We’ve talked in detail about the importance of asking questions about the data you’re reading, such as “what did the survey ask?” and “where does this data come from?” That information is often present in longer articles able to describe the methodology and sources of data.
Without an axis labeling the value of those bars, it is impossible to interpret the chart accurately.Ĭontext is often one of the most important things infographics can lack. Consider the 3D bar chart in our example.
This can include important features such as axes, labels and other elements that are critical for reading and understanding a chart. The creator isn’t intentionally trying to mislead readers in this case, but rather, he or she is prioritizing design because the additional data might detract from the overall product. In addition to the design issues above, important information may be left out of an infographic. It's simply there to add visual display to a statistic. Here each image icon represents 10 people accidentally killed by firearms, but the use of the graphic doesn’t help the user understand the scale of deaths. The last graphic, accidental deaths by firearm, uses icons to communicate a statistic, but the graphic isn’t particularly helpful. This is another case where the design treatment of the graph makes it easy to draw incorrect conclusions. The scale of the first bar (ages 5-25) looks significantly larger than the last bar that’s further away (65+) but, the actual difference in these values is not substantial (710 and 554 respectively). The perspective on the chart is misleading as well. The 3D view doesn’t display axes so the only thing the reader can do is compare the different categories, not make judgments on the total numbers. This makes the chart more appealing than a traditional bar chart, but again, the design makes it harder to read. The next bar chart, showing drowning by age, uses a different design treatment - a 3D view. This graphic would be much easier to interpret correctly if the scale of the icons was equal. However, if the creators aren’t careful, the size and scale of the icons can make the data difficult to accurately interpret. In this graphic, the drowning icon is smaller in scale than the others, hiding how many more deaths are caused by drowning compared to other causes. The use of icons to represent data, as seen in the chart showing accidental deaths of infants, is a common infographic design. The manipulation of the graphic makes it appear more significant than it is.
But if you look at the actual data, it should be much smaller than the purple or blue bars. Because the inner circle has a smaller radius, the yellow bar appears to go farther than any other bar. Here again, this type of display alters the perception of the data. The next graphic shows a rounded bar chart depicting motor vehicle deaths by age. This type of design violates the principle of proportional ink. Yet, the enlarged wedges imply that poisoning deaths far exceed deaths in motor vehicle accidents. There isn’t much of a difference between the rates of poisoning (30%), falls (26%) and motor vehicle accidents (23%). It shows the main causes of accidental death. But the data could be communicated in a clearer and more concise manner if the creator used traditional graphs and charts. The charts are designed to be visually appealing, and they are. This infographic communicates facts regarding the causes of accidental deaths in the US in 2013. Common design elements inspire the infographic on the right. But sometimes those design elements overpower the data and distract the reader from the underlying information. Infographics are intended to attractively display information and often incorporate several design elements. Over-designing infographics Figure 1: Example infographic from the CDC Let’s explore some of the special features of infographics that make these representations particularly challenging to interpret correctly. However, we’ve learned there are many ways data can mislead a reader, and those same issues often come up when using infographics. They are designed to catch the reader’s eye, and they use visuals to provide a lot of information in a small amount of space. Infographics are one of the most visual ways to tell stories with data.
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