Infographics is the name given to a form of visual display that harnesses the power of graphical elements such as diagrams, maps, charts, or symbols together with the written word to convey information that would be difficult or even impossible to communicate effectively through other means. Infographics take many forms, from botanical illustrations and family trees to transit maps and pie charts representing economic data. Most of us encounter infographics on a daily basis in our media and as we navigate the physical world.
One interesting infographic I’ve seen recently involves a personal interest of mine. I am a craft beer enthusiast and a home brewer, and I was curious to learn how the American palate is currently trending in terms of beer style preferences, especially in comparison with my own tastes. I am a heavy user of the information site Statista.com, which is chock-full of infographics on nearly every topic imaginable. I found the infographic below on that site, and it is a very effective and informative example of the art:
Without getting into minutiae regarding sample sizes, etc. let us take a look at the information covered in this example. Perhaps the most effective thing about this infographic is its use of color and shape. The format is a bar chart, and the individual bars are rendered as beer glasses, complete with a foamy head and colored in a way that represents the common colors of the individual beer styles considered. It’s clever, eye-catching, and likely to provoke a smile from any decent connoisseur of craft beer. I can’t really find anything lacking in this presentation. It’s simple, to the point, and contains just enough detail to get the job done.
By contrast, Dan Roam’s “Make Meetings Matter” infographic on his Showcase is, not to put too fine a point on it, ineffective and confusing. I find the symbology opaque, as there isn’t really any sort of key to what exactly the symbols are intended to mean. I grasp that he intends some process to act as a sort of lens to focus input and improve the efficacy of meetings and the utility of information either related to them or resulting from them, but the overall effect of Roam’s infographic in this instance is to leave me with more questions than conclusions.
Or maybe I’d just rather have a beer than a meeting. Wouldn’t you?
Works Cited:
Meirelles, Isabel. Design for Information: An Introduction to the Histories, Theories, and Best Practices Behind Effective Information Visualizations. Illustrated, Rockport Publishers, 2013.
“Showcase.” DIGITAL ROAM INC, www.danroam.com/showcase. Accessed 31 Oct. 2022.
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