What’s Next for the Infographic? Now that everyone knows what they are, forward thinkers are wondering what’s next for the infographic. Is this the beginning of a visual revolution, or is it another passing fad? This is an important question to consider particularly for those who are making large investments in the medium. Are Infographics Dead? Ross Crocks of Column Five Media attempts to answer this very question. He argues in his post, that infographics are not dead, what’s dying is the novelty surrounding them. Infographics Today Infographics have been used for hundreds of years for various purposes. Interactive and Motion Graphics Interactive infographics (typically Flash based) are also becoming more popular for use in editorial content. Using animation in infographics is another current trend in infographics. Future of the Infographic The popularity of the iPad and iPhone have fueled demand for the development of interactive infographics accessible on these devices. Your Thoughts? Related
10 herramientas gratuitas para hacer excelentes Infografías. Hace un par de años atrás crear una infografía necesitaba, además de tiempo, de una habilidad especial en el manejo de programas como Photoshop. Hoy en día eso ha cambiado totalmente. Hoy existen herramientas y recursos gratuitos que nos permiten crear infografías deuna forma muy fácil y rápida. Pero como dice el dicho, no es solo soplar y hacer botellas. El elemento principal es el contenido. Debemos definir bien que es lo que queremos mostrar y tener en material necesario. Primero elegimos que aplicación usaremos. A continuación tienen varias aplicaciones web y luego recursos que pueden utilizar para incluir en la infografía para que sea más atractiva visualmente hablando. Aplicaciones en línea para crear Infografías Infogr.am Visual.ly Piktochart Easel.ly Creately Recursos para usar en una Infografía Los siguientes recursos incluyen diagramas, visualizaciones, clipart, fotografías libres de derechos y otros recursos más que pueden llegar a utilizar en una infografía. Hohli Chartsbin IconsPedia
data visualization SelfiExploratory The Selfiexploratory dataviz project analyzes selfies around the world. (via Jonathan Harris) Brooklyn, Block by Block Thomas Rhiel created this stunning, colorful map of all of Brooklyn’s 320,000+ buildings. Immersion Immersion is an online tool that visualizes your personal email connections. Read more over at FastCo or try Immersion here. Wealth Inequality in America Shocking infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. (via Mashable) We can do better than this. This Paid Annual Leave and Paid Holidays Chart is quite heartbreaking. (via everlane) Selected Data Visualization Tools The fine folks of data visualization.ch put together a selection of data visualization tools that they use the most and that they enjoy working with. Pancakes Venn Diagram This Pancake Recipe Venn Diagram made me chuckle. Could anyone tell me who to give credit to? Buy it here.
Visual Storytelling: A Modern Art Everyone loves a good story; from Aesop’s famous fables to hearing a friend recount their weekend, the art of storytelling appeals to everyone. Storytelling today is now more important than ever before. We live in a world where access to information is quick, cheap and unlimited. With this deluge of information we now face the problem of expressing it all in a way that is understandable, entertaining, and insightful. What is Visual Storytelling? Visual storytelling is having the ability to express complex data easily, while at the same time, having it evoke an emotion. Source: This image is of foursquare check-ins over the last year. Source: This pie chart is constructed of varying types of paper (cardboard, tissue, newsprint) all to help express the breakdown of paper production in the USA. Your Turn Do you have any examples of cool visuals that tell a story? Related
Dazzle your data handling class with an infographic project Infographics are: fun, informative, inspiring, thought-provoking, knowledge-enhancing, stimulating and above all, engaging. If you don’t know what an infographic is, it’s the fusion of graphic design, with data handling. An infographic takes some data and turns it into an attractive poster which uses a variety of data representation techniques to communicate the message that emerges from the data. A nice example is the infographic below that compares the size of historic volcanic eruptions with the number of fatalities caused. Click on the image to see it full-size. Image taken from web/1006/biggest-volcanoes/flat.html For a rich resource of infographics visit the good.is website by clicking here. I believe the use of infographics within teaching maths to be a great way to approach a data handling topic. I’ve blogged in a previous post about this fantastic Facebook infographic that looks at users’ habits. Enjoy!
