IntroductiontoDataVisualizationand
Infographics
JaneZhao
DigitalMediaCommons,FondrenLibrary
CreatedonNovember17,2015
LastupdatedonTuesday,November8,2016
Note:Thishandoutremixessomeinformationinchapter1&8ofthebookInfographics:The
PowerofVisualStorytellingandchapter1&7ofthebookCoolInfographics:Effective
CommunicationwithDataVisualizationandDesign.Noclaimismadefororiginality.
I. WhatisInfographics?WhatisDataVisualization?
Infographicisanabbreviationof"informationgraphic".Itcombinesdatavisualizations,
illustrations,textandimagestogetherintoaformatthattellsacompletestory(Krum,2014,
p.6).Itusesvisualcuestocommunicateinformation.
Datavisualizationisavisualrepresentationofdataorthepracticeofvisualizingdata.
Commonformsincludepiecharts,bargraphs,linecharts,andsoforth.Itisapowerfultool
thatdesignersoftenusetohelptelltheirstoryvisuallyinaninfographic(Krum,2014,p.6).
II. WhyInfographics?Whyvisualinformationisamoreeffectiveformof
communicationforhumans?–ThescienceofInfographics(Krum,2014,pp.
12–26).
1. Visionisthestrongestformofinputthatweusetoperceivetheworldaroundus.
a. Visionisbyfarourmostdominantsense,takinguphalfofourbrain's
resources.
b. Studiesestimatethatbetween50-80percentofthehumanbrainisdedicated
toformsofvisualprocessing,suchasvision,visualmemory,colors,shapes,
movement,patterns,spatialawarenessandimagerecollection.
2. Asimpletextmessagecombinedwitharelevantimagecanmakealasting,
memorableimpressiononyouraudience.
a. Whenwereadtextalone,wearelikelytorememberonly10percentofthe
information3dayslater.
b. Ifthatinformationispresentedtouseastextcombinedwitharelevantimage,
wearelikelytoremember65percentoftheinformation3dayslater.
3. Datavisualizationleverageshumans'patternrecognitionabilitiesandsignificantly
acceleratestheunderstandingofthedata.
1
III. WhatmakesagoodInfographic?
Agoodinfographichasallthree(Lankow,Ritchie,&Crooks,2012,p.52):
1. Utility-itshouldbeuseful,enablingtheviewertoderivemeaningfromit.
2. Soundness
a. Aninfographicthatissoundisonethathasmeaningandintegrity.
b. Incontrast,aninfographicthatisnotsoundisincompleteanduntrustworthy.
3. Beauty-thedesignshouldhaveaestheticappealthatattractstheviewer'sattention
andprovidesapleasingvisualexperience.
IV. Informationdesignbestpractices
Illustrationanddatavisualizationarethetwomajorcomponentsofinfographicdesign.
Basedonyourobjectiveness,youwilluseoneorbothtovaryingdegrees.
Informationdesign
1. Keepitsimple
2. Use a simple text message combined with a relevant image
3. Make it unique
Illustration-utility,soundness,attractiveness-shouldapplytotheindividualvisual
elements.
Datavisualization
Graphsarearepresentationoftherelationshipsinquantitativeinformation.Theshapethe
informationshouldtake-orthegraphtypethatyoushoulduse-isthusbasedonthetypeof
relationship.Assuch,differenttypesofgraphscandisplaysometypesofrelationships
betterthanothers.Youcanalmostalwaysdeterminetheappropriategraphtypebasedon
therelationshiptype,butinmostcasesthereareanumberofacceptableoptions.Figuring
outwhichgraphmakesthemostsensetoyouissometimesaboutwhatyouthinkisthebest
(mosteffective)waytoconveyyourmessagetoyouraudience(Lankowetal.,2012,p.213).
1. Bargraph(vertical)
a. Usefor:
• nominalcomparisons
• timeseries
• ranking
• part-to-whole
b. musthaveazerobaseline
c. eachbarwithinagraphshouldbethesamecolor
d. avoid3-Dandshadingoftheverticalbarsbecause3-Dbarscan’tdisplayvalue
accurately.
2. Stackedbargraph
a. todisplaymultiplepart-to-wholerelationships.
b. usedwhentherearemorethanahandfulofsubcategories
2
c. onevariationisknownasthe100percentstackedbar,ofwhichallofthe
subcategoriesaddupto100percent.
d. easiertounderstandthanmultiplepiechartsasitenablestheviewerto
directlycomparesegmentsonthesameaxiswithrelativeease.
