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Tag Archives: #Infographics
Data Visualizations in Health
Vizhealth was a very interesting website to navigate and learn from. Two of the tools I used that helped create the data visualizations above was the risk calculator and the icon array generator. The first tool I used was the Risk generator. It prompted me with some questions to answer regarding my health, age, and other personal information. I decided to have fun with the calculator and input information that reflected an older woman with high cholesterol levels. The calculator then generated the visualizations to the right above to help me understand the results better. I think this is very helpful for visual learners in all fields, but especially the healthcare industry. This industry could not exist with performing studies and experiments, and these visualizations help make understanding results, ten times easier. After using this calculator, I then used the icon array generator. This tool was useful in visualizing the comparison between the true likelihood of a person with a similar health history to this woman developing cardiovascular disease.
Art of Information: Free Infographic Tools
There are many websites that offer free, easy to use, infographics. I found one called Piktochart. Very easy to sign up at (piktochart.com).
With infographics, we know there is visual engagement, storytelling, clarity and simplification if done correctly. With the right visual, it becomes more memorable and sharable. People tend to remember information that is presented with an infographic.
Below is an example of an infographic and its editing tools.
Developing Lyme Disease
I found Icon Array very useful and easy to use. I liked how it allowed me to change font size, color, etc. I would use it for simple data and no-frills visualizations to display for an audience. I played around with the colors for my example.
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Helpful Tools for Creating Effective Infographics
Link to image: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stefficao/friendship-pinterest-board-tiktok-trends
One of the most important tools for creating an infographic, is finding a solid platform to find useful photos and images pertaining to the topic of your graphic. One of the most useful platforms I have found for this job is Pinterest. Pinterest is an interactive social media platform that allows you to create a virtual “scrapbook” of images and links pertaining to your interests and needs. Once the user makes their own account, they are then able to browse through millions of photos, videos, links, and webpages curated to their specific interests. The user is then able to create virtual boards and folders that can be personalized with names to keep projects and ideas organized. All the user has to do is “pin” whatever image or link they may find interesting to one of their personal boards. Many times Pinterest is used for planning parties, costume ideas, organizational tips, style inspiration, and so much more. There is also a growing use of people sharing art, photos, and different images that can be used in digital design and the making of infographics. These images can help curate different aesthetics and appeal to different audiences’ moods and emotions.
Tools That May Helps Us Construct Infographics
Infographics are becoming increasingly popular over the years. With most information now being shared online there are some tools that can help you create the best infographic.
- Canva
Canva is a free design webpage that provides hundreds of templates for flyers, posters, presentations, and more. If you do not want to use the templates you are still able to create your own work. They offer many options for graphics or you could upload your own. The website also allows you to share your design so multiple people on your team can work together. Students can sign up for CanvaEducation and get access to even more templates and graphics for free.
2. Procreate
Procreate is an editing and art software that allows users to create artwork and edit images. It can be downloaded in the app store for Apple product users for $10. The app gives you options of multiple tools to draw, write, add images, and crop whatever you want.
3. Adobe Illustrator
Similar to Procreate, Adobe Illustrator or Ai allows you to create just about anything you want. Ai can be downloaded on any desktop, PC, or tablet. It allows you to draw designs, add text, and upload graphics to your canvas. Adobe Illustrator does require you to have an adobe account and is free to download and use. However to unlock more features and tools it costs a monthly subscription $20.99.
Infographics
Exceptional visualization examples: Kurzgesagt
Link to image: Kurzgesagt | Logopedia | Fandom
Link to channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell – YouTube
For this week’s blog post, I am sharing one of my favorite content creators from YouTube. Their channel is titled “Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell,” and they specialize in short, scientific, informational videos. All of their content contains a great deal of creative, and effective infographics. Kurzgesagt excels at achieving the ideal blend of artistic expression and information display, often the main focus of information visualization. Combinations of encaptivating characters, objects, and places alongside smooth and crafty transitions help to educate the general public on some fascinating topics. All that is required is to find a topic or title that jumps out to you, and their videos will speak for themselves.
