information made beautiful infographic design

#Information made beautiful infographic design series

You could argue that the author has simply chosen the wrong chart to visualize their data, and wouldn’t be wrong.īut the real reason this happened was that the author didn’t have a firm grasp of the dataset and how it was structured.įor example, a pie chart would actually work here if the data series was inverted so each chart represents a year and is broken down by the desire states, instead of the other way around. To illustrate this (below,) find a graphics recreated with data labels that show the charted value of each donut slice. Pie charts are used to visualize composition, and by plotting the data this way the author has unintentionally changed the meaning of the data. The core problem with these pie charts is that the data for 1990, 20 aren’t part of a single whole value, and therefore, cannot be plotted in a pie chart. The data label is also included in the legend, which is the first sign that something is amiss (data labels should be on the chart itself). % of those have children, want to have children, etc).īelow the pie chart is a legend which tells us that each color-coded donut slice represents a year (i.e. In the above graphic, you can see 4 separate pie charts, each showing us data related to a desire expressed by the American population (i.e. (Source: The Rearranging of Americans’ Living Arrangements) What’s the problem? The image below is a snippet from an infographic about American lifestyle, living, and household trends. Otherwise, small mistakes here can have a big impact on your audience’s’ ability read, interpret and draw meaningful conclusions from your infographic. You should have a solid grasp of your data, where it came from and how it is structured to make sure you represent it clearly and accurately in your graphic. >A lot of the infographic data viz mishaps I spot are usually due to the author not being familiar enough with the data set they used. The goal is to learn from these mistakes so we can all become better visual storytellers. The mistakes I highlight below are common enough that anyone could make them. This is in no way intended to poke fun at the authors of the graphics. I’ll be drawing on a few infographic design gaffes to illustrate my points. Today, I’m here to share 5 data visualization tips that will help you plan and design winning infographics that are both beautiful and effective in communicating your message. Some are created to visualize long-form content or complex ideas while others offer their readers a timeline of events, a comparison or even a tutorial.īut if you are creating an infographic that visualizes data in any way, be it through standard charts or custom data visualization, it’s important that you follow a few basic rules. Not all infographics are packed with charts and data. Poor design choices and formatting errors can cause confusion, frustration, or worse, they can result in your audience completely misinterpreting your message. However, I often come across infographics today that are created without consideration for basic data visualization and chart formatting rules. Over the last 2 years we’ve seen more and more creative and communications agencies adding info and visual graphics production to their portfolios, we’ve seen a host of new startups and technology players emerge who offer self-serve design and production, and we’ve even seen creative marketplaces rush to add infographic templates and design packs to their catalogue.Īll of this has made infographic design and production more accessible. What’s really fascinating is how the industry has responded and evolved to support visual content, specifically infographics. Just take look at this chart, which shows global Google search interest from 2010 to March 2016 for the terms ’infographic’ and ‘ content marketing.’įun fact, search interest for “infographic” reached its historical peak this month!

It’s clear that brands have fully embraced the power of visual content, and today, the infographic seems to be at the top of its game.Īfter all, our thirst for visual content seems to be unquenchable.

Information made beautiful infographic design