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Infographics: An introduction
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Jennifer Ferreira
Coventry University
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Infographics: An Introduction
Contents
Infographics: An Introduction .......................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
What are Infographics? ................................................................................................. 3
The Tools: software options for making infographics .............................................. 5
Tableau ....................................................................................................................... 5
Online Infographic Platforms ................................................................................... 8
Creating infographics ................................................................................................. 10
10 Top Tips for Creating Infographics .................................................................. 13
A Short Guide to using Inkscape and Publisher ...................................................... 14
Inkscape .................................................................................................................... 16
Editing Icons and Images in Inkscape ................................................................... 16
Microsoft Publisher .................................................................................................. 18
Books and Websites .................................................................................................... 21
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 24
References .................................................................................................................... 25
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Introduction
The use of infographics and other data visualizations have become increasingly
popular in the mainstream media as well as blogs, personal websites and social
media. They can be a useful mechanism to display information in visual manner.
There are many different ways you can create these images, some of which use
specialist software while others make more creative use of software you may
already frequently use. This introductory guide provides an overview of the
different ways which infographics can be produced, some tips for creating
infographics, as well as a short guide to producing simple infographics using
Inkscape and Microsoft Publisher.
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While it might appear that infographics are a recent phenomenon that have
developed alongside the internet the reality is that we have been using icons,
graphics, and pictures throughout history to tell stories and share information. This
can be seen in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, or Leonardo Da Vinci’s illustrations
of the human anatomy in the 16th century.
In Geography, data visualization is certainly not a new concept and the rise of
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been a key driver for the growth of
more visual representations of data. However, the modern form of infographics as
a particular form of data visualization could be considered a more recent concept.
Since around 2009 there has been a rise in the use of the term 'infographic' to
describe visualizations that use various graphics to display data and other ideas. A
quick look at a Google trends report shows how rapidly the rise in the interest of
the world infographic has taken place.
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Source: XKCD: Source: DfID (2013)
http://xkcd.com/1071 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/11238612796/siz
es/o/
There are a range of different software options for making infographics and other
data visualizations, some use software you may already by familiar with, some are
freely available online platforms (with a paid subscription to access additional
features), and others are software packages which need to be purchased. I will
explore some of these options before providing a more each detailed explanation
of how to use Inkscape and Microsoft Publisher to create infographics later in this
document.
Tableau
Tableau: http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/
You may already by familiar with the data visualizations produced by the Tableau
software as it is frequently used in publications such as the Guardian, the Wall
Street Journal and the Economist.
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Source: New Scientist (2011)
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For many academics the use of Tableau may go beyond simply producing graphs,
charts and maps for infographics but may be a useful tool for data visualization
more broadly.
For those involved in teaching , there is a Tableau for teachers program which
allows the use of the software for free for the teacher and the students:
http://www.tableausoftware.com/academic/teaching
• 'Visual Analysis Best Practices: Simple Techniques for Making Every Data
Visualization Useful and Beautiful': which provides a good overview of what
makes visualizations effective in terms of the types of charts used, ways to
emphasize importance data, and designing dashboards in the Tableau
software. In terms of design this document contains a lot of useful tips, for
example the types of fonts or colours to use and how to label them
effectively. It also includes a helpful list of questions to ask yourself when
you've completed a visualization which are useful for evaluating your own
work before publishing it:
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These are just some of the questions you might want to ask when you've produced
a visualization, and the questions may alter depending on the purpose of the the
infographic you are producing.
Infogram
http://infogr.am
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also the option to upgrade to a premium account where there is more
functionality related to adding images, and changing styles.
Piktochart
http://piktochart.com/
Piktochart is another free visualization tool with an optional premium version. The
free version provides a series of templates which can be altered, and various
elements changed to suit the authors requirements. This platform has more
functionality in terms of customisation of the format as well as uploading and
editing data, providing different icons, and the positioning of infographic
elements.
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Easelly
http://www.easel.ly/blog/
Most of these infographic generator platforms are easy to use and may be able to
provide you with enough customization to produce the kind of infographics that
you need. For those who are more creative, or would like to do more with
infographics, then the free versions of these platforms may feel restrictive, in which
case creating your own infographics from scratch might be a better option.
Creating infographics
This next section provides some tips for creating infographics whether you decide
to use an online design tool or standalone design software. Infographics are
created for different purposes, for some companies they are produced as a
marketing tool, for some NGOs they are used to raise awareness of an issue, for
academics they might be used to introduce a research project, to highlight some
research findings or simply to start sharing ideas about a topic. Whatever the
purpose of the infographic these are some things to consider.
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Make the theme, story or message clear
• Infographics need to have a clear theme, story or message. It is important to
think about what the purpose of your infographic is and what you want to
showcase before you start your design.
• It is a good idea to story board your idea before you start creating anything
digitally. This helps draw out your ideas and begin to think about how they
might fit together in an infographic. Sometimes an idea that might seem
clear in a written paper or report might take a lot of work to display visually,
and it is much easier to just sketch out rough ideas on paper than in a
digital format.
• The storyboard doesn't have to be detailed - an example of a draft sketch I
created for the infographic I created for the RGS-IBG 2014 conference next
to the finished result is an example.
Source: Author
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Consider your audience
As with any type of publication it is important to consider
your audience. Think about the big ideas that you are trying
to display with your infographic and how best to visualize
this. Tailor the infographic to the audience and where you are
going to publish it. What symbols will be instantly
recognisable for your topic? If you are presenting research
findings are there terms or concepts that will need
explaining?
Consider simplicity
There is a temptation to try and include a lot of information in
an infographic but sometimes the best infographics are the
simple ones. If you have a lot of information to present
Source: RGS (2014)
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consider keeping the design as simple as possible (with limited fonts or colours),
or create a series of infographics.
