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Maddy Buck

Maddy Buck is a comics artist based in Minneapolis who specializes in illustrated explanations of tech, law, and all things complex.

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DECODING RULES

The goal of this project was to visualize the rules for starting a lawsuit in a way that was more helpful to visual learners than the original book format of the rules. The final product was a large poster timeline. I collaborated with Hannah Smotrich, professor of design at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, who provided critiques ands suggestions to the designs. 2016. 

CivPro Timeline Final-page-001.jpg
 The rules for starting a lawsuit, in their “natural setting,” are located in a big book of rules or in lists online.
A rule on this page may depend on a rule 20 pages later.
 I started making sketches of how to visualize this information. The professor I was working with was not familiar with these rules, so I was able to test with her which sketches made most sense.  We explored whether the timeline should be displayed
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 The timeline went through many iterations, but one recurring problem was how to show that each step in the process can have different timing depending on the choices the parties make (if you do “A,” then you get 30 days, if you do “B” then you get 1
 We realized that we needed to create a middle part of the timeline that wasn’t exactly on a timeframe but that still showed elements in the process. Lawsuits  can be held up at any stage for various reasons, so a set timeline is, in some, senses unr
 In the end, the timeline shows the two “pure,” if-nothing-else-were-to-happen timelines for starting a law suit, with a middle line that shows the more likely delays that could severely change the timing of events.
civprotimelinephoto2.jpg
 This project taught me to work iteratively through issues in the design. I was able to achieve the goal of visualizing a few rules, but I would do things differently with more time. For this to be realistically useful to someone who needed to use th
CivPro Timeline Final-page-001.jpg
civprotimelinephoto1.jpg
civprotimelinephoto4.jpg
civprotimelinephoto3.jpg

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