08/11/22- This workshop was based around collecting data and using it to create infographics. In this post I am going to research and explain what infographics are and how they can be created using any form of data.
What are infographics?
Infographics are a visualised versioned of data or knowledge. They are created with the intention of presenting data clearly and quickly to the public. Infographics have evolved to communicate to the public by using data and not assuming about the knowledge the public already has. An early example of infographics are Isotypes. Isotypes are pictured language that was used to convey information to the public.
Types of infographics
Cause and Effect
Cause and effect infographics, present the relation between physical and conceptual datas. These infographics are useful for identifying an issue by analysing the issue behind it. (slidemodel. 2022) This infographic is effective for presenting an issue and how it was caused. This would be effective for presenting data for example of a financial crash or a national/world crisis.
Chronological
Chronological infographics are where you take a topic and basically map out the history of it onto a timeline. This Infographic is effective for presenting data in the order of when it was collected or created.
Quantitative
Quantitative infographics, take data, numbers and information that can be visualised. Data visualisation, graphs, Statistical and thematic maps are all Quantitative infographics, due to how they visualise data.
Directional
Directional infographics were created to navigate the reader through the data that is being presented. Usually directional infographics contain numbers, arrows and symbols to direct the reader to the important information contained in the infographic. This example below is a section of a London transport map. This uses coloured lines to represent the different routes and also uses symbols to make it a better and easier experience for the reader when using it to travel around London.
Product
Product infographics utilise information about the company and their product. These graphics usually contain information about how to use the product you have purchased. Businesses also use them to communicate what their company does.
Artist Research
Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec
Dear Data is a project that was created by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, where they created infographics each week for a year and sent them to each other (Lupi, G. Posavec, S. 2015). They created them on post cards and sent them to each other through the post, This is because they both live in different parts of the world. Lupi lives in the USA in Brooklyn New York and Posavec lives in the UK in London. They decided to do it on postcards because the journey would also create scuffs and marks that made the journey more personal to each postcard they sent. They also decided to use analogue methods of creating infographics because it makes it feel more personal to the data you have collected over the week. Also it encapsulates the emotion of the week through the use of hand drawn shapes, depending on how they were feeling during the week.
The image above are a few examples of the postcards from the project. On the left are Giorgia's and on the right are Stephanie's infographics they created to express how their weeks were going. Personally, I think that this project is interesting because they became friends, by doing this and each infographic is personal to each person, making them quickly building up their relationship over the year they did this project. I like how, they posted them to each other even though they live in countries that are far away from each other. They could've done this virtually but decided it would be more personal to create the analog infographics and send it to each other the traditional way.
This image is a collection of photographs they both captured when posting each Infograph. In each image that Posavec, captured documents the seasonal changes through out the weeks of the year, due to the light slowly fading throughout the collage.
Personal development
These are some examples of infographics that I have created. These infographics where created from data collected in the workshop and outdid the workshop in personal time.
This cloud infographic was created from data I collected, around the amount of yawns in an hour. There are 25 clouds, each one represents each yawn, that I documented. The use of colour in this infographic represents what caused me to yawn. Red represents the feeling of boredom and the blue represents illness. On the day of the workshop, I was feeling ill with cold and didn't sleep well, so I felt that I needed to add this into the infographic. However this workshop was interesting, I felt extremely bored due to the lack of sleep and the flu. The imagery of the rain drops, represent when I felt ill most. However this version of the infographic, doesn't specifically show this because I have used the rain drops for each cloud.
This is the revised version of the cloud infographic. I decided to vary the sizes of the clouds to represent the size of each yawn. So some of the clouds are small but others are larger. Also there are less rain drops, I did this to represent moments in the hour, when I felt the worst from the flu. This is to create a defined divide, to show the change in how I was feeling through out the hour, that I was recording. I also decided to change the colouring system, because I wanted to make it clearer on what emotion each cloud stemmed from. The clouds that are black, represent tired ness, The red clouds represent boredom and the clouds that have rain drops, show if the border or tiredness was cased by the illness.
This infographic, was created from a set of data I collected around the task I did over a two day period. This infographic is depicted in a very abstract way and it doesn't explicitly show the data I collected. Rather than using the specific times I collected, of when I did certain tasks, like eat food and wake up, I decided to calculate how many times a day a did certain tasks and document that using lines that stem of a singular point. From the data I collected, the most common data was the common tasks like open doors, turn on computer and go to the toilet. These tasks are all bunched under the banner of tasks and are represented by the red lines on the Infograph. The activity that was completed the least was going to sleep. This activity is represented by the black lines and is the least represented activity on the Infograph. Due to the uses of colours, the activity that was completed less is a darker colour than the tasks that were completed more frequently. This shows the contrast between each task, the darkest one is usually longer than the more frequent red tasks. Each activity is represented by a colour, that can Create a link between the emotion and the task. The activities are red, because they are the active tasks that occurred in the day, like walking and opening doors. Eating food is green because I represent the colour green with health and eating food, is a necessity to living. Waking up is blue because, to me blue can be seen as a sleepy colour and when you wake up, you are still partially asleep. Finally, going to sleep is represented by the colour black because black has the connotation of darkness, often when sleeping takes place. I feel like this infographic is too abstract and would be difficult for others to understand what it is trying to communicate.If I was to redesign this, I would explore imagery that is related to or symbolises the tasks that have been documented. So, I feel that this infographic can be effective but I also feel that it needs slightly refining to make it easier to understand.
sources
slidemodel. (2022). Cause and Effects PowerPoint Infographic Template. slidemodel.com. https://slidemodel.com/templates/cause-and-effects-powerpoint-infographic-template/
Lupi, G. Posavec, S. (2015). Dear Data . www.dear-data.com. http://www.dear-data.com/theproject
Images-
bluesyemre. (2014). What are Infographics and How are They Used? [jpeg]. bluesyemre.com. https://bluesyemre.com/2014/01/31/what-are-infographics-and-how-are-they-used/
Freepik. (2022). Cause and effect infographic concept [jpeg]. www.freepik.com. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/cause-effect-infographic-concept_8510709.htm
NEDIGER,M (2021). How to Create a Timeline Infographic: The Definitive Guide [png]. venngage.com. https://venngage.com/blog/how-to-create-a-timeline-infographic-in-6-steps/
Gaines, B (2016). Quantitative Infographic [png]. www.behance.net. https://www.behance.net/gallery/45323111/Quantitative-Infographic
ConceptDraw. (2013). Superb Examples of Infographic Maps [Png]. www.conceptdraw.com. https://www.conceptdraw.com/examples/example-of-directional-infographics
Tomboc, K (2019). product benefit infographic [jpeg]. www.easel.ly. https://www.easel.ly/blog/communicate-business-products-with-infographic/product-benefit-infographic/
Lupi, G. Posavec,S. (2015). Dear Data (image 2) [jpeg]. www.dear-data.com. http://www.dear-data.com/theproject
Lupi, G. Posavec,S. (2015). Dear Data (image 4) [jpeg]. www.dear-data.com. http://www.dear-data.com/theproject
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