā and ātodayā looks like eggs, obviously once I actually look at it I understand but since itās the only yellow on the page it draws the eye).
I think if you add a graphic part where you include a predator just to indicate that goat herds must be big because predators kill them and then showing how the dogs keep the predators at bay this can help increase visual understanding.
Overall your poster is very well done, keep up the good work!!
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