This document discusses the history and types of infographics. It provides examples of early infographics like John Snow's 1854 cholera map in London and Minard's 1869 graph of Napoleon's 1812 march to Moscow. The document also outlines different types of infographics like lists, flowcharts, illustrated narratives, and interactive infographics. It provides tips for designing infographics like showing data visually rather than just writing it out, using typography appropriately, and telling a clear story or narrative through organization and structure.
2. 1854 map of cholera in London’s Soho
District. Dr. John Snow showed one public
pump on Broadstreet was causing most of
the disease.
3. Minard’s 1869 graph depicting Napoleon’s 1812 march on Moscow, a graph famously described by Edward
Tufte as possibly being “the best statistical graphic ever drawn“.
4. This data contributed
to the establishment of
the British old-age
pension system in 1909
5. The Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream was mapped for the first
time in 1770. It was done by Benjamin Franklin
6. “Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the
southern states and the United States” was created in
September 1861 based on statistics from the eighth Census,
7. Types of Infographics
• Lists
• Flowcharts and decision trees
• Illustrated narrative/comics
8. • Seeing the invisible
• Cross referencing data sets
• 1,000 words
• Interactive
9. Show, Don’t Tell
This Twitter infographic writes out the data, rather than visualizing it.
10. Two ways to visualize the data from the Twitter
example above.
17. Hooks should either be in
the center, beginning, or end
of the infographic and need
the greatest visual emphasis.
Visualize the Hook
18. Clean Things Up With Color
• Make it Universal
• A Three-Color Palette is
Easy on the Eyes
• Use the Tools at Your
Disposal
Color Resources
• Adobe’s Kuler
• COLOURlovers
• Color Scheme Designer