How they are made, and how to review them

The infographics follow the rules the rest of this site follows: the source of truth is data in the repository, the picture is generated from it, and the build refuses what it can check is wrong.

Four altitudes

The brief for the second edition asked for an infographic at every altitude: the whole book on one page, a view per part, an infographic per chapter and how they connect, the graph of each area. Every proposal names its altitude: book (1), part (5), chapter (74), idea (1).

Methods

• code: drawn from data by admin/build/infographic_svg.py: same data, same picture; corrected by changing a line (79 proposed)
• redraw: a 2018 figure drawn again by code, from the 2018 text (1 proposed)
• reuse: a newsroom figure used as it is, with its article (0 proposed)
• image-model: an illustrated picture from a written brief, by an image model; the brief is kept beside it (1 proposed)
• storyboard: a sequence of scenes with people, drawn by assets/storyboard.js (0 proposed)

Every chapter proposal came back as code, and that is the right default: an infographic in this book shows a structure (a loop, a test, a sum, who can read what), and structure drawn from data stays correct when the text changes. Image models earn their place where a mood matters more than a structure: the part openers are proposed that way, for Dinis to decide.

The drawing

• Data. admin/content/infographics/drawn/<id>.json: a form, a kicker, a title, a subtitle, the items, a source line and the alt text. The forms the code draws today: comparison, flow, cycle, spectrum, quadrant, stack, numbers, checklist, graph, bookmap.
• Code. admin/build/infographic_svg.py turns a spec into a standalone SVG, 1600 pixels wide, with no browser and no library; the same spec gives the same file. python3 admin/build/infographic_png.py makes PNGs on demand, for a slide or a post.
• Palette. The 2018 cover's: navy #0c2a3d teal #3b9fb0 green #7bc08f yellow #e8b64a red #e5625b on the storyboards' cream paper #fbf7ee. Navy is the answer, teal the way through, green what works, yellow a caution, red a risk or a loss. Struck through is gone; a navy tag says new. A dashed box is a placeholder or something on someone else's side.
• Type. One sans family, bold for labels, regular for details; nothing under 17 pixels at 1600 wide, so it reads at half size on a page.
• The footer names the source and the state: drafted by code, not reviewed, until Dinis has reviewed it.
• Printed pictures. Like the storyboard panels, an infographic keeps its own colours in every theme of this site: it is the file that goes into the PDF.

What the build refuses

• A quote on a proposal, or a checked line on a drawing, that is not word for word in its chapter. The chapter is the authority; when it changes, the drawing has to change with it or the release stops.
• A proposal for a chapter, part, 2018 file, source or idea that does not exist; an unknown form, method or state.
• A decision without a name: a proposal marked accepted, changes, declined or deferred must say who decided and where.
• A proposal marked drafted with no drawing, and a drawing with no proposal.
• A 2018 image the text references with no row in the inventory.

States

• proposed: written down by the agent; nothing drawn (71)
• drafted: drawn by code as a prototype, not reviewed (10)
• accepted: Dinis said yes; it goes into the next candidate (0)
• changes: Dinis asked for changes; the note says what (0)
• declined: Dinis said no, with the reason; kept, so it is not proposed again (0)
• deferred: not now; kept for a later candidate (0)

How to review

1. Open the plan, on a laptop or an iPad. Start with the drawn ones (filter State: drafted), then priority 1.
2. For each card, press accept, change, decline or later, and write a line if you want: what to change, why not. It is kept in your browser only.
3. Export the review as markdown or JSON from the bar at the top of the plan, and put it in the vault's reviews/ folder, or hand it to the agent.
4. The agent records it: each verdict becomes the proposal's state, with decided_by naming you and the review file, in the next release. Accepted ones are drawn; changed ones redrawn; declined ones kept with the reason, so nobody proposes them again.

Data: plan.json. The agent that keeps it: the illustrator.