I came across this Infographic about Infographics (created by Phil Gyford) the other day and couldn’t help but share it. It’s so true that’s it’s actually pretty funny. Infographics seem to be the latest trend these days for displaying data of any sort, even being seen used as a creative new way to show-off resumes! The only problem is some people are going a little over-board either thinking they have to show the data in this format to remain ‘edgy’ or are having to comply with the request of others to ditch more contemporary styles of data presentation for “something that looks cool.”
You’ll see infographics used a lot when people release “Social Media Reports” or data on whatever the latest trends are. Sometimes it’s like they’re just going through their chart/graph options and including one of each using the same data. Phil best described it here:
That same figure as a pie chart which makes this look more complicated.
Come on guys, the whole point of using creative formats like this to display data is to help the reader better digest the information, not just show them something pretty. Planners, while you might be pretty good with your charting tools, don’t forget that there’s a whole team of art directors just around the corner who create ‘pretty’ graphics all day long and would love to cut out the middle-man (aka how creative dept.’s see account planning). The message derived from all your research and analysis are what you need to get across first and foremost, not just another pdf full of eye candy!
