Infographics: Piktochart & Canva What is an infographic? Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system's ability to see patterns and trends. I will be talking about some basics on infographics, how I learned and now teach these programs followed by some basic design principles and then offer some more resources before providing a quick look at Piktochart and Canva. 1 Nickolas Falk Priddy Library - The Universities at Shady Grove University of Maryland Libraries

Why Infographics? USA adults 65+ 59.8% percent of adults in the United States, age 65 and over had a flu shot within the year 2014. USA adults 65+ We are visual creatures: 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, and that is processed 60,000x faster in the brain than text. (http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/) General public has an increasingly shorter attention span; we tend to “scan” material as opposed to actually reading text. “a picture is worth a thousand words” Infographics have the ability to dissect a complex subject, and the ability to sustain the attention of readers while doing so. Infographics help cover “heavy” topics in an enjoyable way. For the print world, infographics can easily be exported to posters, brochures, leaflets when necessary as giveaways. For the mobile world, content as infographics is perfect for phones, tablets and other upcoming devices.

Learning Piktochart & Canva Piktochart Blog Canva Tutorials Subscribe! https://piktochart.com/blog/ The 5-Minute Tutorial https://piktochart.com/blog/how-to-create-infographic-in-5-minutes/ Tutorials https://designschool.canva.com/tutorials/ Similar layout to Piktochart Piktochart Can subscribe to the Piktochart Blog Sections on Latest posts, culture, design, education, marketing, popular and updates Searchable Canva Has a Learn menu with Tutorials on a range of functions; Advanced Tips, Backgrounds, Branding, Color, Fonts, Getting Started, Images, Layout, Shapes and Icons and Skills in Action 30 total, easy and interactive with both hands on and video Online courses specific to creativity and branding (Social Media coming soon)

Teaching Piktochart & Canva Ideas for Classroom Implementation https://piktochart.com/blog/category/education/ Premade Workshops and Lesson Plans https://designschool.canva.com/teaching-materials/ Piktochart Education section of blog Collaborative classroom integration How to use Piktochart in any classroom Using infographics in a flipped classroom Visual literacy Canva 4 premade workshops with accompanied lesson plans 1 learn Canva 2 fonts, colors, images 3 backgrounds, shapes and layouts 4 branding basics

Design Principles Simple, uncomplicated content and design Do not overuse colors Use good data A few simple guidelines… There are several guidelines to follow to make sure that you’re highlighting your content well and making the biggest impact on your audience. Keep it simple, stupid. Avoid overcomplicating both the content and the design. Choose a central theme and do not stray away from it. This is not your mama’s fridge. Remember, color is not always your friend. The colors you choose need to be appropriate for the overall theme and not overwhelming to your content. Don’t use rotten data. Data that is not current hurts the credibility of the graphic, so make sure that you do your research beforehand. A few simple guidelines to make everything much easier.

Hierarchy Hierarchy – Use a visual hierarchy to help the reader pick out the most important information. Our brain is trained to make connections between objects in our surroundings – if one object is bigger or bolder, our brain assumes it’s more important than a smaller one. In design, we use fonts, sizes, and visual elements to create the illusion of hierarchy between elements in a composition, and show readers what has more relevance.

Color Color – The colors you use in your design convey the moods and highlight important sections of your design. The rule of 3 colors - A super simple tool you can use whenever you are in doubt. You can’t go wrong with it. The rule of 3 colors is simple: pick one primary color. Then, pick two other complementary colors.

Consistency Consistency - Do you know what’s the key to Starbucks’ success? Every time you order a latte and a blueberry muffin, you get the same experience. The same principle applies to graphic design –  for a design to be compelling, all elements need to be related, work well with each other and be consistent.

Let’s Talk About Data Higher Education Institutions are now starting to purchase data sets. Government agencies publish data for free online. Journals are a great source to search for data or visualize their findings in your work. As you know data can come from a variety of sources; including you (data you collected) government agencies non-governmental organizations (NGOs) other researchers journal articles We have some sources for data sets listed in a libguide: http://libguides.shadygrove.umd.edu/infographics

Other Resources Our LibGuide http://libguides.shadygrove.umd.edu/PriddyLibraryWorkshops/infographics There are a lot of different resource available, we have compiled a libguide that offers multiple infographic software, font sources, icon & image sources, color tips and some select data sources. The majority of these resources are all free. We encourage other libraries to use this resource!

Let’s Keep in Touch! nfalk@umd.edu 301-738-6224