Agnieszka Tkaczyk - Using infographics in technical communication; soapconf 2014
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Infographics conquered the web. They are used by everyone and for everything. You can come across an infographic which depicts the current demographic trends in the world as well as one that aims at proving the superiority of cats over dogs. But can infographics be used for technical communication? Do they make complex ideas more digestible or are they just a current fad? The presentation provides a handful of tips on creating infographics and some real life examples of how our team used them in the technical context.
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Agnieszka Tkaczyk - Using infographics in technical communication; soapconf 2014
- 1. INFOGRAPHICS IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION Agnieszka Tkaczyk Information Developer, IBM @aga_tkaczyk
- 2. ”It doesn't look serious, like a comic book for children.” Agnieszka Tkaczyk
- 4. COMMUNICATING WITH PICTURES Agnieszka Tkaczyk Cave drawings Road signs Modern ideogram Egyptian hieroglyphs
- 5. 20% vision only functioning HUMAN VISION Agnieszka Tkaczyk 60% 40% a combination of visions and touch, meaning, movement, spatial navigation, etc.
- 6. Text only PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT Agnieszka Tkaczyk 10% 65% Text with image People remember pictures better than words, especially over longer periods of time.
- 7. PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT Agnieszka Tkaczyk The picture must reinforce the message from the data and must draw the attention.
- 8. ELEMENTS OF AN INFOGRAPHIC Agnieszka Tkaczyk + Image + TextData visualization
- 9. INFOGRAPHIC = STORY Agnieszka Tkaczyk CONCLUSION • Closing thoughts • Call for action BODY • Core of the infographic • Combination of text, images, and data visualizations INTRO • Gets the readers’ attention • Introduces the topic • Combination of a title and a paragraph
- 10. TIP 1: FOCUS ON ONE BIG STORY Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Do not combine a few small stories into one infographic • Make the key message immediately clear • Eliminate data that is irrelevant
- 11. TIP 2: ADD VISUALIZATIONS, REMOVE TEXT Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Reduce the amount of text • Use visualizations: • Reduce the time needed to understand the data • Draw the attention • Help remembering the information
- 12. TIP 3: BE ACCURATE Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Data visualizations must match the numbers • Inaccurate visualization undermines credibility • Provide the source of information or company logo • If the presented data might change, tell about that
- 13. ADVANTAGES Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Reduce the amount of text • Engage vision and the picture superiority effect • Boost memorization • Entertain and inform • Are fun to create
- 14. CONSIDERATIONS Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Not everything can be changed into an infographic • Cannot substitute documentation • May not be treated seriously • Time-consuming • Additional software might be required • Start a life of their own after publication • You need a good place to publish them
- 15. EXAMPLES
- 16. EXAMPLE 1: INSTALLATION OVERVIEW Agnieszka Tkaczyk Detailed checklist • 329 words Content: Tomasz Bartyzel Design: Paulina Malczak Documentation Infographic
- 17. EXAMPLE 2: INFRASTRUCTURE Agnieszka Tkaczyk Topic 1: • 457 words • 1 diagram Documentation Infographic Content: Dominik Wietrzak Design: Paulina Malczak
- 18. EXAMPLE 3: PVU LICENSES Agnieszka Tkaczyk Topic 1: • 605 words • 3 graphics • 4 tables Topic 2: • 134 words Documentation Infographic Content: Derek Sherman Design: Paulina Malczak
- 19. EXAMPLE 4: FIXLETS AND TASKS Agnieszka Tkaczyk • Spread among multiple topics • Referred to in relevant procedures Documentation Infographic Content and design: Agnieszka Tkaczyk
- 20. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME Questions?