Week 3: Best Practices for Infographics
Last week, I created my first infographic and let's just say I have learned a lot since then. I stated last week that my infographic did not have enough data in it, so this week I have really focused on the best ways to present data in a professional, understandable manner.
I would like to begin by first clarifying the difference between an infographic and a dashboard, as I was confused by this when I first started. "Infographics tell a premeditated story to guide the audience to conclusions (subjective). Data visualizations or dashboards let the audience draw their own conclusions (objective)," (Chan, 2017). Dashboards are meant to inform while infographics are meant to persuade. This difference is important to understand before creating either type of graphic.
I watched a very informative video on data visualization and the best practices to use and also avoid when creating a dashboard. The video defines a dashboard as a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. This seems simple enough, but there is a lot more to consider when creating a dashboard. The video outlines 12 common mistakes people make when creating dashboards, but I have made my own shortened, modified list of do's and don'ts that I think is a little bit easier to understand to the beginner. It also talks about key design techniques which I have included in this list.
1.) Avoid using scrollbars and pie charts. Both of these only work in very limited situations and usually just end up looking very messy and complicated.
2.) Make sure you know who your audience is. Understand the difference between preparing a dashboard for corporate and preparing one for the general public.
3.) Make sure you use concise and clear details. You only have a limited amount of space to display your data so make sure you are emphasizing the key details.
4.) Be very careful when choosing what type of graph to use. Make sure it is appropriate for the specific data you are trying to present.
5.) Sameness. This can be a very good thing and also a very bad thing. Try to avoid meaningless variety. This means using a variety of colors, graphs, and data, which will only end up confusing your viewer rather than keeping them interested. It is completely acceptable to use five line graphs on one dashboard if that is what presents each set of data most accurately.
6.) Color and highlighting are essential elements in dashboarding. Be careful to use them sparingly and effectively. It may seem like using a bunch of bold and bright colors is a good idea, but this could actually be very distracting and annoying to the viewer. Try using neutral colors that appear in nature for a large majority of the dashboard and only highlight the most important parts.
7.) Avoid crosstabs, and large pieces of data, such as imports from Excel.
8.) If you can make your dashboard interactive, do it.
9.) Make use of the prime real estate on your dashboard. This will be the middle and the upper left corner. Put your most important information here.
10.) There are 4 categories of visual perception; color, form, position, and motion. The video explains these in-depth and how to utilize them, and I think they are very useful.
Below I have placed two images of dashboards. They both use the exact same data sets, they have just told the story in a different way. After reading this list and watching the video, let me know which one you think conveys the data more effectively and efficiently and tell me why you think this!
Dashboard #1
Dashboard #2
Thank you for reading my post this week, and I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say!
Link for video: https://lnkd.in/eZJXK56
Source: https://blog.prototypr.io/getting-it-right-why-infographics-are-not-the-same-as-data-visualizations-a23da7de745e
I would like to begin by first clarifying the difference between an infographic and a dashboard, as I was confused by this when I first started. "Infographics tell a premeditated story to guide the audience to conclusions (subjective). Data visualizations or dashboards let the audience draw their own conclusions (objective)," (Chan, 2017). Dashboards are meant to inform while infographics are meant to persuade. This difference is important to understand before creating either type of graphic.
I watched a very informative video on data visualization and the best practices to use and also avoid when creating a dashboard. The video defines a dashboard as a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. This seems simple enough, but there is a lot more to consider when creating a dashboard. The video outlines 12 common mistakes people make when creating dashboards, but I have made my own shortened, modified list of do's and don'ts that I think is a little bit easier to understand to the beginner. It also talks about key design techniques which I have included in this list.
1.) Avoid using scrollbars and pie charts. Both of these only work in very limited situations and usually just end up looking very messy and complicated.
2.) Make sure you know who your audience is. Understand the difference between preparing a dashboard for corporate and preparing one for the general public.
3.) Make sure you use concise and clear details. You only have a limited amount of space to display your data so make sure you are emphasizing the key details.
4.) Be very careful when choosing what type of graph to use. Make sure it is appropriate for the specific data you are trying to present.
5.) Sameness. This can be a very good thing and also a very bad thing. Try to avoid meaningless variety. This means using a variety of colors, graphs, and data, which will only end up confusing your viewer rather than keeping them interested. It is completely acceptable to use five line graphs on one dashboard if that is what presents each set of data most accurately.
6.) Color and highlighting are essential elements in dashboarding. Be careful to use them sparingly and effectively. It may seem like using a bunch of bold and bright colors is a good idea, but this could actually be very distracting and annoying to the viewer. Try using neutral colors that appear in nature for a large majority of the dashboard and only highlight the most important parts.
7.) Avoid crosstabs, and large pieces of data, such as imports from Excel.
8.) If you can make your dashboard interactive, do it.
9.) Make use of the prime real estate on your dashboard. This will be the middle and the upper left corner. Put your most important information here.
10.) There are 4 categories of visual perception; color, form, position, and motion. The video explains these in-depth and how to utilize them, and I think they are very useful.
Below I have placed two images of dashboards. They both use the exact same data sets, they have just told the story in a different way. After reading this list and watching the video, let me know which one you think conveys the data more effectively and efficiently and tell me why you think this!
Dashboard #1
Dashboard #2
Thank you for reading my post this week, and I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say!
Link for video: https://lnkd.in/eZJXK56
Source: https://blog.prototypr.io/getting-it-right-why-infographics-are-not-the-same-as-data-visualizations-a23da7de745e
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