📉Graphical Representation: Infographic (Just the Quotes)

"An infographic’s headline should summarize the main point of the presentation. Any introductory text or 'chatter' should explain the most newsworthy information within the context of the visual story being told; i.e., is the what of the story most important? Is the how of the story most important?, etc." (Jennifer George-Palilonis," A Practical Guide to Graphics Reporting: Information Graphics for Print, Web & Broadcast", 2006)

"Text should provide the information and context that visuals cannot. By their nature, visuals can be ambiguous; well-written sentences are not. Infographics - whether statistical, cartographic or diagrammatic - are meant to demonstrate data visually and holistically. So the visuals in an infographic should do as much explanatory 'lifting' as possible, allowing words only to qualify, specify, summarize and organize." (Jennifer George-Palilonis," A Practical Guide to Graphics Reporting: Information Graphics for Print, Web & Broadcast", 2006)

"Information graphics are an essential component of technical communication. Very few technical documents or presentations can be considered complete without graphical elements to present some essential data. Because engineers are visually oriented, graphic aids allow their thoughts and ideas to be better understood by other engineers. Information graphics are essential in presenting data because they simplify the content, offer a visually pleasing alternative to gray text in a proposal or an article, and thereby invite interest." (Dennis K Lieu & Sheryl Sorby, "Visualization, Modeling, and Graphics for Engineering Design", 2009)

"All graphics present data and allow a certain degree of exploration of those same data. Some graphics are almost all presentation, so they allow just a limited amount of exploration; hence we can say they are more infographics than visualization, whereas others are mostly about letting readers play with what is being shown, tilting more to the visualization side of our linear scale. But every infographic and every visualization has a presentation and an exploration component: they present, but they also facilitate the analysis of what they show, to different degrees." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"For too many traditional journalists, infographics are mere ornaments to make the page look lighter and more attractive for audiences who grow more impatient with long-form stories every day. Infographics are treated not as devices that expand the scope of our perception and cognition, but as decoration." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"Graphics, charts, and maps aren’t just tools to be seen, but to be read and scrutinized. The first goal of an infographic is not to be beautiful just for the sake of eye appeal, but, above all, to be understandable first, and beautiful after that; or to be beautiful thanks to its exquisite functionality." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"In information graphics, what you show can be as important as what you hide." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"Some people use infographic to refer to representations of information perceived as casual, funny, or frivolous, and visualization to refer to designs perceived to be more serious, rigorous, or academic." (Noah Iliinsky & Julie Steele, "Designing Data Visualizations", 2011)

"The fact that an information graphic is designed to help us complete certain intellectual tasks is what distinguishes it from fine art." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"[...] the form of a technological object must depend on the tasks it should help with. This is one of the most important principles to remember when dealing with infographics and visualizations: The form should be constrained by the functions of your presentation. There may be more than one form a data set can adopt so that readers can perform operations with it and extract meanings, but the data cannot adopt any form. Choosing visual shapes to encode information should not be based on aesthetics and personal tastes alone." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"Thinking of graphics as art leads many to put bells and whistles over substance and to confound infographics with mere illustrations." (Alberto Cairo, "The Functional Art", 2011)

"[...] the term infographics is useful for referring to any visual representation of data that is: (•)  manually drawn (and therefore a custom treatment of the information); (•) specific to the data at hand (and therefore nontrivial to recreate with different data); (•) aesthetically rich (strong visual content meant to draw the eye and hold interest); and (•) relatively data-poor (because each piece of information must be manually encoded)." (Noah Iliinsky & Julie Steele, "Designing Data Visualizations", 2011)

"Competition for your audiences attention is fierce. The fact that infographics are unique allows organizations an opportunity to make the content they are publishing stand out and get noticed." (Mark Smiciklas, "The Power of Inforgraphics", 2012)

"An infographic (short for information graphic) is a type of picture that blends data with design, helping individuals and organizations concisely communicate messages to their audience." (Mark Smiciklas, "The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences", 2012)

