INFOGRAPHICS

Go a l s
Understand what makes a successful
and engaging infographic
Go a l s
Know where to find infographics
Go a l s
Plan and create your own infographic
Information graphics
or infographics are graphic
visual representations
of information, data or knowle
dge intended to present
information quickly and clearly.
They can improve cognition by
utilizing graphics to enhance
the human visual systems
ability to see patterns and
trends
4 I n f o r m at i o n Ages
4 I n f o r m at i o n Ages
4 I n f o r m at i o n Ages
4 I n f o r m at i o n Ages
1626

In 1626, Christoph Scheiner published the Rosa

Ursina sive Sol, a book that revealed his research
about the rotation of the sun. Infographics
appeared in the form of illustrations demonstrating
the Suns rotation patterns.
21st Century

By the year 2000, Adobe Flash-based animations on the

Internet had made use of many key practices in creating
infographics in order to create a variety of products and
games.
 knowledge

Visual

Content

What makes a
good infographic?
The visual
The visual consists of colors and
graphics

Theme graphics are included in

all infographics and represent the
underlying visual representation
of the data. Reference graphics
are generally icons that can be
used to point to certain data,
although they are not always
found in infographics.
The Content
Statistics and facts usually
serve as the content for
infographics, and can be
obtained from any number of
sources, including census
data and news reports.
The Knowledge
One of the most important
aspects of infographics is that
they contain some sort of
insight into the data that they
are presenting this is the
knowledge.
 In his 1983 'landmark book' The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte defines 'graphical
displays' in the following passage:
Graphical displays should
show the data
induce the viewer to think about the substance rather
than about methodology, graphic design, the technology
of graphic production, or something else
avoid distorting what the data have to say
present many numbers in a small space
make large data sets coherent
encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data
 reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad
overview to the fine structure
serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration,
tabulation, or decoration
be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal
descriptions of a data set.
Types of infographics
Mixed charts
Mixed Charts
As its name implies, this type of infographic incorporates
different chart and graph formats. For example, the
business report above (click to enlarge) uses not only the
typical bar chart, but also resorts to pie charts, maps and
comparisons using vector icons.
This mixed bag of charts and graphs is the best option
when you have many statistics, facts and figures to
communicate to your audience.
Informational / List
Informational / List
Another common type of infographic is the list-based or
informational visual. This type of long form presentation is
composed mostly of text and doesnt rely too much on
graphs, charts or other visual elements, as seen in the
colorful infographic above. While the information is
enhanced with an attractive color scheme and icons,
overall, the words drive the message home.
Timeline
Timelines
Timelines can be used for everything from brand stories to
resumes to the historical development of a trend, person or
product. They are most effective when they incorporate
many different data points spread out across time and are
accompanied by images, icons and other graphic
elements, as seen in the timeline above.
How to
These types of infographics show
the steps involved in creating
something. For example, the
visual above shows readers how
to make red wine in 22 steps. This
format is best suited for visualizing
how-to articles and the
description of any procedure
with several instructions to follow.
Process
Process
Although this visual format may seem similar to the previous
one, it is different in the sense that it refers specifically to the
description of a processparticularly a decision-making
process. This type of infographic is commonly referred to as
a flow chart or a decision-tree.
Comparison
Comparison
Another common use for infographics is making
comparisons between two products, people, ideas, things,
events or places. Besides comparing two products side by
side, it can also be used to visually contrast and compare
seemingly opposing things to reveal similarities, differences
and relative advantages.
Location
Location
One of the easiest ways to visually communicate trends
across a regionlocal, national or globalis to use a location
infographic. Usually in the form of a map with icons and
color-coded regions, this type of visual is ideal for
comparing regional and global statistics on a relevant
subject that readers care about. For example, one idea
could be a map of crime rates across different states;
another could be comparisons of cost of living; or a visual
representation of the expansion of a company across the
world.
Photo-graphic
Photo-graphic
A photographic infographic or photo-graphic (Get it? This
is also called an image-based infographic) is what results
from the combination of images and graphic elements
such as simple line charts, icons or text, as seen above.
Working on the basis of a background composed of high-
quality images, this type of infographic is aesthetically
pleasing and catches the eye because of the way it
creatively combines disparate visual formats.
Hierarchical
Hierarchical
this type of chart organizes information according to levels
whether it be level of importance, level of difficulty, income
level, etc. Although most commonly seen in the shape of a
pyramid, as in the example above, this type of infographic
can also be seen in the form of an organizational chart. The
key function of this type of visual is to compare the different
levels and show the relation between each of them.
Single chart
Single Chart
As the name implies, single-chart infographics simply use one
chart type as the focal point of the data visualization. In
comparison with mixed-charts infographics, this one performs
much better in terms of shares and views on social media
platforms.
In a study of more than 16,000 infographics conducted by
Visual.ly, it was found that the top-shared infographics were all
easy to understand, simple and not very text-heavy. In line with
this trend, the top three most popular infographics were flow
charts, single charts and list-based infographics.