Contents
description
Transcript of Contents
1
Contents
1.Designers are not scientists
2.Good infographics are about more than good facts
3.A completely unscientific taxonomy of facts
4.Inspirational Infographics
5.Good designers worth working with
2
Designers are not scientists
• They won't understand half of the content you send them
• As communicators of science, we need to take the data which are scientists
give us and translate it for the designers
• Lots of fiddly little things you need to be responsible for:
1. Clearly identify scientific units and population sizes
2. Ensure units are consistent (Gt and Mt)
3. Ensure sourcing is consistent
4. Ensure data label requirements are clearly outlined
3
Good infographics are about more than the facts
• They are about a story
• The message is as important as the fact
• Representing the message visually requires good communication cues
Examples:
Facts Message Visual Cues
Bacterial growth rates approximately double with every 10 °C rise in
temperature above 10 °C
Climate change will affect food safety
Spoilt food
Agriculture contributes some 56% of global non-
CO2 greenhouse gas emissions
Agriculture is the largest contributor of non-CO2
emissions Cows
5
A completely unscientific and incomplete taxonomy of facts
• Qualitative statements
• Due to droughts, trees are becoming more vulnerable to higher mortality rates
• One big number – percentage or absolute frequency:
• Agriculture emits 5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year
• To meet global food demand in 2050, agricultural production must be 60% higher by weight than in 2005.
• Percentage of a population facts:
• Agriculture contributes some 56% of global non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions
• Changes in absolute frequencies – univariate or multivariate
• The current population is 7.2 billion. In 2050 it is going to be 9.6 billion. In 2100 the total population is 10.9
billion.
• Causal Relationships
• If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by
20–30%. This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5–4%, which could in turn
reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12–17%.
Different facts lend themselves to different infographics and impose limits as to what designers can do
6
Qualitative statements
Tips and Tricks:
• These are hard to make look scientific•Need to brief the designers with very strong visual cues
7
Big numbers as absolute frequencies
Tips and Tricks:• There are not many options with facts like this. • You only have one fact and don’t have the population size it belongs to.• BLOW THE NUMBER UP: make sure to get the balance of text to numbers to pictures right
8
Big numbers as absolute frequencies
Tips and Tricks:• You only have the percentage change figure•Scientists often think they’ve given you more detail than they have•No absolute frequencies mean no data labels
9
Percentage of a population facts as infographics
Box Charts Focus on Numbers Pie Charts
Tips and Tricks:•Can use really simple charts •Think of every chart as a stand-alone piece, is all the data on their if people want to use it in a presentation?•Do you want to include frequency numbers of population sizes on charts as well as percentages?
10
Comparative data – one variable across different region/ populations/time etc
Tips and Tricks:•Lots of options for charts – this is what scientists tend to be after• Keep simple and add a clarifying qualitative statements•Think about data labels, scientific units, etc
12
Causal relationships
Flow-charts with icons
Traditional Flow-ChartFlow chart with icons
and data
These can be tricky for designers and require the most oversight and direction. We normally sketch a traditional flow chart and write down the data labels and text that need to be added
13
Example concept sketch for a causal relationship infographic
agriculture Storage Transport
Possessing Retail Consum
er
100% of food supply 66.6 % of food supply
About a third of all food produced is lost in the food supply chain
Food Supply40% of food
losses in high-income countries occur at retail and consumer levels
40% of food losses
in low-income countries occur at storage, transport and processing levels
14
Links to Inspirational Infographics
Inspirational Narrative Infographics
• The World Bank’s Infographic Series:
• http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/19/Infographic-Climate-Change-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-South-Asia-South
-East-Asia?cid=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT
• Netherlands Global C02: http://infographics.pbl.nl/website/globalco2/
• The Institute of International and European Affairs Waste Not Want Not Series:
• http://www.iiea.com/blogosphere/waste-not-want-not-the-problem-of-food-waste
• Greenpeace Save the Arctic:
• http://columnfivemedia.com/work-items/greenpeace-infographic-save-the-arctic-tour/
Inspirational Dynamic Visualizations
• U.S. Gun Deaths Data Visualisation: http://guns.periscopic.com/?year=2013
Inspirational Visualizations that represent multiple variables cleanly and simply:
• Fathom’s Health Visualisation: http://fathom.info/healthviz
• Fathom’s Ageing Visulisation: http://fathom.info/aging
15
Links to Good Designers
Infographics:
• Column Five - http://www.columnfivemedia.com/
• Speak to Jake Burkett, [email protected] & Travis Keith, tkeith@
columnfivemedia.com
Data visualisation:
• http://fathom.info/about
• http://www.periscopic.com/
• http://developmentseed.org/
Free sources to construct your own:
• http://www.tableausoftware.com/public
• http://infogr.am/
Infographic library:
• http://visual.ly/ - do not recommend their paid-for infographic development service but they host a
library of infographics, similar to Flickr which I recommend you upload your infographics too