Infographics Preview - Assigned 12/2, due 12/4 - Minor

What is an Infographic?

Infographics are just what the name implies: graphics that display information. There are lots of creative ways to do this. The better you are at designing infographics, the more likely people will engage with your story. You are creating a new "entry point" that enhances your overall design package.

There are lots of types of Infographics. Click the website linked below for more information:

Types of Infographics

On your Google Site, make a new subpage called Infographics Preview and answer the following questions:

1. List the 8 suggested types of Infographics from the website.

2. Which type of Infographic might you use for the following things. Please be specific and use the types from the website. Make sure you explain why you think that would be the best method:

a. You want to show someone how to change a tire

b. You want to show the results of a poll where you asked students where they access daily news and you gave them a set of 10 choices

c. You want to show the concentration of voters across the United States and who they chose for the most recent presidential election

d. When you want to guide a group of students into the best job for them in a specific industry

e. You want to show a series of statistics based on age and income growth across time

3. Look at each graphic presented on the website. Each graphic shares some similar elements, what are those things? These are SHARED things that every single graphic had, so do not compare the eight types. What are the things you see in every graphic you looked at?

4. What do you think Infographics add to a newspaper page or spread?

5. What do you think would cause a newspaper editor to decide to use an infographic instead of a photograph or more text?

Now let's make an infographic using a web-based  resource:

Directions: To help you get used to creating Infographics, we are going to use an online service that helps you generate cool looking Infographics.

Step 1: Go to http://infogr.am/ to sign-up for an account. You should be able to sign-in using your AISD issued gmail account.

Once you get logged into the site, click on the Infographics option at the top. This will open up a long list of options for you to use to create your Infographic. Don't pick one yet, you need the data first. Always let the data drive your choices. Content drives design, data drives infographic selections.

Step 2: Go to any of the following to find some interesting statistics that you could chart in an Infographic:

https://www.statista.com

http://infomory.com/category/numbers/

https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

https://www.usa.gov/statistics

Step 3: Select the best type of infographic that will best illustrate the data you have selected. Start using the infogram options to fill in the appropriate data in the places it needs to go. If you would prefer to do an infographic without using specific data, like a "how-to" or a "timeline" or some sort of "flowchart" you can certainly do that, but you would need to source that information from a specific website, so you will have to do your own research.

Step 4: Make sure you have added a headline and all the appropriate labels for your infographic. You should try to find a way to add the SOURCE of your data to the infographic, but not all of the template options allow for this. Please understand that in the real world, you must include WHERE you got your data from. It is crucial that your readers know the source of all data so they can do their own, independent research if they wish.

Step 5: Once you finish your graphic, post your info graphic to your Google Site by taking a screen shot of your graphic and posting it. If you need support with this, please let me know. I haven't asked students to do this before, so I am not sure the best route to make sure I can see your creation. You may have to use an Embed Code.

FYI - here is the schedule of assignments 

for the rest of the semester:

12/2 - Infographics preview

12/4 - Political Cartoons

12/6 - Illustrator Basics

12/9 - Illustrator Project

12/11 - Illustrator Project AND CE #2.2

12/16 - Finish off all work - News stories, Opinion Story #2 edits, Illustrator Project

Final Exam - Feature story preview, The Man with the Golden Voice, The man who played the violin, Feature Story Project Assigned for XMAS break