Infographics are a great way to provide your audience with information in a visual form. I feel that in this technological age readers are becoming more visual learners, and providing information through images can be the best way to deliver a message to your audience.
To further illustrate my point, I have included the following infographic on College Enrollment based on Race and Gender. The data provided relates to students ages 18-24 and the time frame runs from 2000-2017. This Infographic provides readers with a visual representation of bar graphs, images, and correlating textual information, about the trend in college enrollment among races and genders for a period of 17 years. It gives us an outlook as a society of the progress of higher education among race and gender.
*SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (CPS), October Supplement, 2000 and 2017. See Digest of Education Statistics 2018, table table 302.60.
I decided to create an infographic about Haiti which is where my parents are from. I used Infogram and ArcMap to create the charts and map.
One of the most influential parts of effective techcomm for me is how to create an effective info graphic. For most businesses, and industries, presentations and visual representations are used to convey ideas, facts, and opinions. Learning what the eye is drawn to, and how that relates to how the information is taken in by the reader really helped be to understand what is necessary and what is not necessary when it comes to info graphics. Learning about correct techniques to implement on info graphics helped me to decipher what is ethical when creating info graphics. This meaning showing the true and honest factual information in a way that is just as effective as it would be if the truth was smudged a little. Since learning about info graphics and what it takes to create an effective one, I really have been more diligent on how I present my information. This I can take with me for years into my field of mechanical engineering.
One of the topics that we covered in class that is most likely to stick with me through my college career was the topic of infographics. I found out not only what infographics can be used for and how to use them, but to actually create them myself. I tried various infographic templates to produce the ideal infographic, that still I could not come up with. I learned how things can work in your mind, but not in reality, exactly like mechanical engineering technology. Things can work perfectly in your mind but when you try and manufacture that part or mechanism, it might not work. And just like the infographic you have to just take a step back and approach it from a different angle until it is satisfactory. I plan on using infographics for future presentations and to show group members data I’ve found or collected as well. I think that learning how to produce infographics was one of the most beneficial topics we covered in this class.