Infographics: Displaying Numerical and Factual Information Visually

Introduction

The display of information in a non-textual way to visual learners typically has been limited to those with graphic design skills. New Web services now enable those who may not have graphic design skills to communicate and display numerical data and factual information in visually meaningful formats. Free versions of these services enable the creation of professional-looking infographics with pre-constructed icons and graphics and drag-and-drop functionality. Faculty and students are now easily able to develop and view interesting and creative information objects whether they contain numerical or factual information, thereby enhancing the online classroom and the educational experience.

This article provides a brief overview of infographics and mentions some of the tools available for creating them, as well as a few additional resources to consider if you wish to use them in your classrooms.

What are Infographics?

Infographics visually explain a topic, usually data or numerical information, which can be a more effective and appealing method of learning and persuasion than just written text. These objects are typically bold and eye-catching, and they convey the creators or authors information. They are displayed in normal image formats, such as JPG and PNG, but are generally more detailed and complex than a regularly viewed graph or image. Infographics have appealing visual cues, focus on a specific question or topic, and have a poster-like quality.

One of the earliest examples of infographics comes from Florence Nightingale, who in 1858 created an infographic of British military deaths. Although newspapers have displayed color graphs and charts to convey data to their readers in recent history, they are generally small in comparison to an infographic, which can fill an entire computer screen or tablet and oftentimes involve scrolling down to see more content.

Edward Tufte, a noted scholar and expert in the fields of information design and data visualization, has written books about how information can be represented visually, which should be considered if exploring this topic further. Titles of his books include: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information; Envisioning Information; Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative; Beautiful Evidence; and Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions.

Infographics vs. Data Visualizations

Although no general rule applies to Web services that enable anyone to create infographics, for the purposes of this article, infographics are considered static media. Closely related to infographics are data visualizations, which are considered interactive, allowing users to change the appearance of the data dynamically by using controllers to add or manipulate the data. (It should be noted that some data visualizations can be turned into infographics.) Another difference between the two types of tools is that data visualizations contain much more raw data than infographics. With an infographic, the designer selects the most important information to present an information snapshot, whereas a data visualization can present many changing views of the data. In either case, the author has the freedom to tell a compelling story. Hans Roslings Gapminder Web site is a prominent site for browsing and creating data visualizations and includes a section for educators who wish to use data visualizations in their classrooms.

Examples of Infographics

Below are just a few examples of the multitude of infographics one can find on the Internet:

• Raise the Roof: The U.S. Debt Ceiling
• Hyper Connected: The Generation that Doesnt Power Down
• Pioneers of the Millennial World

Sources for Infographics

One of the best sources for finding infographics and data visualizations created by others is visual.ly. This searchable site includes infographics created by professional designers.

Other sources include:

• GOOD magazine
• Infographic Journal
• Daily Infographic
• Cool Infographics

At the very least, these sites can provide ideas for creating your own infographics or serve as the basis for classroom discussion.

Creating Infographics

There are several Web services that make it easy for non-designers to create powerful and eye-catching images. Although these services are not expressly created for learning environments, they lend themselves to online learning and the images created with them can be linked, embedded, or saved in a classroom.

Three services (easel.ly, Piktochart, and infogr.am)that are currently available for creating your own infographics are discussed below. These services have been selected for this article based on the following criteria:

• They are free or have free versions along with paid versions.
• They offer pre-made templates that can easilybe modified with ones own data.
• Some infographics can be made public or private.
• Images can be embedded or linked from within an online classroom.
• Registration is easy with social media tools, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and others, or one may register by providing an e-mail account.

Easel.ly

Infographics on the easel.ly site (which is still in beta) are called visuals; public visuals can be downloaded or viewed in a browser. Although more than 25,000 public visuals have been created on easel.ly, these infographics do not appear to be searchable.

Easel.ly has 15 themed templates called vhemes, which can be modified. There is drag-and-drop functionality to the site, with many pre-made objects and backgrounds. You may also upload your own images. Once you create an infographic, you can make it public or private. One nice feature for faculty and students is that private visuals can still be linked or embedded in an online classroom. It should be noted that a link to the easel.ly Web site will automatically be included at the bottom of an embedded visual (the link can be removed by editing the HTML embed code); the link to the Easel.ly Web site does not appear in the linked visual, because it is just a JPG image. You may also download your visual as a JPG image.

Although the site is easy to use, it does not provide any help (aside from a marketing video that demonstrates the sites features). An auto-save feature is not present, so you will need to save manually before exiting a project.

Piktochart

Piktochart offers three levels of service: free, monthly fee, and an annual fee. The free account adds a Picktochart watermark at the bottom-right corner of the image upon exporting. Help is available along with YouTube tutorials and an FAQ.

The free account provides five basic themes (templates) that can be edited. There are numerous pre-configured generic icons to spice up or better explain an infographic. You can upload your own images to an infographic; however, the free account has a five-image upload limit.

Piktochart includes a create a chart option that allows for editing rows and columns. A chart can then be generated from the data entered.

The Help Center provides instruction for common questions.

Although there is no HTML export or a way to link to a saved infographic, you can export the graphic in PNG image format, which can then be uploaded into an online classroom. An auto-save feature is not available in this service.

infogr.am

The infogr.am site (also in beta) allows users to select one of six themes and then modify it as needed. Authors can add their own picture if desired or import Youtube or Vimeo videos into their infographic.

The site lacks a help feature, which may deter novice users, but it is easy to use.

Publishing an infogr.am infographic makes it public, so take care not to include student names or other FERPA-related information if you use the site. Also, publishing creates a unique URL that makes it easy for linkage or embedding with the HTML code. Photos or images can be uploaded to infographics. One noteworthy feature is the ability to change the width of an infographic.

By default, inforgr.am includes a copyright notice in the lower-left corner and a logo in the lower-right corner of an infographic.

For more information about creating an infographic from any service, consider these articles available at the visual.ly Web site:

• Best Practices: Maximum Elements for Different Visualization Types
• Should You Make That Infographic?
• A Code of Ethics for Data Visualization Professionals

Using Infographics in the Classroom

Infographics may enhance your course materials and enrich your students experience, particularly for those with different learning styles. You will want to determine what information may be appropriate to communicate in this format and whether such visual representations will be suitable aids for students.

If you decide to use infographics, you may want to give thought to the following issues. Consider referencing sources for the data or information. One of the downsides to using infographics is that although sources are typically mentioned (as they should be), the infographic may not indicate which specific source contributed to a particular piece of data within the infographic. Verifying the accuracy of an infographic may be difficult if multiple sources are usedwhich you will need to keep in mind if tasking students with creating an infographic for an assignment. One solution to this problem could involve providing numbered footnotes for these sources within the infographic. One could also provide a separate text file that includes the reference sources and/or describes how the sources were used in the infographic.

If you would like to embed infographics in your classroom, please see How to Embed External Multimedia Objects in a WebTycho Classroom for instructions.

Additional Resources

King, L. (2012). How to create infographics online. Retrieved from http://www.wpqueen.com/wordpress-how-to/how-create-infographics-online/

Rogers, S. (2010, August 13). Florence Nightingale, datajournalist: information has always been beautiful. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/aug/13/florence-nightingale-graphics