3. Piechart
a. part-to-wholecomparisons
b. communicatebigideaquickly
c. allsubcategoriesquantitativevaluesmustalwaysequalto100percent-no
exceptions
d. nomorethanfiveslices
e. thelargestsectionstartatthetop,goclockwisefrom12o'clock,thesecond
largestsectionstartatthetopandgocounterclockwisefrom12o'clock.The
readersreadtopdownandreadthemostimportantsubcategoriesfirst.
f. Avoid3-Dpiechartsincetheadditionof3-Dperspectiveaffectsyour
perceptionofdata.
4. Linechart
a. usedfortimeseries
b. x-axisshouldalwaysrepresenttime,whiley-axisshouldrepresenta
quantitativevaluethatchangesovertime.
c. keepthecharttofourorfewerclearlylabeledlinesorusethepracticeof
panelingandaconstantscaleforconsistency.
5. Usecolorschemesthatarecolor-blindfriendly
Agoodpracticeistomakesureyourgraphicalinformationiscompliantwith
ColorUniversalDesign,whichmeansthegraphicalinformationisconveyed
accuratelytopeoplewithvarioustypesofcolorvision,includingpeoplewith
colorblindness.
a. RefertoChoicesofcolorsinprintandgraphicsforcolor-blindreaderson
EdwardTufte’swebsite.
b. ProofingcolorsatAdobewebsiteisalsoveryhelpful
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creativesuite/cs/using/WS3F71DA01-09624b2e-B7FD-C956F8659BB3.html
c. ColorBrewer2.0http://colorbrewer2.org/isagreatwebsiteforgenerating
mapcolorschemesthatarecolor-blindfriendly.Averygoodreference
resourcetoo.
V. ToolsforcreatingInfographicsandDataVisualization
1. DesktopSoftwareTools
i. VectorGraphics
1. MicrosoftPowerPoint-itallowsuserstocreatefloatingtext
blocks,insertvectorobjectshapesandimportimagesto
arrangeinaninfographicdesign.
2. MicrosoftExcel
a. ChartStyle->Solidcolorismorecolor-blindfriendly
thangradientcolor(i.e.automatic).
3
b. Rightclickoverthechart/graph,SaveasPicture...inthe
formatofPNG,JPG,PDF,BMP,GIF.
i. JPG,thesamepixeldimensionasascreen
capturedimage,resolutionat72.Ifyourpicture
innormal100%viewissmaller,yoursavedas
JPGwillbesmaller.Ifyourpictureisbigger,then
yoursavedasJPGwillbebigger.
ii. PNG,doublethepixelsofascreencapturedimage
(i.e.theJPGpixeldimensions),resolutionat150.
iii. PDF,veryclear,avectorgraphicsfile.
iv. ConvertPDFtoTiff,openthePDFwith
Illustrator,File->Export->Tiff,choosecolor
spaceanddpi(i.e.300)andsavethefile.
v. Rightclickoverthechart/graph,Copy...,
PowerPoint->PasteSpecial...->Microsoft
DrawingObject-(thebest,vectorbasedgraphics)
3. AdobeIllustrator
Itisapplicationforcreatinggraphics.
4. AdobeInDesign
Itisanapplicationtolayouttextandimages/graphics.Itis
especiallyusefulforitstxtwrappingaroundimages.
5. Gephi(free)http://gephi.github.io/
ItislikePhotoshopfordata,anditispowerfulforlarge,
importeddatasetsofmorethan50,000nodes.
6. OmniGrafflehttps://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle
7. InkScape(free)https://inkscape.org/en/
ii. ImageEditing
1. AdobePhotoshop
2. Gimp(free)http://www.gimp.org/
3. Pixelmatorhttp://www.pixelmator.com/mac/
4. Acornhttp://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/
2. OnlineTools
i. Wordle.nethttp://www.wordle.net/
Afreetoolonlineforcreatingwordcloudsoutofanytextyouhave
available.Wordcloudssizethefontofeachwordisbasedonits
frequencyinyourtext.
ii. GoogleCharthttps://developers.google.com/chart/
1. Itisnotastandaloneapplication.Youhavetoaccessitthrough
GoogleSpreadsheet.
2. ChartarecreatedinSVGformat(i.e.vectorbased).However,it
doesn’tgiveyouanoptiontosaveasaSVGsuchasaPDFoption.
