Here is my infographic:
Design choices
First of all I chose to make it as a "timeline" to show people the cyclicality of this event and development of prize pool. At my entry point (UPD, p.64) I used transparent layering(UPD, p.122), so the primary object was the title and on the background we saw an icon of the game. In order to strengthen my entry point I used center-based alignment (UPD, p.22) with two parallel symmetrical lines. I made text "THE INTERNATIONAL" bigger to highlight (UPD, p.108) its title. Since it is a timeline I used stair hierarchy(UPD, p.104) where "Dota 2" is the starting point and every tournament is the element of the starting point but not connected with other elements. As we proceed further, it is seen that I used left-alignment and right-alignment text blocks, since they provide more powerful alignment cues that center-aligned text blocks (UPD, p.22). Also, I used rotational symmetry (UPD, p. 190) concept with circles and in this case, my common centered line is the line where the years of each tournament are placed. In each block I represented winner's team logo(UPD, p.110) to make it easier for people to memorize each team. Also, I put the prize pool of each tournament in each block, so we have 3 things in each block: year, winner, prize pool. In terms of chunking (UPD, p.30) it's the best number of parts which people can memorize without problems. Throughout the timeline we can see that lines are diagonals and they are angled greater than 30 degrees and it's seen that there is spiral alignment is used(UPD, p.22).
Color
In my infographic I decided to use about 5 colors since, it's the best number of colors, according to Universal Principle of Design. I chose to use quadratic combination of colors. Since, the main color of the game is red I had to start my square from this color. Also, I colored the year and circle to show that, each event connected to the particular year. Moreover, I chose to use more desaturated colors to make my infographic more professional, rathen than dynamic (UPD, p.38).
Reflection
At the beginning I made a "straight" timeline (in my first draft), however I found a problem that it's difficult for the reader to read my infographic. To be precise, it was difficult to connect each team's logo to the events. Then I fixed this problem by moving to the "angled" timeline. Also, I used too many colors and it was hard to focus on the main details. Thanks to the peer review I received a useful feedback and fixed everything. In the end, I'm proud about my work and I had a lot of fun during the whole process.
References
Lidwell, W., Butler, J., & Holden, K. (2003). Universal principles of design: 100 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design. Rockport Publ.
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