"[...] explorative infographics provide information in an unbiased fashion, enabling viewers to analyze it and arrive at their own conclusions. This approach is best used for scientific and academic applications, in which comprehension of collected research or insights is a priority. Narrative infographics guide the viewers through a specific set of information that tells a predetermined story. This approach is best used when there is a need to leave readers with a specific message to take away, and should focus on audience appeal and information retention." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Good infographics also communicate something meaningful. Communicating a message worth telling provides readers with something of value. While infographics can be a powerful vehicle of communication, they are sometimes produced arbitrarily or when a cohesive and interesting story isn’t present. If the information itself is incomplete, untrustworthy, or uninteresting, attempting to create a good infographic with it is more than a fool’s errand; it’s impossible." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Infographics combine data with design to enable visual learning. This communication process helps deliver complex information in a way that is more quickly and easily understood. [...] In an era of data overload, infographics offer your audience information in a format that is easy to consume and share. [...] A well-placed, self-contained infographic addresses our need to be confident about the content we’re sharing. Infographics relay the gist of your information quickly, increasing the chance for it to be shared and fueling its spread across a wide variety of digital channels." (Mark Smiciklas, "The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences", 2012)

"The main difference between journalistic and artistic infographics is that, while in the first information must try to be as objective as possible, the second supports a complete subjectivity and can lend itself to different interpretations, all of them valid. That’s the concept of 'subjective infographic', something apparently contradictory." (Jaime Serra, [interviewed] 2012)

"The order of priorities of a commercial marketing graphic would be appeal, retention, and then comprehension. Brands are looking to catch viewers’ attention and make a lasting impression - which usually means that viewers’ comprehension of content is frequently the brands’ last priority. The exception to this would be infographics that are more focused on the description of a product or service, such as a visual press release, since designers in these cases would want the viewer to clearly understand the material as it relates to the company’s value proposition. However, being appealing enough to prospective customers to get them to listen is always goal number one." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Violating established and functional color conventions makes it more difficult for the audience to understand an information graphic or a map. Respecting them gives the user that much less on which to expend unnecessary energy." (Joel Katz, "Designing Information: Human factors and common sense in information design", 2012) 

"Good infographic design is about storytelling by combining data visualization design and graphic design." (Randy Krum, "Good Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design", 2013)

"A great infographic leads readers on a visual journey, telling them a story along the way. Powerful infographics are able to capture people’s attention in the first few seconds with a strong title and visual image, and then reel them in to digest the entire message. Infographics have become an effective way to speak for the creator, conveying information and image simultaneously." (Justin Beegel, "Infographics For Dummies", 2014)

"The power of infographics is that it keeps things short and sweet. [...] The concise, pointed nature of an infographic works well with the fact that people’s attention span is decreasing significantly." (Justin Beegel, "Infographics For Dummies", 2014)

"[...] data visualization [is] a tool that, by applying perceptual mechanisms to the visual representation of abstract quantitative data, facilitates the search for relevant shapes, order, or exceptions. [...]  We must think of data visualization as a generic field where several (combinations of) perspectives, processes, technologies, and objectives (not forgetting the subjective component of personal style) can coexist. In this sense, data art, infographics, and business visualization are branches of data visualization." (Jorge Camões, "Data at Work: Best practices for creating effective charts and information graphics in Microsoft Excel", 2016)

"Infographics are an output which has gained popularity in the business world in recent years. They have proven to be a great way to engage when used along with other traditional outputs. Infographic principles can be used to enrich the more traditional outputs." (Travis Murphy, "Infographics Powered by SAS®: Data Visualization Techniques for Business Reporting", 2018)

"Infographics combine art and science to produce something that is not unlike a dashboard. The main difference from a dashboard is the subjective data and the narrative or story, which enhances the data-driven visual and engages the audience quickly through highlighting the required context." (Travis Murphy, "Infographics Powered by SAS®: Data Visualization Techniques for Business Reporting", 2018)

"A recurring theme in machine learning is combining predictions across multiple models. There are techniques called bagging and boosting which seek to tweak the data and fit many estimates to it. Averaging across these can give a better prediction than any one model on its own. But here a serious problem arises: it is then very hard to explain what the model is (often referred to as a 'black box'). It is now a mixture of many, perhaps a thousand or more, models." (Robert Grant, "Data Visualization: Charts, Maps and Interactive Graphics", 2019)

