In order to track the Visual Evolution and the way it affects representation of information, I have decided to track the choice of visuals in the Walt Disney Company Annual Reports in the period of 1995 to 2008.
The first and the most obvious feature is the fact that the earlier reports are more simplistic in structure. They do not contain as many graphs and table as the later reports do. They do not have background pictures as the later ones. Thus, it is very hard to identify what company it belongs to only by just looking and scrolling at the older versions of the reports. Meanwhile, when one scrolls down the 2008 annual report, for example, it is obvious that it belongs to Disney: the background pictures of Disney characters, movie stars speak for themselves.
Secondly, I have concentrated on the representation of financial information. Earlier reports contain mainly tables, while later reports are full of graphs: surface bar charts, regular bar charts and line charts. While the earlier reports give the financials like a dry piece of information, the later reports present it more vivid, clear, understandable and supportive towards everything that is being said and wanted to be heard and understood by the reader. As we know the great advance in technology (Excel, other computer programs) has made great improvements in graph structuring.
Thus, the usage of the products of visual evolution helps the writers to bring the information the way it looks more engaging to the reader as well as it is more complete and not dubiously presented, so that misinterpret the message the writers wanted to convey.
