From a map of the local transit network to a graph displaying a cellphone’s monthly usage, information graphics have become a regular part of people’s lives.
Infographics have been around for thousands of years, with cave paintings being the earliest example, but they haven’t always been well-received.
“Most people in the past have shunned infographics,” said Larry Weldon, a statistics professor at Simon Fraser University. “Now they’re seen as a great way to communicate a message.”
Chris Collins, an assistant professor in the faculty of science at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), said people use infographics all the time, even though they may not call them that.
“We draw diagrams, make sketches . . . information graphics are just a formalized version of that,” said Collins, who specializes in information visualization at UOIT. Infographics help communicate information to the public, he added.
Infographics also help people focus on the information itself by “[moving] the information from the periphery . . . to a more central position in the argument,” said Brian Fisher, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology, in an email.
In addition to simplifying information, however, infographics have the potential of complicating it, which Collins said can lead to information overload.
“The temptation is always to try to present more information in such a way that it is understandable by the reader. This is not easy,” Fisher said.
“There’s certainly a tendency to make them overly complex,” said John Dill, a professor at the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University. “It ends up not being helpful and also [turns] off the person who you are trying to sell this visualization to.”
No longer limited to the two dimensional print images often displayed in textbooks, infographics have evolved into web graphics that allow users to interact with the data.
One way to increase the comprehension of infographics is through adding interaction, essentially giving the reader an active role in the conversation, Fisher said.
“This parallels what has happened in YouTube etc . . . where we went from consuming media from radio and television to reworking it and re-presenting it,” Fisher said.
Interactive infographics can help alleviate information overload by putting the viewers in control and letting them choose the information they want to look at, according to Collins.
There are now entire departments dedicated to the creation of infographics at publications like the Toronto Star, the New York Times and CNN, according to Collins.
“I think it’s a really exciting and hot area right now,” he said.
While the field of infographics is rapidly developing, it’s important for people to possess the visual literacy to understand them, he added. Fisher said he believes people are becoming more and more used to information graphics.
“I think we are beginning to build a ‘visual vocabulary’ to communicate the implications of data that a reasonable proportion of the population can understand,” he said. “This means that instead of simply accepting [or not] the conclusions of a writer, readers can draw their own conclusions.”