"The term 'infographics' is used for eye-catching diagrams which get a simple message across. They are very popular in advertising and can convey an impression of scientific, reliable information, but they are not the same thing as data visualization. An infographic will typically only convey a few numbers, and not use visual presentations to allow the reader to make comparisons of their own." (Robert Grant, "Data Visualization: Charts, Maps and Interactive Graphics", 2019)

"[...] to be truly ‘cool’, an infographic needs to be honest, truthful, deep, and elegant. It can be fun, too, but it needs first to respect the intelligence of its potential readers, and be designed not just to entertain them, but to enlighten them. A bunch of out-of-context numbers or grossly simplistic charts surrounded by pictograms or illustrations is never a ‘cool’ infographic." (Albero Cairo) [quoted by Jorge Camões, 2016]

"Infographics belong to the print cultures of late eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century Britain. They emerged in elite political print media, and were used to communicate useful knowledge to a growing middling sort, during the partisan developmental stage in British journalism history." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"[...] news infographics are designed to appeal to particular niche audiences within a general mass news audience." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

✏️Jason Lankow - Collected Quotes

"As with dot plots, the scale on line charts has a lot to do with how the message is conveyed. For example, using too large a scale runs the risk that viewers may gloss over a very important story in the data. However, using too small a scale might lead you to overemphasize minor fluctuations. As with dot plots, designers should plot all of the data points so that the line chart takes up two-thirds of the y-axis’s total scale." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Because bubble charts have their limitations in conveying information clearly, you shouldn’t overcomplicate them by adding too much detail, manipulating the shapes to make them into money bags, or the like. You also want to avoid using shapes that are not entirely circular (e.g., a money bag or ring with a big ol’ diamond on it). This’ll just end up looking strange. While they are good for conveying high-level differences between subcategories’ values, people also want to understand the information as well - which works best if the differences between the bubble sizes are not very great." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Bubble charts are a type of area chart that use discrete or continuous data and can be used to display nominal and ranking relationships. You would seldom use them to show only a time series or part-to-whole relationship. Bubble charts can be used to compare subcategories’ values, in either side-by-side comparisons, or in more elaborate graph types such as bubble plots (when showing ranking and time series) and bubble maps (if geography was germane to the story being told). They are most valuable when the range of data set is large, and there is a good amount of variance between the smallest and the largest subcategories. They can also be useful when using bar charts simply looks awkward." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Bubble charts are botched quite frequently. It’s important to note that the total area (not the radius) of each bubble chart represents a subcategory’s quantitative value. How bad can bubble charts look if you use radius to scale instead of total area? If a designer is trying to use bubble charts to show the difference between two quantitative values - say 2 and 4 - the area of the latter should be twice as large as the former. But if they are basing scale on radius, the graph will be designed in a way that distorts the data. The differences become more pronounced with more difference between the values." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Color is a unique tool that you should use with care. Bold colors imply emphasis on a notable item, and when colors are used everywhere, it is difficult for people to determine where to direct their attention. When everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted. Use this power to highlight sparingly on each slide, to point the viewer to the main thrust of your messaging." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Dashboarding is an area that has been using information design to communicate key business metrics for decades. In terms of purpose, these interfaces have embodied many of the best practices surrounding visual communication. Yet their aesthetic and creative value is often lacking. This is an area of great opportunity in business communication; while well intentioned, the dashboard’s traditional format and appearance could benefit from a bit of a makeover." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"[...] explorative infographics provide information in an unbiased fashion, enabling viewers to analyze it and arrive at their own conclusions. This approach is best used for scientific and academic applications, in which comprehension of collected research or insights is a priority. Narrative infographics guide the viewers through a specific set of information that tells a predetermined story. This approach is best used when there is a need to leave readers with a specific message to take away, and should focus on audience appeal and information retention." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Good infographics also communicate something meaningful. Communicating a message worth telling provides readers with something of value. While infographics can be a powerful vehicle of communication, they are sometimes produced arbitrarily or when a cohesive and interesting story isn’t present. If the information itself is incomplete, untrustworthy, or uninteresting, attempting to create a good infographic with it is more than a fool’s errand; it’s impossible." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"If used incorrectly, decorative elements have the potential to distract the viewer from the actual information, which detracts from the graphic’s total value. Mastering this execution and finding the balance between appeal and clarity can be a nuanced process." