Week 5: Infographics are Simple

Last week I talked about dashboards and Tableau, an incredibly helpful software for creating dashboards.  I still need a bit more practice using Tableau before I can blog about it so stay tuned for that post later on!

This week, I will be going back to infographics and reviewing some platforms that are commonly used to create them.  I will be creating two infographics, both using the same bulk of information, both with the same message trying to be relayed.  One will be created in Piktochart and the other in Microsoft Powerpoint.  I have chosen to create these infographics based on a topic that I am currently interested in and have been reading a lot about lately, globalization.  My ultimate goal this week is to inform you of the benefits and downsides of each both Piktochart and Powerpoint so you know which one will be most useful when you go to create your very own infographic.

Before I get started with that, I want to touch on the importance of simplification of your infographic.  Society is on information overload today.  People are only going to glimpse at a graphic for a second before they decide whether they want to keep reading or not.  Putting too much information or "clutter" on an infographic will not allow the viewer to get the main point fast enough and they will simply move on.  On the other hand, if you do not put enough information in your graphic, the viewer will not be encouraged to consider or look further into your graphic.  Finding the right balance of information is vital, but also quite difficult to achieve given how much information there is in the world today as well as how many different audiences will be interpreting the infographic you create.  I would advise you to have a simple idea that you want to get across to your target and use only what is necessary to get that simplified point across.  You have to inform the viewer enough to make them think, but also not too much to the point where they get bored.

Ok, so here are the infographics that I created this week.

Infographic #1: Created using Piktochart

Infographic #2: Created using Microsoft Powerpoint

After creating these and experimenting with Piktochart and Powerpoint, I have learned a few things that I would like to pass on to you.  Overall, I think Piktochart is a much better program to use than both Canva and Powerpoint.  The Piktochart infographic took significantly less time to create than the Powerpoint one as well as when I used Canva.  Piktochart also has a lot of user-friendly tools that allow you to create, graphs, maps, and charts to portray whatever data you would like.  I did not use this feature in my infographics this time, but I think that it could be an incredibly useful tool to almost anyone.  The Smart Art function of Powerpoint was very useful and would be good for creating infographics in which you desire to show relationships between different items and plan on having a lot of words in your infographic.  The graphics portion is rather limited and difficult to use, as Piktochart and Canva both have a lot more options for icons, text boxes, and images and this is what will really set your infographic apart from the rest.    

One last note, in terms of simplification, the infographics that I created this week could be simplified.  Globalization is a huge topic that impacts nearly every portion of life today.  After further review, I doubt that the graphs were necessary, but I also think they were required to validate my point and make it credible.  I think the top part of my Piktocahrt graphic may be all I really needed.  The main message that I would like to get across to my viewer, is that if we do not stop and figure out how were are going to manage and regulate this new globalized world, the rich are going to keep getting richer and the poor and going to keep getting poorer.  I would love to get some feedback as to how you guys think that I could have portrayed this message in a clearer, more concise way. 

Thank you!