J. Pullins, Immigration Visualization Project Reflection

Posted by Justin Pullins in American History - Laufenberg on

JP, MF, CP, Final Immigration Visual
JP, MF, CP, Final Immigration Visual
​Click here to download our visual piece.


  • What surprised you most about this information?  What seemed quite obvious about explaining this data set?
    Among the things that surprised me the most were the dramatic decreases that the data showed in certain decades of US History. However, once I considered the decades with the decreases and the different events happening in America at the time, they made perfect sense.

    Also, one thing that really intrigued me was how the overall American population had a nearly linear, steady increase, where as the immigration arrivals often changed.


  • Looking at the overall trend and incorporating what you know about the US presently, predict and defend the immigration trend for the next two decades.
    I believe that the immigration trend in the US will suffer a slight decrease, due to the dissolution of the American economy. I believe that these problems in the federal government will not attract people from foreign countries to inhabit the US.


  • Describe how you made a decision on how to visually represent the information.
    We decided to place emphasis on the push/pull factors that encouraged immigration.  We decided that each decade had multiple perspectives, and so we wanted to display that in our visual piece.


  • What parts of group work were challenging?
    I think everyone in the group had a massive amount of ideas, and it was very hard to compress those ideas into a singular image.


  • What would you do differently if you had this project to do over?
    If we had more time, I would include photos in the decades as well. I feel that this would have really solidified the multiple perspectives that we were trying to convey.

Comments (6)

Cyndilynn Sheridan (Student 2013)
Cyndilynn Sheridan

WOW! This is really well put together. The movement and description shows your knowledge on the immigration and population statistics. I think you could have added a few significant events throughout the whole time period. This could have portrayed the information you research as well as your understanding.

Marina Pyfrom (Student 2013)
Marina Pyfrom

I extremely like the overall visual aspects of this piece. I think its simplicity makes it great. You can show this image to grade school students and they will be capable of figuring out what is going on. I understand where people are coming from by saying add more words but I think the image strait forwardness is great asset for visualization.

Martha Robles (Student 2013)
Martha Robles

I really like it and i think its creative and very easy to understand however i think adding information on your numbers and the push and pull would have added more to it

Bernicia Guercio (Student 2013)
Bernicia Guercio

This project it very visual and easy to understand. The push and pull factors are represented well with this. I like that you guys kept it simple but it told the history in a way, although maybe a little text explaining the push and pull factors would have helped explain the actual history it self. This shows that there is something in that decade that was a push/pull factor not exactly what the history was. But all around great visualization!