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"One of the main benefits (and reasons for the ubiquity) of static content is the relative ease of creating a static image versus an interactive interface - especially if you want to use the infographic to cover time-sensitive material or breaking news. This efficiency also makes this content relatively affordable compared to motion and interactive content. Another key factor in the rising popularity of static infographics is their ease of shareability, as they can easily be embedded in blogs." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"Stacked bars are most often used when there is a need to display multiple part-to-whole relationships. Stacked bars use discrete or continuous data, and can be oriented either vertically or horizontally. While the aggregate of each bar can be used to make nominal or ranking comparisons, this graph type is used when the composition of each bar tells an interesting story that provides the viewer with greater insight." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"The first thing you must understand is that information design is not limited to the visualization of data, in presentation design or any other application. It can and should be used to visualize other concepts such as hierarchy (org charts), anatomy (portfolio allocation), and chronology (timeline of events). Beyond the bar graphs showing sales figures and monthly projections, there are many more opportunities to explain concepts with visuals that will engage your audience and clarify your key points."  (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"The most frequent flaw in the design of a deck is likely the inconsistency among its various elements. Fonts vary; charts and graphs are borrowed from different sources; and company logos exist in varied formats, colors, and resolutions. As an agency that specializes in design, we understandably find these piecemeal creations more perturbing than the average person. However, the effect of a well-designed, polished presentation is undeniable - whether it is one that you share just within your company, or at a public speaking engagement. Of course, not every presentation occasion warrants the commission of a designer to create the deck, but we believe that many do. If the situation requires you to make a strong impression, it is essential that the various elements of your presentation fit together seamlessly. You want your audience to feel as though you have chosen your visuals as expertly as you have chosen your words." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"The order of priorities of a commercial marketing graphic would be appeal, retention, and then comprehension. Brands are looking to catch viewers’ attention and make a lasting impression - which usually means that viewers’ comprehension of content is frequently the brands’ last priority. The exception to this would be infographics that are more focused on the description of a product or service, such as a visual press release, since designers in these cases would want the viewer to clearly understand the material as it relates to the company’s value proposition. However, being appealing enough to prospective customers to get them to listen is always goal number one." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"The real value of pie charts is their usefulness in communicating big ideas quickly. However, they’re not very useful in comparing the values of the subcategories between pies (as stacked bars can be), or showing the changing makeup of a part-to-whole relationship over time. This is because it’s hard to compare the sizes of multiple pie “slices” (essentially the angles of their points next to each other) in the same pie or across multiple pies." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"What people often overlook in these debates is the most central issue to any design: the objective. While Tufte and Holmes might want to represent the exact same data set, they likely would be doing it for very different reasons. Tufte would aim to show the information in the most neutral way possible, to encourage his audience to analyze it without bias. Conversely, Holmes’s job is to editorialize the message in order to appeal to the viewer while communicating the value judgment he wants readers to take away. Tufte’s communication is explorative; that is, it encourages the viewer to explore and extract his or her own insights. Holmes’s, on the other hand, is narrative, and prescribes the intended conclusion to the viewer. The difference is inherent in their areas of work, as the objectives of science and research are much different than those of the publishing world. There’s no need to establish a universal approach to govern all objectives; rather, different individuals and industries should develop best practices unique to each application’s specific goal." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"When using dot plots to show a time series relationship, the scale does not have to start at a zero baseline. For the other relationships they do, however. For a time series relationship, the scale can be truncated if there is a story worth telling in the data that would otherwise be obscured by using a very large scale. However, you should use discretion when attempting to do this; a good rule of thumb is to use a scale in which the range of the dot plots consists of two-thirds of the graph’s total height, in order to display data trends more clearly. Additionally, if your goal is to show a time series relationship with continual data, you can throw a line on it, connecting the points. Essentially, you can use a series of straight lines between the points, which will help guide the reader’s eyes from left to right." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"While the information is of the utmost importance when it comes to soundness, what is done with the information - essentially, how it is designed - is also important. With this in mind, there are two things to consider: format and design quality. If an inappropriate format is used, the outcome will be inferior. Similarly, if the design misrepresents or skews the information deliberately or due to user error, or if the design is inappropriate given the subject matter, it cannot be considered high quality, no matter how aesthetically appealing it appears at first glance." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

