The Infographic - a quintessentially 21st Century Tool for IT

By Amanda Cruise, G2G3

Infographics…they seem to be everywhere these days and lots of people across business, academia, science and media rave about them. But what are they (really) and what, if anything, have they got to do with IT?

The term ‘infographic’ is a modern invention, a compression of ‘information graphic’ used to describe a visual representation of information, data or knowledge in graphic form. Easy and obvious, right? Wrong. Dig a little deeper and immediately the plot thickens with multiple layers of definition and a plethora of debates such as this one on what it is exactly and above all what function it should perform.

Without getting dragged into the debate itself, additional characteristics of an infographic include:

• It conveys information and situations that could be seen as overwhelmingly complex and unwieldy intext form (think London underground map or…. ITIL?)
• It contains visual shorthand for everyday concepts (such as STOP and GO signs)
• It is used to create a unified message that is stronger, clearer and more powerful than each individual component on its own (like maps, charts, timelines etc)

Can you see where this is going?

For some time now and in particular on the back of the recent ITIL update, the war cry rising from the Twitterverse, Blogosphere and digital media at large has been that the communication of IT concepts and IT service management in particular are too often excessively – and often unnecessarily – complex. That

complexity, in an age of 140 character sound bites and constant and rapid change as the new norm, is a cardinal sin.

Any medium that can help simplify and accelerate the explanation and understanding of lengthy, complex information, issues and processes internally (and crucially, with external shareholders) should surely be welcomed with open arms at the 21st century IT table. Especially if it also has the capacity to breathe life, relevance, appeal, and even dare I say it, beauty, into otherwise dry and potentially dull but essential information.

Already adopted so widely and successfully across other disciplines, the potential for high quality infographics to revolutionize and positively transform communications across the IT sector is huge. They may not really be new – early human cave dwellers were enthusiastic early adopters after all – but infographics can often be invaluable allies in an increasingly complex world.