the power of infographics 04 11 10
DESCRIPTION
How inforgraphics can be used to make difficult information easy to understand and why this is particularly important for government.TRANSCRIPT
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
@tiffanystjames