The Infographic

Infographics have been around for longer than the internet, their use in presentations and printed reporting or marketing material developed in line with the introduction of Microsoft’s word processing, publishing, and presentation software. These tools, which enabled all sizes of businesses to produce their own printed material generated growth in this creative communication.

Waralak Vongdoiwang Siricharoen  and Nattanun Siricharoen suggested in their 2015 conference paper How Infographics Should be Evaluated, that Infographics can be categorised into various types (Siricharoen and Siricharoen, 2015) which include:

·       Flow Charts

·       The Visual Article

·       Timelines

·       Compare and Contrast

·       Photo

·       Did-You-Know

·       How-To

·       Research Results

·       Data Visualisation

The infographic is able to communicate a message quickly and in a more interesting or eye-catching way than with pure text. Whilst exclusively graphic messaging might circumvent the barriers to communication presented by language or literacy, the combination of text and graphics has become the most effective communication tool.

Barbara M. Miller and Brooke Barnett elucidated upon the benefits of the infographic as a communication tool for conveying health information to readers, in their paper, published  in the Newspaper Research Journal, in 2010 they state:

“On their own, text and graphics are both useful yet imperfect methods for communication. Written language allows an almost infinite number of word combinations that allow deep analysis of concepts but relies heavily on the reader’s ability to process that information. Graphics may be easier for the reader to understand but are less effective in communication of abstract and complicated concepts” (Miller and Barnett cited in Turner n.d.).

Jane Krauss suggested in her   nine steps that should be undertaken when creating an infographic (Krauss cited in Fadzil, 2018) which include:

1. Gather your data (need numbers from more than one resource)

2. Determine your purpose

3. Plan your infographic (outline or flow chart) 

4. Start laying out your plan with software or an online tool (graphics or photos)

5. Evaluate your data

6. Find the best way in a visual representation(type of charts, and cite data properly) 

7. Apply a colour scheme & choose fonts

8. Step back and evaluate it, get feedback and edit 

9. Caution about the copyright, cite your sources for data, and don’t use any image off the web.

The Infographic’s popularity may be derived from society’s apparent need for information in shorter and shorter timescales as many subconsciously search for their next dopamine hit. With information so readily available and information platforms designed for scrolling and swiping, information publishers must compete to hold readers/viewers’ attention. Their competition has given rise to a new vocabulary of terms to describe strategies for increasing reader engagement, with phrases such as clickbait, likebait, and sharebait. In this environment, the infographic’s ability to communicate information quickly makes it an ideal tool for information dissemination.  

FADZIL, M.A., 2018. Designing infographics for the educational technology course: Perspectives of preservice science teachers.  Journal of Baltic Science Education 17(1),: 8-18

KRAUSS, J. (2012). Infographics: More than words can say. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39 (5), 10-14

SIRICHAROEN, W. V., N. SIRICHAROEN, 2015. How Infographic Should Be Evaluated. ICIT 2015 The 7th International Conference on Information Technology

THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, 2014. Reviews: Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design. Significance, 11(3), 43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2014.00756.x

TURNER, T., n.d. The Rise of the Infographic [viewed 19/10/2024]. Available from: https://theotherjournal.com/2011/08/the-rise-of-the-infographic/#:~:text=Since%20the%20Internet%20has%20become,to%20convey%20and%20synthesize%20knowledge.