IXD104 project 2 – Researching infographics

Now that my travel app is complete, it’s time to move on to project 2 – designing an infographic.

First of all, what is an infographic? According to Wikipedia, it is:

” graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.”

And with this explanation in mind, my project brief states;

“With a focus on raw data, facts and figures, your second project for this module is to create an infographic/data visualisation focusing on a subject-specific to the world around us.”

I realised that my project brief fitted with the Wikipedia explanation of an infographic perfectly, combining the two, I summarise this project as:

” Place facts and data of a certain topic into a graphic visual representation. Do it in a way that allows the information to be represented clearly and allows the reader to the chosen topic understand easily.”

To give us some idea of what we could be looking at, my teacher paul gives us some topics we could consider:

• Births and deaths in world – past and/or present
• Population figures specific to country
• Population in last 50, 100, 200 years
• By religion
• By environment
• Climate change
• Disease / Illness

To familiarise myself with the different types of infographics, I found a really good youtube video which explained the difference between each type;

( link = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZc-DjWd2BE)

After watching the video, I think there are around 8 types of distinct infographics rather than 13, as some styles can overlap. Nonetheless, it was really helpful as an introduction to infographics, as now I can do my research online and hopefully recognise what kind of infographic I’m looking at.

After a bit of thinking, I decided on 3 specific topics that I could do my infographics on;

  • disease/mental health
  • space ( the solar system)
  • Earth timeline

I chose these specific topics because I have a genuine fascination with them, and I’m hoping that will show through my work.

Since I have to choose one topic only, I decide that I will have quick research on each topic; not so much the information and the data side of things, but more having a look at the existing infographics on each topic to get a sense of what I would like to achieve myself.

The first was diseases or mental health. I thought covid facts might be an interesting and recent topic to cover. While in class, a recent student’s past work really caught my interest;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What draws me to this infographic it is how I can understand the information easily from a glance, which is the main goal of an infographic. I also liked the hierarchy of the font size, with the percentage being the biggest size to really stand out from the page. A simple infographic with limited colours, but each colour plays its own part and represents a different section of the information, which works very well together.

Another type of infographic that would work very well for diseases is a location infographic. Which I again spotted in my teacher Pual’s lecture;

 

 

 

Perhaps I can do death around the world/specific part of the world caused by covid. The more death, the redder the colour ( more blood ?)

Lastly, I thought about how people who experience covid have can have different symptoms. Some symptoms are more common than others. I think it did be a nice idea to do something like a single chart infographic to see the overlapping symptoms and which are the most common ( on the basis that I can find statistics on how many people experience each symptom and how many symptoms are experienced together);

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, I did some research about space infographics. This topic was my favourite to research, It brought me back to my high school physics class where the walls are plastered with space facts. I want to show a few of my favourites;

Premium Vector | Solar system planets infographic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I  love this one in particular because it is so reminiscent of the poster I saw in my high school, I think this layout ( each planet on and their order from the sun) is the standard poster that every school would have. I would love to do something like this, but I do think this style has been way overdone.

For something a bit different, I actually spotted a lovely poster while in class;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how detailed this graph is, the background text is a little hard to read through, I might omit chunks of writing all together if I decide to do something similar. I love that is still a take on the classic packed themed how far away/the order of one object compared to another, but the way it chooses to present the information is very unique.

Another one that I really liked was found on Shutterstock;

High Detail Space Infographic Chart Composition Poster With Solar System, Planet, Astronaut, Chart, Rocket, And Other Space Object Related Illustration

 

 

 

I think I like this one because it doesn’t just focus on planets, there is also a focus on astronauts and rockets. It’s a bit more interesting and visually appealing.

And finally, we come onto my last idea, Earth’s geological timeline. Before even researching I knew that most infographics on it will be a timeline infographic as the name suggest.

One thing I noticed about infographics on such topics, was that they are either way too complicated likes these;

Historical Infographics: Into the Depth of Time

History of Earth | History of earth, Geology, Earth science

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or really simple like these;

Evolution Life Timeline Scale Geologic Time Stock Vector (Royalty Free) 1968647521 | ShutterstockAges of Rock: Geologic Time Scale

 

 

There are a few good ones like this;

 

 

But what bugs me is that important pieces of information about the Hadean, archean and proterozoic eras are not there. Also, I think for the average viewer, adding in complicated Period names is really not necessary ( even though it is nice that they are there, I don’t think most of us know the meaning and the significance behind periods – they are just too specific)Lastly, scale is a little off, Hadean, archean and Proterozoic eras are not equally long, but the way its present make it look like that’s the case at first glance.

 

After a lot of research, I decided that I wanted to do the earth’s geological timeline as the topic for my infographic project. This is because I want to do an infographic that is a little different from the most that I see on the internet. I have a clear idea in my mind of what I would like/not like in my infographic;

  • It will be a timeline infographic
  • It will not have the complicated Periods, only the Eras
  • the length of the timeline will reflect accurately how long each era is
  • Simplified as much as possible, but not oversimplified.  I’ll try to only have the most interesting, the most significant moment in history in my timeline.

I think what I would like to do is to make an interesting geological timeline that is fitting for a classroom setting for primary/high school similar to the Space poster I have loved so much as a child. Looking back at these space posters, what really suited them for the younger audience is a good use of colour, lots of images, simple facts but also very interesting facts that draw attention.

 

 

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