"[...] while the underlying data is not permanently fixed, the output - or presentation of it - is a static snapshot of the data at a specific moment in time. The advantage of this approach is that you can tell a story (for internal or external purposes) that shows the data as of a particular date or within your desired date ranges. The disadvantage is that the viewer might not necessarily be able to get access to refreshed information in real-time, and might not realize that more current information is available. A static infographic won’t be enough for large groups that require access to real-time information. If you have such a need, you will either need to build an interface that allows multiple people to process and output updated information into reports, or at least have a system for ensuring that people know how to find updated information." (Jason Lankow et al, "Infographics: The power of visual storytelling", 2012)

✏️Murray Dick - Collected Quotes

"Both Nightingale and Farr were concerned in their statistical investigations with uncovering natural laws about human behavior. [...] Nightingale’s polar area diagrams (or exploded pie charts) owe a debt to Playfair’s innovations, but also, no doubt, to her long-term collaborator William Farr, who experimented with circular charts in his earlier publications." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"But infographics are not merely representations of data; they coexist with and both influence and are influenced by other visual forms in our modern visual culture." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Infographics belong to the print cultures of late eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century Britain. They emerged in elite political print media, and were used to communicate useful knowledge to a growing middling sort, during the partisan developmental stage in British journalism history." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Maps can be a metaphor for discovery and for dominion. They embody the same principles of logic, order, and discipline that codify empirical scientific processes." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"[...] news infographics are designed to appeal to particular niche audiences within a general mass news audience." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Nightingale’s polar area diagrams play with the metaphorical implications in Playfair’s circle diagrams in a highly effective way. These charts challenge the seeming unity, continuity, and coherence of the phenomena they express. The variation in the scaling of each section implies a sense of discontinuity, but also the same spirit of cartographic empiricism that speaks through the wider statistical maps of the nineteenth century. These forms embolden the viewer with a sense of power, authority, and purpose, to cast a scrutinizing lens over the problem of the social ills of the day. But they also represent discontinuity; things clearly cannot simply go on as they are - change is implicit, change is necessary." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Playfair’s graphical innovations can therefore be said to represent a little discussed, modern journalistic factual technique. Thinking of infographics in this way, as one factual technique among many within the ethical purview of the journalist, represents a helpful way of distinguishing news infographics from the scientific ideal, and crucially, from the scientistic discourse of methodologically objective standards in infographic design." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Priestley’s charts flow like rivers, and Playfair’s (bar) graphs rise like piles of guineas. These earliest visualizations mobilize abstract forms in order to help their audiences better understand abstract entities. Priestley’s charts were concerned with time; Playfair’s graphical forms were broadly concerned with the invisible world of individual psychology, as manifested in economic properties (such as money). These earliest data visualizations were discursively nonrevolutionary in nature. They represent a communicative paradigm for the furtherance of a range of ideas collectively bound up with civilization, and with empire." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"Statistical infographics in the publishing culture of the first three quarters of the nineteenth century constitute an improving phase in the history of data visualization. They embody the new methodological spirit of Quetelet’s foundational statistics, and were a tool of progressive reform." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)

"The scientistic data visualization draws on the classical abstract forms, deals (often) in abstract phenomena, and is stripped of any visual allure. In these forms, the discursive emphasis is on methodology, while pragmatic, ideological, and aesthetic aspects of data display are collectively de-emphasized." (Murray Dick, "The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications", 2020)