INFOGRAPHICS IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

Agnieszka Tkaczyk Information Developer, IBM

@aga_tkaczyk

”It doesn't look serious, like a comic book for children.”

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FORGETTING CURVE

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COMMUNICATING WITH PICTURES

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Cave drawings Road signs

Modern ideogram

Egyptian hieroglyphs

20% vision only functioning

HUMAN VISION

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60%

40% a combination of visions

and touch, meaning, movement, spatial

navigation, etc.

Text only

PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT

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10% 65%

Text with image

People remember pictures better than words, especially over longer periods of time.

PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT

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The picture must reinforce the message from the data and must draw the attention.

ELEMENTS OF AN INFOGRAPHIC

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+

Image

+

Text Data visualization

INFOGRAPHIC = STORY

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CONCLUSION • Closing thoughts • Call for action

BODY • Core of the infographic • Combination of text, images, and data

visualizations

INTRO • Gets the readers’ attention • Introduces the topic • Combination of a title and a paragraph

TIP 1: FOCUS ON ONE BIG STORY

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• Do not combine a few small stories into one infographic • Make the key message immediately clear • Eliminate data that is irrelevant

TIP 2: ADD VISUALIZATIONS, REMOVE TEXT

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• Reduce the amount of text • Use visualizations:

• Reduce the time needed to understand the data • Draw the attention • Help remembering the information

TIP 3: BE ACCURATE

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• Data visualizations must match the numbers • Inaccurate visualization undermines credibility • Provide the source of information or company logo • If the presented data might change, tell about that

ADVANTAGES

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• Reduce the amount of text • Engage vision and the picture superiority effect • Boost memorization • Entertain and inform • Are fun to create

CONSIDERATIONS

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• Not everything can be changed into an infographic • Cannot substitute documentation • May not be treated seriously • Time-consuming • Additional software might be required • Start a life of their own after publication • You need a good place to publish them

EXAMPLES

EXAMPLE 1: INSTALLATION OVERVIEW

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Detailed checklist • 329 words

Content: Tomasz Bartyzel Design: Paulina Malczak

Documentation Infographic

EXAMPLE 2: INFRASTRUCTURE

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Topic 1: • 457 words • 1 diagram

Documentation Infographic

Content: Dominik Wietrzak

Design: Paulina Malczak

EXAMPLE 3: PVU LICENSES

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Topic 1: • 605 words • 3 graphics • 4 tables

Topic 2: • 134 words

Documentation Infographic

Content: Derek Sherman

Design: Paulina Malczak

EXAMPLE 4: FIXLETS AND TASKS

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• Spread among multiple

topics • Referred to in relevant

procedures

Documentation Infographic

Content and design: Agnieszka Tkaczyk

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME Questions?