Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. Inforgraphics can be especially useful for topics which have a great deal of data.
Below is a selection of three tools you and your students can use to make infographics.
Easel.ly
Easel.ly is very aptly named, as it is a simple way to create infographics. It is more focused on graphic design than it is on data analysis. It is the perfect tool for students to create the equivalent of an on-line poster. There is a wide range shapes, objects and themes, as well as the capacity to upload your own images.
Students will require and account, so you will need to allocate some time to set these up.
Using easel.y is equivalent to drawing on a piece of paper. It won't generate anything for you. If you want to put a graph in, then you will have to draw the graph yourself. You can produce quite impressive inforgraphics, but you have to do every bit yourself.
When you are finished you can share the link or embed the infographic in a website.
Easel.ly is a nice easy way to introduce infographics into your class and is especially useful if you don't have to do any number crunching.
Pros: Easy to use, sharing and embedding, templates
Cons: No graph creation, students need accounts
Venngage
Venngage is like the big brother of easlel.ly. The interface is a little more complex, but this site is really about crunching numbers. The emphasis on data is evident in their slogan "Data meets design".
Venngage offers the usual range of shapes, objects, backgrounds and you can upload images, or import from the web. There is limited pre-created themes, although the user can save their own designs as themes. There are a limited number of maps you can use (although, not if you're in Tasmania).
The big place that Venngage stands out is in it's presentation of data. It has two features to express data; pictographs and charts.
The pictographs allows you to easily click and drag the image you want repeated. Then you merely need to double click and choose the number of row, number of columns, and how many units are full.
The chart feature has a wide range of options, from the trusty bar and pie charts through to bullet and tree charts. There is a wide range of them, The best part about the charts is the ease of getting data into them. Upload an excel sheet, choose the worksheet and then drag and drop the data onto the chart.
This tool is powerful enough to provide a wide range of analysis on pretty much any topic. If you have data, you will be able to create an infographic to express it.
Pros: Can represent any data, charts, pictographs
Cons: Limited templates, students need accounts, slightly complex interface
Thinglink
Thinglink is not actually an infographic creation tool, but it's capacity to turn static infographics into interactive ones rates it a mention here.
Basically,Thinglink allows you to place markers on an image. The viewer then interacts with these markers by hovering their mouse over them. The markers can contain text, or can be web links. The web links options allows the image to become very media rich indeed.
Thinglink is very simple to use and produces an interactive image that you can link to, or embed. Students will have to sign-up to create images. Images can be set so they can be modified by anyone, which allows for collaboration, but you can restrict access.
Thinglink allows students to create media rich, interactive infographics, which could be a nice change to PowerPoint for multi-modal presentations.
Pros: Simple, interactive, media rich, collaborative
Cons: Can't restrict collaboration, students need accounts.
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