Ries's BALT 318 Blog

Given the title of this post, networking is probably the most important thing any person will do in their life.  Be it in the business world or not, it will always be the person that knows the most people that will be successful.  At least that is what society as a whole used to believe before artificial intelligence became a threat.  In the future will it be the person who knows the most computers or the most about computers that will be the most successful?  Most likely.  In this new age of technology and globalization, there are more and more people available to participate in the world economy every single day.  This being said, it also makes it harder for those who were already participants in society to stay relevant.  Networks of people across the globe are getting larger and more intricate constantly.   Here is an infographic that someone else has created about artificial intelligence.  The image itself is blurry.   S...

I have used all of the tips and tricks I have learned about creating effective infographics to put together a final project.  As I have updated you guys on in previous weeks' blog posts, I decided to create an infographic that the company Beach for Dogs could use as a marketing poster to hang up in their locations.  Here is an image of the infographic that I created, as well as a link to the infographic itself as well as the powerpoint that I created explaining the learning process throughout the whole process. See the Infographic on Google Drive  See the Powerpoint Additionally, I have also updated and refreshed my LinkedIn account and I have gotten a lot of new connections as well.  It is crazy how me just going on and adding a few things made me appear in more employer searches each week as well as how many people started to try and connect with me. Finally, returning to the topic of artificial intelligence because it really is something that we nee...

After looking through some of my old infographics and with some feedback, there is one final thing to consider when putting the finishing touches on your infographic.  Spacing is very important to consider before sending out your infographic for everyone to see.  Making sure that there is the right amount of information, no too much and not too little is a battle in itself.  But then, making sure that all of that information is aligned and spaced out properly is a whole different battle. I took an example of one of the previous infographics that I have created and keeping in mind the idea of spacing, I realized there was a lot wrong with what I once thought was the final product.  Here is the original infographic: Now, here is the corrected infographic with objects spaced out a lot better.  After going back into the original infographic, I realized that it did not really look as pleasing to the eye as I had thought it did when I made it, especially wh...

With this new age of technological advancement and social media, LinkedIn is a great tool.  Not only is it a great way to connect with peers, coworkers, or future employers, it is also a great pathway to share, present, and publish your creations.  I have talked about posting links to the infographics that I have created rather than just posting the image to prevent blurry or small images.  LinkedIn is also a great way to share this kind of information with people who you would really want to see it.  The fact that I can take this blog, and all of the work that I have put into it, and put a link to it on my LinkedIn page and give a brief explanation of what I did is amazing.  Even more, the fact that this could lead to a possible future employer reaching out to me because they liked my work or were interested in what I created is the truly astounding feature. But, before a possible employer will even look at your profile, you have to make sure it is ...

Image source:  https://www.verdict.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/shutterstock_1048845137-e1535555256352-1440x1008.jpg   Although I am someone who is not very well-educated on artificial intelligence, I am very interested in learning more about it, especially in regard to how it will change politics, economics, business, and everything else in between in the future.  I also understand that there are a lot of sources of fake information, particularly when dealing with a new and unpredictable topic such as artificial intelligence.  I have talked about infographics and dashboards for the last eleven weeks.  I have told you guys about all of the different systems and software that you can use to create these useful and efficient tools.  But now, I must force you to consider the influx of artificial intelligence into the workplace and how that will affect jobs in infographics and data visualization in the future.  Throughout my research into the t...

We have learned almost everything there is to learn about infographics, now the hard part is putting everything together and actually applying it to real life applications.  Infographics need to be detailed and simple at the same time.  They need to be filled with data and valuable content yet also easily understandable and accessible to as many people as possible.  This is achievable but it requires a lot of knowledge, experience, and skill.  Going a step beyond infographics, dashboards are the next step up from infographics.   Infographics are great marketing tactics and useful tools for businesses in that aspect, but dashboards take infographics to the next level.  Dashboards are more or less better for internal, or business to business use rather than business to consumer.  The reader has to have some general knowledge of the topic in order to understand the information presented by the dashboard, which also means that the creator of ...

Infographics are a great way to communicate information quickly and effectively to an intended audience.  But, in today's day and age, it is becoming harder and harder to tell a story and actually grab people's attention long enough for them to listen to the story.  This is where interactive infographics are so beneficial.  They allow the viewer to dive deeper into the infographic.  They can physically click on things which allows them to connect with the information more.  Also, it is much easier to tell a story with interactive infographics.  Rather than just throwing a whole page of information at the viewer and hoping that they are attracted to the right parts at the right time to understand the story is one difficult task as we have learned over the past few weeks.  Interactive infographics allow the viewer to take in only small pieces of information at a time in whatever order the writer intends, allowing for a much easier story follow....

I talked about thinking like a designer last week, but it is so important to creating infographics that I am going to talk about it this week too!  So, what does thinking like a designer actually mean?  It means exactly what it sounds like it means.  What do designers do?  They create things that are aesthetically pleasing to whoever is intended on seeing the creation.  An interior designer's job is to design a room or house that the person living in the house will be content looking at every day for the rest of their life in that house.  That is a pretty challenging task when you think about it.  Designers create with the viewer in mind.  This is exactly the same for infographics.  If they are not designed directly for the viewer, they will serve no purpose.  For example, if someone was creating an infographic for a hardware store such as Ace Hardware, they are not going to use pinks and purples.  They are also not going t...

Thus far, we have covered the importance of infographics, best practices in creating them, and the importance of simplifying your infographic.  It may seem like we now have all the tools to create perfect infographics, but there is still a lot to learn.  This week, I would like to explain both the why and the how of thinking like a designer when it comes to creating infographics as well as dashboards. Personally, I have struggled so far in my creation of infographics mainly on the information and data side.  Finding out what I actually want to create an infographic on and how to obtain accurate and interesting information and images is quite challenging.  This will become easier once I actually start creating infographics for my specific clients which I will update you guys on very shortly here today. But first, right now I would like to address some more tools for creating effective infographics.  Two weeks ago, we talked about the importance of si...