Imaginative and Interactive Research Resource: Infographics
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

Abstract

Even experienced researchers will benefit from paying closer attention to infographics and infoposters. They often present solid facts and statistical data in an "At a Glance" format, which is at once easy-to-understand and pleasing to the eye. Plus these non-text resources are seemingly everywhere you turn, so why not use them?

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What IS an Infographic?

Infographics (short for information graphics) and infoposters, and the way in which I’ve defined them for the purpose of a recent article, are not just general visual representations of data such as bar charts and graphs. They have a unique look and feel about them, appearing almost poster-like. Often rectangular, they’re more likely to include images and graphics than photographs, headings and numbers rather than narrative or long text blocks, and they typically identify relationships by the use of arrows, lines, colours and shapes. Just type infographics into any search engine’s image search and you’ll see a dizzying array of images and colours on almost any topic you can imagine.

Infographics as Research Sources

In my full article on using infographics in research I refer to them as an “At a Glance” source and compare them to At a Glance Conference Agendas which we are accustomed to using as a first step in our planning at or before a conference. A good example of this type is The Evolution of Samsung’s Galaxies. In less than 10 seconds the reader can identify a quick timeline and sales history for this particular smartphone model.

There are numerous ways to use infographics in research: as an "At a Glance" tool, as a first step to finding additional sources, as a way to see how a company is presenting itself, and more. They are often valuable for identifying information that needs to convey timelines, relationships, statistics and histories.

One of the more interesting topics that I was only able to touch on briefly is interactive infographics. Infographics with some sort of interactivity allow readers to not only obtain all the aforementioned benefits of being able to quickly grasp an idea, but often make it easy to delve further. An infographic presented in an interactive format is Snake Oil? Scientific Evidence for Popular Health Supplements which provides links to authoritative medical articles and sources. This makes it easier than ever to treat the graphic as a first step to new sources.

Econsultancy.com has written about five exceptional interactive infographicsand they not only present the infographics and explain why they think they work, but they provide metrics on how many Facebook shares and tweets each has generated since its posting. One of them, The Scale of the Universe 2, provides an impressive amount of data while at the same time providing the user with some control as to how they use it.

Evaluating the Source

Now that the online world has exploded with infographics it’s important to remember they need to be treated as any other research source and reviewed for purpose, source, authority and timeliness. Currently, many companies are also taking the opportunity to enhance their SEO benefits by publishing infographics online - so that motive must also be factored into the equation. There are many do-it-yourself infographic generators available online and not only are they being produced by companies and professional agencies but the end user generated content is increasing – thus another reason for careful evaluation.

If you ever need to know when ideas such as Kleenex, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Velcro came about and how many have been sold, check out the 10 Simple Product Ideas infographic. 

Go ahead, test it. I bet if you Google the word infographic + any topic, you’ll see impressive results.

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