Diving Into Data: Exploring Infographics

Diving Into The World Of Infographics

One of the great things about working for a firm that caters to the needs of both its employees and its clients is that you never know what you are going to learn and create next.

For the past couple of weeks or so I have had a project that truly pushed me out of my comfort zone when it comes to my design skills. I was asked to create an infographic for a local long term care facility that was in great need to demonstrating just how much they were a vital part of their very small community and the surrounding areas.

I had never visually represented information too much before this so was going to be a true challenge for me. I started out researching just what exactly was considered an infographic is and what is the best process to go about making one.

Infographic: A visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data. Infographics originated as maps and charts in the 17th century. With the creation of the internet and the increasing use of mobile devices infographics have become increasingly convenient and popular in order to convey a lot of information in a limited amount of space.

Thanks to endless researching on Google and Pinterest I have learned there are definite steps to the creation process of an infographic.

1. Gather your data and reading it thoroughly to make sure you understand it fully.

2. Know you your intended audience is for the infographic

3. What is the purpose for the infographic? Use the answers to find the story in the data that will grab your audience’s attention.

4. Experiment with different wire frames. Deciding on how you want the information to be presented.

5. Determine your visual approach. What colour scheme is to be used? What is the mood you are trying to convey?

6. Choose the visual approach. What mediums are you using, including graphs charts icons etc. Your end goal is to make complex data understandable using these visuals

7. Refine and test your infographic for maximum impact

8. Releasing the infographic into the world. When and how are you going to post on social media sites?

The design process has been pretty intense. Several ideas were bandied about on how exactly to convey the message we wanted to get out to the greater community. Several wireframes were suggested with a hub/ circle being decided upon. Colour scheme is bright and inviting yellows, reds and oranges. Vector Icons like the one found below were found through freepik.com and flaticon.com and were used to visually represent the different services connected to the long term care facility.

Things to keep in mind when designing an infographic

• Is your data compelling?

• Do you have the right balance between text and graphics?

• Is the data easily understood by the viewer?

• Is the visuals conveying the proper tone?

All in all I am very happy and proud of the resulting infographic and I look forward to my next new challenge.

If you need something similar put together for your company or organization please do not hesitate to contact me I would love to work with you to create something unique and attention grabbing tailored to your specific needs.