From Visually.
Design Best Practices
- Choose a design that matches the topic.
- Create a storyboard outlining the order in which you want the viewer to view the infographic.
- Use Principles of Design to guide your viewer through the image
Principles of Design
- Unity- No individual part should be more important than the whole design.
- Balance
- Hierarchy – Lead the reader through each element in order of significance.
- Scale/Proportion – Use to attract attention
- Dominance/Emphasis -Contrasting size, position, color, style, or shape; Focal point should dominate design without sacrificing unity
- Similarity and Contrast
The Final Test: Can you understand it without the words?
Resources
Visualize This: The Flowing Data Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics, by Nathan Yau (e-book, Davidson log-in required)
Eight steps to designing the perfect infographic
Free tools for creating infographics
6 tips for making effective infographics
Sample Interactive Data Visualization, from fivethirtyeight
