It’s So Pretty
In the infographics world, there is one image that rises above the rest. It is, quite literally, the most famous infographic ever drawn. (Thank you, Edward Tufte, for putting it on everyone’s radar!)
(To quote Westley Snipes in “White Men Can’t Jump”: “It’s pretty… it’s so pretty!”)
This image, drawn in the 1860’s, communicates a TON of information in a simple image. The graphic shows the number of troops Napoleon had throughout his march to and from Russia, and how dropping temperatures affected those troop numbers on the way back. You can see that Napoleon has lots of soldiers when he leaves France, but they dwindle on their way to Moscow..dwindling down to less than half. And when they leave Moscow with close to the same number of troops, the dropping temperatures make short work of the remaining men, until a mere fraction of soldiers return home to France.
The Four Steps
It’s powerful stuff, and it’s powerfully effective at its communication of complex information in a simple way. This is because Minard basically followed the four axioms of an infographic that we learned in my earlier post on infographics:
To expand on the below infographic created by Hot Butter Studio, an infographic is:
Let’s unpack these four components a bit more, shall we? (Disclaimer: completely biased and personal opinion follows. ;^)
1. Relevant Data
Really, we’re talking about two groups of data here: the data you want your reader to remember… and the data your reader cares about! And while there may be significant overlap, this is not always the case.
As a reader, I want data that will:
… and, while we may not admit it out loud:
As an infographics creator, share data that will:
… and, if we’re being honest here:
Opportunity
Just for the sake of example, let’s say that you are an expert on ALL things Lego! And I love (LOVE!) building homes out of Legos. What do you think I will want to learn from you as the Lego expert? And how could this affect your choice of data to share with me?
[highlights color=”ffea00″] Avoid TMI: Just because you know it, doesn’t mean you need to share it… or that we need to see it in this infographic. Keep your data relevant to the visual conversation at hand.[/highlights]
2. Correctly Sorted
Out of a vast amount of data, you’ve now identified the data I care about as well as what data is relevant for YOU to be sharing with me. The next step is to sort your data in a way that’s relevant and useful to your message… AND relevant and useful to your READER (aka moi).
When sorting data, ask yourself:
Three simple sorting steps:
1. Focus on what’s most relevant to the purpose of your infographic
2. Let go of the rest for this particular infographic
3. When in doubt, remember: just because you’ve got the data doesn’t mean you should use it! Keep everything relevant for the idea or insight your infographic is meant to communicate.
Opportunity
Just for the sake of example, let’s say that I adore building my favorite Breaking Bad scenes out of Legos. You operate an online shop that specializes in all the Lego kits and other supports a person could ever want for building homages to their favorite stories. You are an expert in your field, with TONS of data on the subject at your fingertips! What types of information do you think would be the most relevant to share with me at this time? What might be confusing or overwhelming in your data that you’d want to exclude or hold off sharing with me until later?
[highlights color=”ffea00″] Say the right thing at the right time: keep your data focused and on-point for the visual conversation your infographic needs to have. [/highlights]
3. Powerfully Arranged
Okay, so at this point you’ve got relevant data that’s organized to best support the purpose (or visual conversation) of your infographic. Now it’s time for your data to get arranged… for structure and for impact.
Structure and Impact
When you are arranging for structure, there is a logical flow to the data. It builds upon itself and makes sense. The structure of the arrangement also makes it easy for me to understand and use the data you’re sharing.
The above can also be true when arranging for impact, but I’d like to focus on one other thing here: clear messaging. A clear and powerful statement has an visceral impact on me when I view it. Bury that clear message under a lot of design, and I may end up missing what you really mean to say or, worse, hear an entirely different message altogether: “hey, look at me, and how cool I can design stuff!” That’s nice that you can use Prezi or animate GIFs… but what was the point again?
Opportunity
Let’s say that I am a huge fan of your online store, and I talk about it with my friends on social media. You want to get me excited about – and talking about – a new project or initiative. How could your structural choices affect the data you share with me about that project?
[highlights color=”ffea00″] All Hail the King: If your infographic is the throne room, then your content is your king. Arrange that room so the King can shine.[/highlights]
4. Visually Presented
And so here we are at last. Out of everything you could be sharing, you’ve identified the data you want to share and the data I actually care about. You’ve sorted that data so that it’s relevant and useful to your reader, as well as being relevant and useful for your message. You’ve arranged that data for structure and for impact. Now all that’s left is to actually translate all this into the infographic itself.
But guess what?
[highlights color=”ffea00″] If you’ve done the work up-front to select relevant data, sort it appropriately for both your message and your reader, and arrange it for structure and impact… then the visuals will pretty much take care of themselves.[/highlights]
Yes, really.
Because you’ll realize that every mark you put on your document… every line that creates your infographic ADDS MEANING to that infographic. And when you’re crystal clear on your message you want to convey (which is really what we’re doing in those first three steps), then you will be able to more easily see if the design element you’re adding to your infographic is truly enhancing meaning… or if it’s simply a cool trick you can do to gussy up the file for the web and would be better left out of the picture.
Less really can be more, especially when you seek to make complex information simple(r) to process and easier to use.
What do YOU think?
These are just some of the things that came to my mind. What comes to mind for you? I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below!
Here I am! What follows is my “thinking out loud” and a sort of “mea culpa”.
Relevant Data picking from my comment to Part 1, here is where the geeky brain fail, loose the focus on the overall message and indulge in quantity (TMI).
Lesson learned: focus on 1 story and choose data that shout together otherwise you will get multiple whispering stories.
“on-point for the visual conversation” I like this definition. Usually we think at infographic as one-way flow whose direction is defined by a big title because we see it in this way. In reality each data cluster deliver a message, instill ideas and create questions which need to be answered with the next data cluster and so on. Q&A = conversation.
Lesson learned: inspect data inferences and plan ahead the conversation flow. Big title is never enough
Bury that clear message under a lot of design, and may end up missing what you really mean to say this is directly connected with the nature of the message which can be the depiction of a status but can be an opinion as well. In the first case stating the obvious never seems enough, in the second case it is easy (to me, at least) to indulge in design features to reinforce concepts.
Lesson learned: It is also true that lack of design make the infographic less effective, let me say, just info without graphics. It may sound obvious but there is plenty out there of so called infographics that are merely text with few pictures.
…every line that creates your infographic ADDS MEANING to that infographic… I think this is the hardest part of the work. If the message is not clear first thing we do is to make it bold, red and bigger, it’s like when someone try to order a meal in a German restaurant speaking in Italian and if the waiter doesn’t understand he speaks louder.
Great post, I have good time going through it. Thank you Jeannel!
Thank YOU, Mauro, for this amazing response! I’m grateful to get to understand your takeaways…they help me deepen my own understanding and thinking about infographics. Also, your metaphor of the person speaking louder in the German restaurant is spot-on! As a consumer of infographics, I sometimes feel like that poor waiter being shouted at in another language. (Or being whispered at by 17 different customers at the same time!) ;^) Grazie!