Infographics: An Overview

A review of the various types of infographics, when to use them, and a description of my process for creating them.

1. Infographics
An Overview
Gary Schroeder | [email protected] | gschroeder.com

2. I build websites.
I didn’t start out looking to
create infographics.

3. I stumbled on a video by a guy
named Mike Rohde. It introduced
me to sketchnoting.

4. It’s a method of visual note taking.

5. A little serendipity…

6. An infographic is a visual representation of
information and data combining text, images,
charts, and diagrams.

7. High quality infographics are 30 times more likely
to be read than plain text.
Source: Kissmetrics

8. People who read directions that include
illustrations perform 3 times better than those
provided with text-only directions.
Source: Springer Link

9. If a scientific claim is presented in pure words or
numbers, 68% of people will believe that the
information is accurate and truthful. If a graph
appears with the claim, the number rises to 97%
Source: Cornell University

10. The Wharton School of Business found that while
only half of an audience was convinced by a
purely verbal presentation, that number jumped
to over two thirds when visuals were added.
Source: American Management Association

11. These are all important for audience
comprehension, but in the Internet era
they’re attractive because they get shared.

12. Types of infographics

13. Statistical

14. How-to or Process

15. Timeline

16. Comparison

17. Map/Location

18. Diagram
Non-technical audiences are
definitely more likely to read/scan
this than read a page of plain text
about a particle accelerator.

19. What’s the process?

20. Understand the topic
Conduct enough research to make sure you understand it well
enough to know what the story is, what’s important about it, what
the constituent elements are that are key to understanding.

21. Visual ideation
Sketch out thoughts as they arrive. Reject nothing.

23. Draft the concept

25. The final will often end up
significantly different from the
original draft.

27. Some finished products.