Infographics that influence - and why they do
Infographics, as we've previously written about, are a wonderful way to convey complex information in an accessible way - when correctly used. In this post I'll give a couple of examples of good design and a couple of pointers for when you create your own.
Napoleon's invasion attempt of Russia, by Charles Minard. The brown path is the army advancing and the black path is the army retreating.
(image via Wikipedia)[/caption] One of the top infographics out there is Charles Minard's 1869 illustration of Napoleon's catastrophic 1812 invasion attempt of Russia. It's a basic flow map where the size of the invading army is shown as the width of its path across the map from the Niémen river to Moscow and back. The return path is also coupled with a graph of the temperature, showing in all too clear detail how the beaten and hungry army slowly succumbed to extreme sub-zero temperatures. The one alternative take of this I can come up with is removing the temperature graph and having the return trip in varying shades of blue - representing the temperature drop. It's a world of knowledge in a very simple design, needing only a small caption for understanding. [caption id="attachment_1940" align="alignright" width="300"]
The true size of Africa by Kai Krause both catches the eye and conveys the message instantaneously. Adding loads of complementary information for the ones who want to dig deeper. (Public Domain by CC)[/caption]
Another, more modern, classic is Kai Krause's The True Size Of Africa, showing just that - the size of the African continent as compared to the world's largest countries.
The focal image can stand on its own, it doesn't even really need the headline to make people understand it, but for educational purposes it's accompanied by tables of data and a short text about the reasons for the creation of the infographic.
A stunning visualization that puts the world in perspective.
[caption id="attachment_1942" align="alignright" width="135"]
A Facebook timeline showing the top activity of 2012.[/caption]
Lastly, an example that's not going to the history books as a shining example of splendid infographical design, but probably for being the world's most common as around a billion people use it more or less regularly, is the Facebook Timeline.
Maybe not one that many would say is an infographic at first glance, but still has the infographic elements of a visual and contextual display of information. In this case it features highlights of a person or organisation's life, laid out on an timeline where you can drill down from the year-overview's collection of top posts to all posts for individual months - yes, infographics can be interactive too!
So, while not so visually exciting the Facebook Timeline still is a fairly good example of how to design for sorting large amounts of continuous information for easy access.
For more inspiration you can visit the infographics site Information is Beautiful which collects examples of stunning and insightful data vizualisations.
Three "classic" examples of infographics
[caption id="attachment_1936" align="alignright" width="300"]
Napoleon's invasion attempt of Russia, by Charles Minard. The brown path is the army advancing and the black path is the army retreating.(image via Wikipedia)[/caption] One of the top infographics out there is Charles Minard's 1869 illustration of Napoleon's catastrophic 1812 invasion attempt of Russia. It's a basic flow map where the size of the invading army is shown as the width of its path across the map from the Niémen river to Moscow and back. The return path is also coupled with a graph of the temperature, showing in all too clear detail how the beaten and hungry army slowly succumbed to extreme sub-zero temperatures. The one alternative take of this I can come up with is removing the temperature graph and having the return trip in varying shades of blue - representing the temperature drop. It's a world of knowledge in a very simple design, needing only a small caption for understanding. [caption id="attachment_1940" align="alignright" width="300"]
The true size of Africa by Kai Krause both catches the eye and conveys the message instantaneously. Adding loads of complementary information for the ones who want to dig deeper. (Public Domain by CC)[/caption]
Another, more modern, classic is Kai Krause's The True Size Of Africa, showing just that - the size of the African continent as compared to the world's largest countries.
The focal image can stand on its own, it doesn't even really need the headline to make people understand it, but for educational purposes it's accompanied by tables of data and a short text about the reasons for the creation of the infographic.
A stunning visualization that puts the world in perspective.
[caption id="attachment_1942" align="alignright" width="135"]
A Facebook timeline showing the top activity of 2012.[/caption]
Lastly, an example that's not going to the history books as a shining example of splendid infographical design, but probably for being the world's most common as around a billion people use it more or less regularly, is the Facebook Timeline.
Maybe not one that many would say is an infographic at first glance, but still has the infographic elements of a visual and contextual display of information. In this case it features highlights of a person or organisation's life, laid out on an timeline where you can drill down from the year-overview's collection of top posts to all posts for individual months - yes, infographics can be interactive too!
So, while not so visually exciting the Facebook Timeline still is a fairly good example of how to design for sorting large amounts of continuous information for easy access.
For more inspiration you can visit the infographics site Information is Beautiful which collects examples of stunning and insightful data vizualisations.