Today i present a very clear solution of how to present complex, multidimensional political data in a way easily to comprehend: A project created by arte, a french-german public-service broadcaster. Actually, it is not a single graphic but an quasi-interactive collection of several. Use your arrow keys or mousecursor to navigate between them. This not only enables to distribute the high amount of data and to decrease density. It also allows to compare the values of the variables of the presented states immediately. The signal colour red is used to indicate the country you are informing about, as well as in the bar on the right to indicate the recent variable (from the term of office of the head of state to the GINI-Index). Red also serves to stress the manifestations of the variables of the single countries. Other colours besides red and grey rarely are applied. Decoration is used sparely in a kind of Pop art style. In contrast, the varierty of implemented graphics is high: Bar charts, radar charts, pie charts, pyramids ans so on. They are applied properly, depending on the amount of levels of the variables. The last page contains a summary and causes a little bit of redundancy.
Graphic source: http://ilovedemocracy.arte.tv/de/
I agree with you in the fact that when an infographic is simple and clear conveys information in a more effective and pleasing way, because the reader is driven through the graphic without being conscious of him being caught by the smart design, and ends up having read the whole infographic.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog, it is an interesting approach to infographics and you do interesting analysis on the examples!
Thanks Begoña! I am happy the graphic pleases you. I made the same experience - you go through the different slides without noticing you lern some information. It rather happens unconscious. One interesting question in this context if the data is remembered efficiently this way. There exists the danger you just pass the slides flightly, blinded by the nice design.
ReplyDeleteHello, I have been thinking on the same issue a lot of times. Political themes are not very easy to understand and when we use a simple but an effective infographic to explain concepts a little bit complicated and abstract people can learn more about the topic and to feel comfortable speaking about them. Good job!
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