In the spirit of homecoming weekend, I decided to do my wordle piece on the University of Maryland football team. Specifically, I opted to use an article that concerned how Under Armour partnered with the team to produce one of the coolest twists on a theme that I had seen a team do. Ever since its release several year back, Treyarch’s hit game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has been a popular hit with the young adults around the world; it has also spawned many a spin off and tribute. Prior to a game against highly ranked West Virginia, the Terrapins unveiled their shocking choice of uniforms; the theme was met with an overwhelmingly positive feedback. The theme was dubbed “White Ops, as evidenced by the patterning and coloration of the uniform as a whole. The piece I did the world on is a opinionated, direct review of the White Ops uniform.
The wordle of the review provides several clear clues as to the content of the article; for example, the words “Uniforms”, “Maryland” and “White Ops” stand out prominently. The wordle seems to entice the viewer to “look” at them, calling their attention to the “Style” and its “colors”. The contrast of the black, and Cardinal red on the white background of the uniform itself is almost echoed in the visualization provided by the wordle. In fact, on closer inspection, the outer shape of the conflagration of words appears to resemble the sole of a shoe. Furthermore, I chose the white background with black wording in order to reflect the uniform’s style.
Although the representation the reading visualization provides is relatively accurate regarding both the scope and content of the article, it is still lacking in that some elements seem to be missing. If I could change anything about it, I would expand the interface in order to allow the creator more customization choices. For example, I would allow the reader to choose whether or not to add a color border to the outside of words. One to the driving elements that brought the combination to life was the subtle, red outline that traced the numbers on the jersey. Without an option to add a border to the words, the wordle missed out on a crucial part of the visualization. In addition, I would provide the user more freedom to create a background for the words. Another significant element of the uniform was the light gray used in the state flag’s crest on the uniform; this too was unable to be worked into the wordle and again, served to lessen the the visual impact on the reader.
Source article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1343282-grading-marylands-white-ops-uniforms-to-be-sported-against-west-virginia