Infographics
“If you want to share information with someone, tell it to them. If you want that person to retain that information, tell a visual story with an infographic.” (10 Big Ways Infographics Benefit Your Content Strategy, 2022) An infographic is “a chart, diagram, or illustration (as in a book or magazine or on a website) that uses graphic elements to present information in a visually striking way.” (Infographic Definition & Meaning, 2023) It is an excellent way to share information visually that will impact the intended audience in a different, yet more effective way. Infographics can simplify complex information and can make it easier for the learner to retain it. Even though infographics have been around, they have been increasing in popularity. With more people joining the social media trend, now is the best time to use infographics when wanting to disseminate information.
Creating an infographic can be easy and fun. There are multiple websites that make it easy to create such visuals. Some of the websites that offer this service and that I recently tried are Easelly, Piktochart, and Infogram. They are all excellent websites that help when creating infographics and make it an enjoyable experience. The first website I tried is Easelly. Easelly is You can create an account for free. Easelly offers thousands of templates to choose from. You can create your own design or hire a designer to do it for you for a cost. When wanting to upgrade to Easelly Pro, they offer plans and offer a 7-day money back guarantee. It is a user-friendly site that has even won awards. “The AASL commended Easelly for being simple enough that even a child in the 6th grade could successfully navigate the site and design their infographic without adult assistance.” (Easelly, n.d.) Easelly also offers a blog that provides useful information and advice. Another website that I checked out is Piktochart. I personally loved this resource. Piktochart offers multiple types of visuals that can be created. It allows you to create infographics, posters, reports, flyers, and more. You are even able to create videos as well as modify them. Piktochart is very easy to use and I found it very engaging. Piktochart allows you to save your work in folders too. This site also allows you to upgrade in order to have unlimited access to downloads and visuals. I really enjoyed looking through an “inspire me” tab that has a “curated collections of visuals from professionals, companies and teams from around the world.” (Wilson, n.d.) Piktochart is definitely a website to keep on the favorites tab. Finally, I looked through Infogram. Infogram is an online app that also allows you to create infographics, reports, slides, among many others. It provides a video tutorial and articles on how to use this tool to create visuals. It also offers examples of charts, infographics, and other projects created by users. Like with the other two, Infogram gives you the option to upgrade in order to have unlimited access to many other options. Overall, all three online applications are excellent resources when wanting to create infographics. They each offer plenty of options and make it very easy to create a visual.
After reading the article Who doesn’t read books in America? on pewresearch.org, I used Piktochart to create an infographic(attached). The article was on Americans who don’t read books. I used the data provided on a bar graph to create a visual on all six categories. The information was striking and I felt it would be better displayed by using different graphs for each category.
Undoubtedly, infographics are a great way to communicate information. Not only will it reach your intended audience, it will ensure that the information has been understood and will be remembered. There are wonderful resources out there to help create these infographics. Easlley, Piktographic, and Infogram are three wonderful online applications that can be utilized for this and will assure you create the best and most engaging visual for your information.
References
Easelly. (n.d.). easel.ly | create and share visual ideas using infographics. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from http://www.easel.ly/
Infographic Definition & Meaning. (2023, August 30). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infographic
10 Big Ways Infographics Benefit Your Content Strategy. (2022, January 31). Search Engine Journal. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/infographic-benefits/267781/#close
Who doesn't read books in America? (2021, September 21). Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 1, 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/21/who-doesnt-read-books-in-america/Wilson, L. (n.d.). Inspire Me. Piktochart. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://create.piktochart.com/gallery
Great analysis of the webapps! The infographic makes me wonder whether if more books were available in Spanish, would Hispanics read more? I live in Houston and I can get books in lots of languages, so maybe it's also that people don't know about library services?
ReplyDeleteBrenda,
ReplyDeleteYou infographic was really powerful and I think show needs within certain communities. I also really enjoy PiktoChart and use it in my classroom with my students. They love it!