Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design

Vision trumps all other senses. We learn and remember best through pictures, not through written or spoken words.

—JOHN MEDINA, BRAIN RULES

The Science of Infographics

Why do people love infographics?

Humans have been drawing pictures to communicate with each other for thousands of years—from pictograms on cave walls to Egyptian hieroglyphics to ideograms on modern signs (Figure 1-1). People love using pictures to communicate and tell stories because it's hardwired into the human brain.

Infographics and data visualizations are all around us. We are surrounded by visual representations of information—charts, maps, icons, progress bars, signs, posters, diagrams, and online visuals (Figure 1-2). These are all examples of visual communication, but these are not all infographics.

FIGURE 1-1 Altamira bison cave painting, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and modern signs.

The word infographic is used by people to mean many different things. In many cases infographics and data visualizations are considered synonymous, but in the world of an infographic designer they mean different things.

Data visualizations are the visual representations of numerical values. Charts and graphs are data visualizations ...