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Infographics
In recent years, you most likely have heard about or used the term “infographics,” which refers to “a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations, text, and images together into a format that tells a complete story” (Krum, 2014, p. 6). Data visualization, as it is referred to in this definition, represents different types of visual illustrations of numerical data, such as charts, graphs, scatter plots, progress bars, networks, and other data visualization methods. Thus, infographics and data visualizations are not synonymous, and data visualizations alone may not necessarily represent infographics. It should be emphasized that a good infographic should tell a complete story about a specific subject or topic. This infographic from SenSource, which presents facts and figures in an attempt to show how libraries could outlast the current threats posed to them by the advances in information technologies, is a good example of an infographic telling a complete story.
Infographics have become very popular during the past few years. To recognize the ever-increasing popularity of infographics as a new area of interest in representing and communicating data and information, take a look at the interesting Google Trends chart of Internet searches for the word “infographics” (Figure 1). Having seen the growing popularity of infographics, one may ask, “What makes infographics so popular?” The popularity of infographics has to do with the current information overload that has resulted in availability of vast amounts of data and information that have to be processed and consumed. Infographics allow us to better understand and retain information using our powerful visual ability (Lankow, Crooks, & Ritchie, 2012).
Figure 1. A screenshot of a Google Trends chart showing searches for "infographics" conducted in the last decade.
As clearly stated by Phetteplace (2012), infographics are a modern method of representing and communicating large and complex data and information in an appealing and easily comprehensible way to demonstrate otherwise incomprehensible trends and patterns. The processing and consumption of complex and large amounts of data and information require better and more effective methods of communication, and infographics are at the forefront of these methods (Lankow, Crooks, & Ritchie, 2012). Infographics help tackle the “challenges of [data] size and complexity by fusing the art of design” (Phetteplace, 2012), making the consumption...