Infographics
By Shaun Sneddon
- Examples of insightful data visualizations:
- First example I found that very interesting because I do love Star Wars was a graph of all the characters (over 20,000) are connected.
- The second example I found intriguing was a 3D data visual of where higher populations are located in Europe. When you look at a map of Europe you see the cities and can think that’s where a lot of people live but with this 3D visual you can see where people are vastly located.
- Example datasets for potential project use:
- Airline Safety
- Traffic accidents in a community
- Fatal Car accidents by country
- Stress at universities
- Tools that may help us construct Infographics:
- There is many websites that can help students construct Infographics such as Infogram, Adobe Express, and many more.
- Tools such as accessing data and images on the Internet.
- Website used for the images https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/data-analytics/data-visualization-examples/
Sankey Visualizations
I think the Sankey graphics have some upsides and downsides. I like the interactivity of the website, and I feel like in certain ways it can give you a good perspective of the energy breakdown nationally and regionally but other places it starts to faulter. In particular I don’t like the vagueness of how certain energy streams translate to used and unused power. In the first picture you can see that geothermal energy accounts for an extremely low percentage of total energy usage nationally, but then the avenues that it goes down have varying degrees of how much power is unused. When you have this discrepancy it’s hard to tell how efficient each power source actually is.
I do like the energy breakdowns for the regional map because I think this chart makes it easy to draw some conclusions about the plausibility of renewable energy reliance. As a disclaimer I am a large proponent of sustainable energy conversion, however, I think from the below two pictures you can see that this isn’t an easy task. Especially when you look at where the sources are going. The transportation sector is still dominated by oil, so there is a significant amount of progress that needs to be made in creating more efficient energy systems that can support the use of clean energy.
In conclusion I think that this website does some things right and some things wrong. A chart is supposed to guide the audience through the data that’s compiled, but I found myself questioning how accurate the numbers were, and without a lot of context for how much energy “.9” or “300” meant, it was hard to see the magnitude of differences. In terms of layout I thought the chart did a good job of graying out what wasn’t being actively clicked on, and that helped guide my eye through the different pathways that would otherwise be tangled up with each other.
-Jack Swenson
Sankey Visualizations
A Sankey Diagram is a visualization that Is used to depict a flow from one set of values to another. They help locate the most important contributions to a flow. Sankey visualizations are best used when the topic is energy, time, or money.
Although there is a ton of information presented in this visualization and it seems cluttered, I think this is the most effective way to view this data. This visualization is super effective considering that there are so many different aspects on this chart that are combined into one piece. Firstly, the energy system is broken down into the types of energy on the left hand side. The visualization allows you to click on each tab. When you click on each type of energy, it shows you what percentage of energy is expended and where it goes. For example, when you click on solar energy it shows you that solar energy accounts for 0.42% of all energy expended, and that 0.17% goes to electricity, and 0.25% goes to residential use. The infographic then breaks it down even more. It shows the amount of energy that is unused, and used from each category (electricity, residential, commercial, industrial, transportation). The thickness of the flow indicates the amount of energy. For example, you can see that most of the energy from transportation is unused because a larger flow moves from transportation to unused energy. All in all, there is so much information that can be digested from this visualization. It appears to be a lot, but when you break it down into pieces it is very effective. I believe this is the best way to display this information.
UN CONTRIBUTION: Pie Chart Edition
Pie charts are a difficult tool to use because they require very specific scenarios to be the most applicable. For my perfect-use case I decided to display the contributions of countries to the UN budget, shown as a percentage.
I think this is a perfect data set to use a pie chart because it’s simple and doesn’t have an excess of labels. This data set as it’s shown tells you that the US contributes almost one quarter of the total UN budget, and that the top four countries combined contribute nearly as much as the remaining 130 members combined. You may be able to add a fifth or sixth country to this pie chart, but then you lose the 50:50 narrative that is very easily read here.
Source: www.auswaertiges-amt.de/
-Jack Swenson