Class Exercise 2

During our class exercise, we were asked to differentiate between data visualization and infographic, while grouping a set of images into these respective categories.

Here is what I summarized from the heaty discussion in class
Data visualization:

• Simply a visual representation of data
• Usually uninterpreted

Image 1, 2 and 3 are obviously data visualizations to me as they are simply comprised of bar charts, line charts and pie charts that are left for readers to interpret by themselves. No additional information was included other than the data presented in the charts.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Images 4 and 5 might seem at a glance an infographic due to to the creative and attractive use of images. However, at closer look, both images only consist of graphs. There are no story told from these data visualization.

Image 4

Image 5

Similarly, Image 6 might seem like an infographic as it made use of attractive icons that can grab the readers' attention. However, these icons were placed on the points of the graph that denotes their respective brain mass and body mass. It is unclear what the author is trying to tell the readers as no addditional information are included.

Image 6

Infographic:

• Larger graphic design
• Combines data visualizations, illustrations, text, and images together into a format that tells a complete story
• Data is usually interpreted
• Has a leading title

 Based on the stated definitions above, Images 7,8,9 and 10 are obviously infographics to me. Other than data visualizations, context and additional information have been provided such that readers are able to understand the story that the author wants to tell.

Image 7

Image 8

Image 9

Image 10

Image 11 is an interesting infographic that my group had a long discussion about as it tells the story of a war, the Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812. It provides information like the geography, time, temperature, the course and direction of the army’s movement, and the number of troops remaining during the war. Best of all, all these information are neatly presented in one page.

Image 11

Image 12 also got my group thinking. We felt that this might be an inforgraphic as a story of the life cycle of a beetle is being told over here. However, no title or any additional information has been provided to guide the readers in interpreting the information.

Image 12

In all, it was a fun lecture as we debate about the distinctions between infographic and data visualization. It was also interesting to see how various forms of data have been presented to tell a story.