Cool Infographics (eBook)

Randy Krum is founder and president of InfoNewt, an infographic design and data visualization company, and the creator of Cool Infographics (coolinfographics.com). He designs infographics for both online publications and internal communications, and consults on building infographic landing pages, social sharing links, infographic SEO, reaching key influencers, and tracking results.

Introduction xiii

1 The Science of Infographics 1

Information Overload 9

The Rise of the Informavore 9

The Rise of Big Data 11

Why Infographics Work 14

Pattern Recognition 15

The Language of Context 16

The Picture Superiority Effect 20

The Art of Storytelling 27

Introduction/Foundation 28

Ah-Ha! The Main Event 28

Conclusion/Call-to-action 29

Media Formats of Infographics 31

Static Infographics 31

Zooming Infographics 34

Clickable Infographics 37

Animated Infographics 42

Video Infographics 45

Interactive Infographics 48

Final Thoughts 52

2 Online Infographics 57

Vertical Versus Horizontal Layouts 58

Types of Online Infographics 67

Informative Infographics 69

Persuasive Infographics 71

Visual Explanations 78

Infographic Advertisements 83

PR Infographics 88

Infographic Posters 90

Intellectual Property Issues 98

Copyright 98

Creative Commons 100

Trademarks and the Fair Use Doctrine 103

Images and Illustrations 105

AIGA, the Professional Association for Design 107

Should You Copyright Your Infographic? 107

Final Thoughts 108

3 Infographics and Seo 113

The Search Engine Challenge 115

The Objective of SEO 118

The Link Bait Challenge 119

It's All About Relevance 123

Online Lifespan 126

Infographic Release Strategy 135

Landing Pages 135

Self-promotion 148

Promotion, Publicity, and Outreach 155

Final Thoughts 169

4 Infographic Resumes 173

Key Benefits 180

What's the Risk? 180

Designing an Infographic Resume 181

Timeline Designs 183

Relative Experience Designs 187

Geographic Designs 190

Company Logos and Icons 192

Software Application Logos 201

Using an Infographic Resume 204

Job Application Systems 204

Standalone Infographic Resume 205

Combined Infographic Resume Design 208

Publishing Infographic Resumes Online 210

Designing Infographic Resumes for Print 211

Infographic Resumes on the iPad (or Tablet) 215

Infographic Resume Design Tools 217

All About You 228

5 Internal Confidential Infographics 233

Improving Internal Communications 234

The Fear of Confidential Information 236

Ideas for Visualizing Internal Data 238

Budgets 238

Sales and Profit Data 244

Business Processes 246

Strategies 251

Better Presentations Using Infographics 259

Final Thoughts 268

6 Designing Infographics 271

Be Accurate 272

Visualizing Area 274

Pick a Good Topic 281

Trending Topics 281

Controversial Topics 282

Search for Prior Art 282

Focus on the Key Message 283

The 5-second Rule 284

Tell One Story Really Well 285

Visualize When Possible 288

Big Fonts Are NOT Data Visualizations 288

Visuals Are Perceived as More Important 290

Minimize Text 291

Eliminate Chart Legends 293

Be Data Transparent 295

No Data Sources List 296

Vague Data Sources 297

Questionable Data Sources 298

Best Practices 298

The Fine Print 299

Company Logo 299

Copyright License 300

Original Landing Page URL 300

Designer Credit 301

Putting It Together 302

Final Thoughts 302

7 Design Resources 305

Desktop Software Tools 306

Vector Graphics 306

Image Editing 314

Online Data Visualization Tools 317

Finding Data Online 328

Online Infographics Design Sites 330

Reading List 337

Index 339