#DFWDataVizMarch 26, 2015
Infographics:
Design Tips & Tools
Randy Krum
President, InfoNewt
@rtkrum
coolinfographics.com/DallasUX
Most links available at
Image by Will Lion, 2008
280
Newspapers/Day
Dr. Martin Hilbert, USC, 2014
Information
Overload
1986 2007 2014
174
Newspapers/Day
40
Newspapers/Day
TB
Petabyte
G
1 PB = 1,024 TB
20 PB/Day
50 PB
Facebook
Data Warehouse
300 PB
bit.ly/1ExunRK
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000
125,000
1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Global Internet Traffic Growth
(Petabytes/Month)
Over 100,000
Petabytes/Month
in 2017
CiscoVisual Networking Index, 2014
2015
University of Rochester, 2004
80% of the brain is dedicated to
visual processing
The human brain is a pattern
recognition machine
Scientists need humans to analyze Mars
planetfour.org
“Computers are just no good
at detecting the features we are
trying to mark.The human mind
is far superior at analyzing
images”
Picture Superiority Effect
European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 18(6), 2006
10% 65%
Text or Audio Only Text + Picture
Memory retention after 3 days
What is an infographic?
DataVisualizations
Infographics
Tell Stories Combing
Text
Illustrations
DataVisualizations
Layout
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Search term =
“Infographic”
0
100
50
Design Tips
#1
Be Accurate
FalseVisualizations
Calculate Area for Shapes
1X
9X
1X
3X
Area = 0.79in2
Diameter = 1in
Area = 0.785in2
Diameter = 1in
Area = 7.07in2
Diameter = 3in
Area = 2.355in2
Diameter = 1.73in
WRONG
CORRECT
Bedford'Police'Department'Budget
Budget Circle Circle
2009-2010 Area Diameter
Police
Patrol $4,609,556 5.30 2.60
C.I.D. $1,545,216 1.78 1.50
Community8Services $843,754 0.97 1.11
Deten?on8Services $802,880 0.92 1.08
Administra?on $782,525 0.90 1.07
Dispatch $662,940 0.76 0.99
Traffic $530,514 0.61 0.88
Records $372,171 0.43 0.74
Red8Light8Camera $371,460 0.43 0.74
Animal8Control $362,703 0.42 0.73
SWAT $18,660 0.02 0.17
Drug8Enforcement $15,000 0.02 0.15
Training $6,600 0.01 0.10
Total $10,923,979 12.57 4.00
20th Century Death
#2
Be
Focused
A big pile of data
3-Part Story Format
Introduction/Foundation
Call-To-Action/Conclusion
Ah-Ha!
The Main Event
Introduction
Conclusion
Ah-Ha!
The Main Event
www.rothira.com/tower-of-beer
The
5-Second
Rule
Quick <5sec
Long >5min
Key
Message
What is the ONE
thing you want your
audience to
remember?
“Google makes money
from advertising!”
Data Dense bit.ly/Z2dQxx
#3
BeVisual
Data shown
as text-only
provides
no context!
thesocialmediahat.com/active-users
Visualizing data compares
multiple values and puts the
information into context
There are approximately
2,802,478,934
global Internet users
InternetWorldStats.com
December 31, 2013
Big fonts are NOT data visualizations!
Global Internet Users
2013
2,802,478,934
It’s tough to visualize a
number by itself
There are approximately
2,802,478,934
global Internet users
InternetWorldStats.com
December 31, 2013
Approximately
7,157,504,906
total people on Earth
US Census Bureau (USCB)
April 2014
There are approximately
2,802,478,934
global Internet users
InternetWorldStats.com
December 31, 2013
Approximately
318,987,350
total people in the U.S.
US Census Bureau (USCB)
September 2014
Text-Only Data is Perceived as
Less Important
49%
Parents use the
phone to monitor
their child's location
64%
Parents look at the
sentence of their
child’s cell phone
If your data is important
enough to include in the
infographic, visualize it!
#4 Be Transparent
#5 Eliminate Chart Legends
amzn.to/MjBdPq
#6
Be Different
bit.ly/1AU1hb8
The Graphic
Continuum
#7
BeVaried
Rose Diagram
Doughnut Charts
Icon Grid
100% Bars
90 Pie Charts!
Small Multiples
#8 Clear Footnotes
Include URL to the original infographic
http://company.com/infographic
© creative
commons
copyright OR
Design Tools
Design With Objects
Excel Conditional Formatting
Excel Conditional Formatting
Vector Graphics
OmniGraffleAdobe Illustrator
PowerPoint InkscapeAffinity Designer
Visio
Online Infographics
Design
Infographics Presentations Charts Web Banners Animations Resumes
Millions of Images 100+ Beautiful Fonts Thousands of FreeVector
COOL30 - 30% OFF Forever!
Discount Code Expires April 30th
Publish & Share
Image Editing
Adobe Photoshop Pixelmator
AcornGIMP
Image Backgrounds
JPG PNG or GIF
Vectors vs. Images
Grid of 100 Squares
Grid of 100 Squares
65%10
10
The Noun Project
thenounproject.com
Wordle.net
chartle.net
gliffy.com
thinglink.com
Developers
Chart.js
Interactive HTML5 Charts
Highcharts/HighMaps JS
highcharts.com
D3.js
R
programming language
r-project.org
Processing 2.0
programming language
processing.org
Coolinfographics.com/Tools
coolinfographics.com/book
Download a Free Chapter!
bit.ly/coolinfogroup
Infographics & DataVisualization
Design Class
April 7 - May 19, 2015
Discount Code ($50 off) =VIP50
bit.ly/SMU-DataViz
DFW
DataViz &
Infographics
DFW DataVisualization & Infographics
#DFWDataVizbit.ly/DFWDataViz
Contact
infonewt.com
@rtkrum
coolinfographics.com

Infographic Design Tools & Tips