NAHS: INSTRUCTIONS: Infographic

THIS ASSIGNMENT WILL EXPLORE VISUAL FLOW. Flow or movement is an important component when visualizing data and information.

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?

An infographic is a graphic visual representation of information, data or knowledge. Infographics take dense textual information and convert it into an easy to read, highly visual piece of content that people are much more likely to read, understand, and remember. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, and can include signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and/or education.

For instance, what if you were looking up interesting facts about the human body and you stumble upon this site. How could you illustrate the information on that page? Would you need to include all of it? Could you omit some of it? If you omit some of it, how will you determine what information you will eliminate and will it affect the overall message in the design? Also, how could you be creative with this design? While typical illustrations (such as a pie chart) are informational, they aren't really creative.

Here is one solution for an infographic for the above site.

ABOUT YOUR INFOGRAPHICS

1. Infographics should have some of the major principles of design, including:

Balance
Alignment
Proxmity
Repetition

2. Your design should also have a visual flow. It doesn't have to be top to bottom, but lead people around your design in a way that makes sense. Visual flow carries the viewer's eye through the document in a way that all the important elements are prominent, and nothing snags the vision or causes the viewer to lose sense of the piece.

3. Infographics can have a vector style or a photographic style. If you are choosing a photographic style, every picture must be your own.

4. Your infographic will need to be about YOU. You are clearly an expert about yourself. Start by writing down tons of stuff about yourself. Ultimately, you will have to condense your information down to the most interesting facts.

HOW TO BEGIN

STEP 1: Determine your COMPLICATION.
The ‘complication’ is the problem that the infographic will aim to solve/answer. Examples of possible complications for a different assignment could be something like, ‘Ingredients and tools you need to bake a wedding cake’ or 'Understanding Season One of Stranger Things." The COMPLICATION is WHY you are making your infographic. What are you trying to explain to people? What information do you have that you could be better explained in a visual format?

STEP 2: Develop your CENTRAL ARGUMENT. This is where you collect your facts to help explain your COMPLICATION. In your infographic design, you should be ‘arguing’ and proving your point through well-organized research, facts, figures, data representations and visualizations.

STEP 3: Sketch - Sketch - SKETCH! How are you going to illustrate each fact? Which facts will go together?

STEP 4: Coming Soon... Don't jump to the computer just yet.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE INFOGRAPHIC BELOW?
It's amazing, but is it overwhelming? You be the judge.