An infographic (information graphic) is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data. A well-designed infographic can help you simplify a complicated subject or turn an otherwise boring subject into a captivating experience. Visual representations of information aim to make the data easily understandable at a first glance. They help convey data in a compact and shareable form. Since visual messages are interpreted 60,000 times faster than textual ones, infographics have quickly become a popular method for presenting detailed data. While infographics are beautiful and efficient, they hold a strong responsibility of providing accurate data.

1. gather Data

Gather your data. Identify VERY reputable sources, like Data.gov, the EPA, the National Center for Education Statistics, World Health Organization, National Center for Education Statistics, Weather Underground, or Google Public Data. If your research is going to share out on a topic instead of statistics, still ensure your resources are very reputable.

2. Discover the story your data tells

Analyze your data discover the story that our data will tell. A great infographic has great data, but we first must discover what makes the data great. Here are things to look for in your data:

• Trends – look for things that repeat or occur in a consistent format
• History – observe change over time to see how data has evolved
• Comparisons – one of the best things to do is compare point A to point B this will help emphasize the point you want to make
• Scale – a great way to make comparisons is with scale to illustrate relationship between two data points
• Outliers – if something looks strange or a data point is well outside of the others consider investigating it as there may be a unique story there

There is a good chance you may already know the data you want to use to tell your infographic story, but this list will help you get started.

3. Determine your tool

Adobe Spark (Spark Post) is the newest and most exciting tool available across most devices. There are many templates available to create infographics on different websites like Canva and Piktochart that allow you to create an account with your school Google account, and both are free for students. Student feedback says that Canva has more template options and you can easily download your infographic as a pdf, jpg, or png, while Piktochart only allows png downloads. Additionally, many users find success using G Suite tools like Draw or Slides to create from scratch so they are not limited to a bank of icons AND are still able to collaborate. We also recommend The Noun Project as a database for finding icons.

See these tutorials for a quick demo using G Suite tools:

4. Draft

Identify your process as a learner. Do you work best by drafting on paper ahead of time? Do you create and revise as you go? Understand your process, and get started!

Trying to make a graph?

Use the Insert, Chart option in Google Slides, or try out a free online graph maker:

Looking for icons?

Try an icon database like The Noun Project, or use the toolbar to search "icon ______" for transparent results from Google Images.