#ferdio

Use and exploit your basic visual toolbox

Data visualization is all about converting data into meaningful and effective visual representations. In order to do so, you need to become familiar with your toolbox of visual assets like size, color, direction, etc. Don’t use all at once but choose and experiment to find the most effective for the task.

Collect, sort, analyze, visualize

These are the most important steps in data visualization (in most cases):

Collect the data. Which data is relevant?

Sort the data. How is the data connected?

Analyze the data. Are there any significant patterns? What is the story?

Visualize the data. How do we visualize the story most effectively?

Your infographic is too text-heavy

Nobody wants to read an infographic that is text-heavy. It kind of ruins the whole point of having an infographic in the first place.

Aim to use as little text as possible. In most cases, the less text you need to communicate your message the better. If you feel like you need a lot of text to get your message across, it may in fact point to a problem with your infographic.

Somethings are more important than others – Prioritize your content

The first thing to do with all your content is to get an overview. What is very important and what is less important? This basic prioritization is essential when scripting, sketching and designing. It sounds easy, but prioritizing is usually harder than it sounds. Making these choices requires a deep understanding of your content and the story you are trying to tell.

Create more bad ideas to get that great idea

The vast majority of your ideas are deficient, vague or just plain poor. That’s ok. But the persistent process of producing more ideas will inevitably get you to that genius idea you were not able to come up with at first. Getting past the poor ideas is just hard work. That’s the law of the creative process.

Play, have fun

Information design is a serious communication discipline that requires both analytical, journalistic and statistic skillsets. But in the creative process, it is crucial to experiment and have fun in order to achieve remarkable and brilliant conceptual work. Genius ideas will only come if you truly manage to set creativity free. So go play, have fun.