CARY GOULDIN

UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY LIBRARIES

Visual Storytelling: Infographics in the Library

What is an infographic?

Visual representation of data or information

Art of design meets logic of statistics

Graphic novel for data—uses visual and textual elements to tell a story

Image source: http://visual.ly/what-infographic-2

What are they good for?

Visuals can be faster and easier to process

Make big, complex, intimidating data set more manageable

Reveal patterns

Provide context

Describe relationships

Make comparisons

Aid in trend recognition

Allow viewer to explore data and draw conclusions

Visuals get more attention online

PHASE 1:

PLANNING

Creating Infographics

Planning your infographic

Choose your audience

What is important to them, what do they need to know?

What media do they use

How can you relate to them

Set goals for your infographic

Choose the right data

Interesting/complex data = interesting infographic

Combine datasets to create more interest

Make sure you are interpreting the data accurately

More Planning

Find the narrative

What is important and interesting about the data?

Look at outliers and patterns—what can they tell you?

Use statistics—find meaning beyond the basic numbers

Find and illustrate the drama of the data

What’s the hook?

What information is needed to contextualize your data?

Tell the story the data illustrates, not the one you want

Even More Planning

Choose the right elements

Bar Charts—simple, significant comparisons

Diagrams or flowcharts—processes or relationships

Pie & Doughnut Charts—parts of whole (total = 100%)

Line Graphs—temporal data

Maps—geographic data

Tree Chart—hierarchical relationships

Detailed information on various chart types can be found on Wikipedia

Wireframe/Storyboard

PHASE 2:

DESIGNING

Creating Infographics

Layin’ it all out

Establish a format Title, subtitle and body size and font consistent

Graphics of same type and importance sized and colored consistently

Layout Start with the hook and order other elements accordingly

Establish clear progression through elements

Start at top left—like reading

Use a title that will entice

Use text and element size and color to indicate

importance (sparingly)

Balance of elements and white space

Makin’ it pretty

How to use color Color should enhance the narrative, not just look pretty

Two- or three-color palate are best—use different shades

Use relatively muted pallet

No white backgrounds

Dominant dark colors, neon and light colors are hard to read

Start design in black and white add color last

Font Use 2 at most

Avoid fancy fonts

Don’t use fancy elements like 3d, pattern/texture, shadows and shading—it distracts from the story

Revision, revision, revision

Question everything

Remove elements that don’t contribute to the narrative

Ignore the text and focus on color – is it helping the narrative?

What could be misleading?

Check your data

Are your numbers correct?

Are you representing it accurately?

Have you included enough or too much data?

Get a second (third, fourth) opinion.

COMMON

MISTAKES

Creating Inforgraphics

Look, I am giving you data!

Image source: http://visual.ly/domestic-violence-0

I’ll have 215% of the pie

Image source: http://visual.ly/infographic-mobile-app-marketing-%E2%80%93-glance

When your team can’t visualize percentages

Image source: http://visual.ly/sap-abap-versus-sap-fico

When your infographic needs more info

Image source: http://visual.ly/wedding-cake-0

Your chart doesn’t say what you think is does

Image source: http://visual.ly/georgia-gwinnett-college

PHASE 3:

DISSEMINATION

Creating Infographics

Fly, little birdie!

How to use infographics Information Literacy

How to do research

Data literacy

Marketing

Advocacy

Training

Where Social Media

Website

LibGuides

Assessment—did you meet your goals?

TOOLS, RESOURCES

AND INSPIRATION

Creating Infographics

Resources for you

General Cool Infographics Blog Tools List

Over 100 Incredible Infographic Tools and Resources

Infographic Creation 20+ Tools to Create Your Own Infographics

Fonts Font Combination Pinterest Board

20 Amazing Free Font Pairings

Web Font Combinations Cheat Sheet

Charts Wikipedia

Looking for inspiration

Pinterest Boards

South Dakota State Library’s Library Infographics

Ye Olde Fortress of Awesome’s Library Infographics

ProQuest’s Infographics for Libraries and Librarians

Cool Infographics Gallery

Infographic Gallery

Visual.ly Community

What not to do

WTF Visualizations

Access this presentation

http://tinyurl.com/InfographicStorytelling