This week our focus was on infographics which "combine visual literacy with data analysis to portray a visual representation that leads the reader to a clear conclusion" (Fasso, 2015). We looked at a selection of infographics and decided which one we felt was the most powerful for representing data. I thought that the above infographic (received from CQUniversity, 2015) was the most powerful combination of visual literacy and data as it utilised symbols to represent the number of deaths by the disease or war which acted as a simple comparative method.
We asked this week to explore a variety of different templates for infographics at easel.ly.com and then create our own using one of the templates. I decided to make an infographic about the types of household pets we have in Australia and which are the most popular according to the data and percentages by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (data sourced from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/5ef8016f420622a3ca2570ec00753524!OpenDocument) as animals is a topic that interests me. The data was from 1994 (the year I was born) and although this is clearly out dated the point of my infographic was to learn how to create them and why visual literacy can be so powerful. I chose a template within the easel.ly website and modified it to suit my data. At first I found this to be a challenging process as each image or text box you no longer required had to be deleted individually, but once I practised utilising the program it was satisfying to see the data take shape in a colourful online platform. I used images provided within the website and also uploaded a range of images for my infographic* in order to enhance its aesthetic appeal. As in the infographic above on pandemic vs war I chose symbols/images to represent the animals and minimal text to display my data. The link to my infographic can be found below:
Most common household pets infographic
Although my infographic was very simple it still took a long time to create as each image or text box was dragged across the screen and individually placed, colours and fonts were changed and I assessed it constantly in terms of whether it was an effective tool with which to display the data. I would therefore say that a drawback of using infographics would be time consumption and the desire for perfection. In saying that, I feel that they have great potential within the 21st century environment as they intertwine design and technology to creatively and visually represent data to an audience in an efficient way. From looking at different infographics it was clear that information was much easier to access as it was decomposed into smaller, more manageable facts as opposed to reading through pages of a document to find the key data. This could be useful in the classroom environment as students would not need to become overwhelmed with text and could instead focus on evaluating the facts at hand. In addition, using programs such as easel.ly within the classroom could allow students to present data of their own possibly in the form of assessment using a digital tool in a creative and efficient way. Finally this online tool means that it can easily be accessed and viewed by the child creator, peers, parents or teachers by using the shareable link, adding members to the website or by embedding the infographic to a blog or other online journal. This in turn, broadens the learning environment from static to collective (The ASIDE Blog, 2015) where feedback can be given and accessed from a range of viewers.
*Images for infographic were sourced from:
Cat: http://my.net-link.net/~cwjohnso/genetics/shadedfin2.html
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