Don't worry if there is space on your infographic - you don’t have to fill every part
of it, it is more important that there is a clear focus to the infographic and a flow
between the different elements of information.
There are no rules for making infographics and there is no set formula for a
successful infographic as it will depend on the content, purpose and design of the
infographic. As you begin to make infographics you will develop your own style,
you will realise the kind of designs that you like and are happy to work with, and
others that you don't. If you are new to making infographics start with something
small and simple and over time add in more features and design idea as you
develop your skills.
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6) Limit the amount of font styles used.
7) Try not to use too much text.
8) Only use data relevant to your infographic
9) Use simple graphics and icons that relate to your data
10) If you have a lot of information to convey consider breaking the infographic
into sections.
The way infographics are designed will vary from person to person. In many
infographics the use of icons and images to display information is common. You
do not need to design the icons yourself, there are several places you can visit to
find a range of different icons and images that are suitable:
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the public domain. If you are likely to become a regular user of this type of
images, a subscription would be a good investment.
• Canva https://www.canva.com/
• Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/
Flickr is a photo hosting website but there is the option to search for
images which can be used under the Creative Commons license. If
you wish to use photographs to include in your infographic but don't
have any suitable from your own collections this could be a good
place to start.
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Inkscape
http://www.inkscape.org/en/
When I have mentioned to people that I used Microsoft Publisher and Inkscape to
make infographics the usual reaction is that they can use Publisher but have no
idea that Inkscape even exists and find it daunting to think about learning to use it.
The good news is that Inkscape is not complicated to use if you know what you are
trying to do with it. The other good news is that Inkscape is open source software
and so it is free to download. Inkscape is a vector editor, this means it can edit
images without losing as much quality as would do it you were editing a other
bitmap graphics such as jpeg .gif or .png. The files you will be editing in Inkscape
are .svg (which stand for Scalable Vector Graphics). Once you've finished editing
an image you can export it as a bitmap file which can then use in your infographic
(or any other document).
There are three key functions you will need to be able to edit icons and graphics in
Inkscape:
• Editing Colours
• Removing the background
• Exporting the image
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colours on the bar at the bottom of
the screen (you can continue to scroll
along to find the colour you need).
Here I have changed the colour using the RGB numbers (0/170/155) to give this
turquoise colour. You probably won't need to worry about this kind of detail
unless you are dealing with infographics that need to conform to any branding
guidelines.
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?
Once the Export Bitmap window is open you have the option of changing the size
of file you export. I would recommend you change the size to at least 800 pixels in
width and height otherwise they may appear blurred if they are enlarged in the
infographic. Select the area you wish to export the graphic to by clicking on the
browse button and then click export. The file will now be saved in that location
and is ready to use in the infographic.
If you wish to edit a map in Inkscape, for example to highlight a series of countries.
All you need to do is find an .svg file version of the map (for example from
Wikimedia Commons).
There are of course at lot more advanced things you can do with Inkscape with
various different graphics but it is these functions that I most commonly use and
help build some of the fundamental parts of the infographics that I have created.
Microsoft Publisher
If you have not used Publisher before the commands are similar to those you will
more than likely have used in other Microsoft software such as Word or
PowerPoint. If take a look at the example of the infographic I created for the RGS-
IBG 2014 Conference you can see the different elements that are included.
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Don't be put off by the amount of different boxes, this was all relatively simple to
put together. Each of the maps were created in Inkscape, the graph was created in
Excel ensuring that the colours matched the scheme of the infographic and the
text boxes were created as they would be in any other document (again ensuring
the colour scheme matched).
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Then other elements I added were:
Then to make the other images related to countries it was just a case of moving
icons created through Inkscape into the correct pattern and then grouping them
together to make one image (Select the items you wish to group>Right
Click>Grouping>Group).
+
=
For the countries with text inside them all that needs to be done is for the text to
be changed to white and placed over the top of one of the country icons
generated through Inkscape.
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Books and Websites
There is a rapidly increasing variety of books around the topic of infographics and
data visualizations but the following are good places to start:
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numbers and concepts’ provide lots of examples to illustrate the different ways
different data types can be visualized.
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Infographica: The World As you Have Never Seen It Before, 2012 Martin
Toseland
These are just a few examples of the growing range of books on infographics.
If you are interested in receiving further training on data visualization and the use
of infographics there are courses run by the Guardian including, ‘Data
Visualization for Researchers’ and ‘Visualization with Motion Graphics’
http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/data-visualisation-courses
Before you start making your own infographics you might want to have a look
through some of the websites to gather ideas. Good places to start are the
websites of the Infographic online generator platforms such as Infogram
mentioned earlier in this document.
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Other useful websites include:
Summary
If you have any questions about what I have written in this document or about
infographics more generally then you can contact me:
Jennifer.Ferreira@coventry.ac.uk @jennywrenwatts
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References
Guardian (2011) ‘Data Blog: Crime in America: Get the data for your town’,
Guardian, 30 September 2011. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2011/sep/30/crime-map-
us-data?guni=Article:in%20body%20link
New Scientist (2011) ‘Interactive graphic: Japan's deadly seismic history’, New
Scientist, 14 March 2011. Available at:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/interactive-
graphic-japans-dea.html
ONS (2013) Infographic: Labour Market Summary 2013, Office for National
Statistics. Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/infographics/labour-market-
summary-feb-2013/index.html
Tableau (2013) ‘Visual Analysis Best Practices: Simple Techniques for Making Data
Visualization Useful and Beautiful’, Tableau White Paper. Available at:
http://www.tableausoftware.com/learn/whitepapers
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