FlowingData | Data Visualization, Infographics, and Statistics Picture this: better decisions through data visualization This visualization represents the number of takeoffs at U.S. airports between 1998 and 2010. By Rob Lovitt, NBC News contributor You can visualize world peace, whirled peas and even the World Series but can you visualize data? That’s the question raised by the Data Visualization Student Challenge, a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) competition that invited college students to turn reams of dry numbers into visually compelling graphics that could help drive decisions about transportation and infrastructure improvements. “Visualization allows the data to tell a story,” said Pat Hu, associate administrator and director of DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. To that end, DOT invited students to tackle a transportation issue and show how visualization can uncover actionable information that can help guide decision makers. “Let’s say you have serious congestion issues and want to add lanes or a [bypass] loop,” said Hu. Consider some of the 18 entries submitted to the challenge:
The Best Resources For Creating Infographics | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... Infographics are visual representations of data design to help communicate information clearly. They are great for English Language Learners, and the rest of us, too! The information can also be either serious or humorous. To see examples of some of the best ones, you can visit: The Best Infographics — 2010 The Best Interactive Infographics — 2009 You can find even more at The Best Sources For Interactive Infographics and A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics. Of course, you don’t need online resources to have students create their own infographics that can be used towards achieving numerous learning outcomes, as I recently posted about at What A Great Infographic To Use As A Model For Students. However, creating them online can also be both useful and fun — for both teachers and students. Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Creating Infographics: I’m going to start-off with some of my previous “The Best…” lists, including: The Best Tools To Make Simple Graphs Online
DataVis can aid decision making We all know that data visualization allows data to tell a story, but just what does that mean? Each day we’re shown all sorts of infographics telling us the how different age groups interact online, the history of Steve Job’s career or cell phone texting statistics. While fun, these inforgaphics feel slightly esoteric. Today, I wanted to help show real life applications of data visualization and help answer the question: How can data visualization help me make better decisions? In a recent blog post from MSNBC, Pat Hu, associate administrator and director of the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics was interviewed about this very question. He points out that data visualization does have some pretty powerful purposes. Your Turn
The Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution [Infographic] You’ve probably already seen this great infographic on social media from by en.gauge.media. If not, take a look at the staggering statistics on the social media shift. Look at everything that has happened in the past 5 years. It’s hard to believe the evolution (revolution) of social media in the past 5 years. As I looked through the infographic, the most surprising statistic for me was finding out that 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. Even if your district does not support social media integration, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it on your own time. (infographic created by en.gauge.media.)
Benefits of Visual Comms Visual messages surround us every day. We consider photographs that we want to display, we design visual aides to accompany our presentations at work just to name a few. Even though verbal communication (communicating through language) is often viewed as a more important or more central mode of communication, visual communication has many benefits and advantages in both personal and professional situations. What Are The Benefits? Immediacy One of the primary benefits from visual communication over verbal is immediacy. Simplicity Another advantage is simplicity. Flexibility Visual communication can also be more flexible in many ways than verbal communication. Next time you are trying to convey large, complex information to a group of people think about the advantages of doing so visually. Image Source: Related
Eight Free tools for Teachers to Make Awesome Infographics 1- Easel.ly This is a great tool that allows users to create visually rich infographics from pre-designed themes. It is very easy to use and only drag and drop. It actually supports Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. 2- Stat Planet This one here allows users to create amazing visualisations and share them with others. 3- Hohli This is an awesome chart maker. 4- Creately This is also a great tool in creating diagrams and flow charts. 5- Many Eyes This is one of the easiest of them all. 6- Wordle This is a text based visualisation tool. 7- Tableau This works just on Windows. 8- Inkspace This is also a free infographic creation tool.
Fight Complexity and Failure Projects fail all the time, usually resulting in one department blaming another, who then ends up blaming a vendor, who then usually blames the software. After the dust from the blame game settles, everyone goes back to work on a new project without examining the project management process and management that caused the failure – so they fail again. To help fight this vicious circle, there is design thinking. What is Design Thinking? While there is no one definition of design thinking, it’s a mindset of values that applies both analytical and creative thinking towards solving a specific problem. Six Principles of Design Thinking 1. Multidisciplinary teams champion the user, the business, and the technology aspect of a project in a more comprehensive manner than otherwise possible. Krigsman suggests when creating these teams, to try to staff them with what he refers to as “T-shaped” people. 2. 3. On the other hand, vision-driven approaches are very powerful. 4. 5. 6. Final Remarks Related
vizualize.me: Visualize your resume in one click.