The power of infographics 04 11 10

Infographics

Making difficult things simple

Tiffany St JamesThursday 04 Sept, 2010

What do we mean by infographics?

• Information graphics or infographics are graphic

visual representations of information, data or

knowledge.

• These graphics present complex information quickly

and clearly, such as is in signs, maps, journalism,

technical writing, or education.

[Source: Wikipedia]

What makes good information design?

[Source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net]

Why is it important in government?

• Conveying complex information simply

• Against a noisy backdrop

• Data has integrity

• Well presented data can ground ideas and concepts

From this…

…To this

Source: http://history.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Treasury

http://history.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Defra’s UK Climate Change Projections

Source:

http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/content/

view/641/500/

Saving lives by good comms?

Source: www.cognac.co.uk

Wikileaks

Source:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interacti

ve/2010/jul/26/ied-afghanistan-war-logs

Wikileaks

Source:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interacti

ve/2010/jul/26/ied-afghanistan-war-logs

Costs for av. British Taxpayer per day

You be the chancellor

Carbon Footprint Calculator

[Source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net]

What needs to happen next? (data)

• Getting data out of the geek ghettos to

enable people to

• interrogate it

• play with it

• interact with it

• NB: People won’t always create what you

want for free, take the ASBOrometer...

ASBOrometer

Consider:

• Data does not have to be boring

• How you can bring alive information for

your audiences?

• How you can get feedback and ideas with

interactive tools?

• How can you collaborate or facilitate ideas

that people find interesting in the online

space?

So what can I do?

• Departments: Free your data, support the movement

• Communicators: Present your data in interesting ways

• Businesses: Free your data

• Developers: Create visualisations, apps and tools

• Customers: Buy and demand apps

• All: Lobby to free data

Presentation at:www.slideshare.net/tiffanystjames

Tiffany St James

tiffany@stimulationltd.co.uk

@tiffanystjames