ItonlyallowsyoutosaveasaPNGfile.
3. Youcanpublishorembedthecharttoyourwebsite.
4. GoogleChartGallery
https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery
iii. TableauPublichttps://public.tableau.com/s/
4
1. Itisafreeservicethatletsanyonepublishinteractivedatato
theweb.
2. ARicewebpagewithinteractivechartcreatedbyTableau
Professionalhttp://oir.rice.edu/Factbook/Resources/Budget/
iv. Chartle.nethttp://www.chartle.net/
easytouseandfree.createpiecharts,linecharts,barcharts,maps,and
Venndiagramsandgauges.
v. ChartsBinhttp://chartsbin.com/
onlineweb-basedvisualizationtoolmainlyusedforvisualizingdataon
aworldmap.
vi. Gliffyhttps://www.gliffy.com/
fordiagramsthantraditionalcharts,suchasflowcharts,Venndiagrams,
networkdiagrams,andorgcharts.
VI. OnlineInfographicsResources
1. PeriodicTableofVisualizationMethods
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html,Get
inspirationtomodelyourdata.
2. TheNounProject
https://thenounproject.com/.Afantasticresourcestofindiconsrelatedto
theconceptsyouneedtovisualizeinyourinfographicdesign.Mostofthe
iconsarefreeforuseunderCC.
3. 22freetoolsfordatavisualizationandanalysis
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2507728/enterpriseapplications/enterprise-applications-22-free-tools-for-data-visualizationand-analysis.html?nsdr=true
4. Coolinfographicshttp://www.coolinfographics.com/
5. EdwardTufte
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters
6. Informationisbeautifulhttp://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
byDavidMcCandless,anauthoranddesigner.
7. infographicsworldhttp://infographicworld.com/our-work/
Getinspirationfromsampleinfographicsworks.
8. Datavisualization.chSelectedToolshttp://selection.datavisualization.ch/
VII. Datasources
1. data.gov
http://www.data.gov/.ThisistheofficialdatawebsiteoftheU.S.
Government.
2. FactBrowser
http://www.factbrowser.com/
Itisasearchenginededicatedtoindexingthestatisticsquotedinnews
articlesandpressreleasesfromcompaniesandorganizations.
5
3. GooglePublicData
http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
Ithasdatasetsandmetricsfrommanyworldgovernmentsandglobal
organizations.
4. Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Itisadatasourceforinfographics.
5. WolframAlpha
http://www.wolframalpha.com/Ithassomestatisticsordatarelatedtothe
topic.
VIII. OnCampusResources
1. DigitalMediaCommons
http://dmc.rice.edu.Itsupportsdigitalmediaprojectsincludinginforgraphics
work.
2. DataVisualizationCenter
https://www.crc.rice.edu/visualization/.Itsupportshighperformance
computingandvisualizingbigscientificdata.
3. KellyCenterforGovernmentInformation,Data,andGeospatialServices
http://library.rice.edu/gov.Itprovidesaccesstogovernmentinformation.
4. GISDataCenter
http://library.rice.edu/gdc.ItoffersaccesstoGISsoftwareanddataresources.
IX. ReferencesandResources
1. CreativeSuite*Proofingcolors.(n.d.).RetrievedNovember17,2015,from
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creativesuite/cs/using/WS3F71DA01-0962-4b2eB7FD-C956F8659BB3.html
2. Creighton,P.(2015).SchoolLibraryInfographics[electronicresource]:Howto
CreateThem,WhytoUseThem.SantaBarbara:ABC-CLIO.
3. EdwardTufteforum:Choiceofcolorsinprintandgraphicsforcolor-blindreaders.
(n.d.).RetrievedNovember17,2015,from
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000HT
4. Few,S.(2004).Showmethenumbers:designingtablesandgraphstoenlighten.
©2004.
6
5. Krum,R.(2014).Coolinfographics[electronicresource]:effectivecommunication
withdatavisualizationanddesign.Indianapolis,Indiana:JohnWiley&Sons.
6. Lankow,J.,Ritchie,J.,&Crooks,R.(2012).Infographics[electronicresource]:the
powerofvisualstorytelling.©2012.
7. SFIMA(SouthFloridaInteractiveMarketingAssociation)CoolInfograp….(09:52:21
UTC).Retrievedfromhttp://www.slideshare.net/rtkrum/sfima-south-floridainteractive-marketing-association-cool-infographics-feb-2014
7