Infographics - License to Shock?

By Amanda Cruise, G2G3

To recap briefly on some key points from my 2 previous blog entries on infographics, successful infographics must:

• Convert data into information, not simply communicate data
• Inform, explain and/or educate
• Convey a clear message – tied to both the design and the data
• Help you understand, find or do something easily
• Stand alone and be completely self-explanatory
• Be universally understandable (at least within the organisation, culture, etc. it was created for)
• Be visually functional, attractive and appealing

That is all very well, however, even when all these elements converge and happily coalesce into a unified whole, there is 99% of the time a seriously large elephant in the room, called ‘map shock’ or ‘visual shock’. This is when individuals, who simply do not possess the skills required (through little fault of their own as we will see), fail to be able to grasp the intended message and information and instead go into visual/cognitive meltdown. Sound familiar…anyone? I know I’ve certainly been there!

Yes, ‘map shock’ is indeed an official, bona fide, scientifically researched modern syndrome - another offspring of our information-overload era. And, it is much more prevalent than you might think. Primary symptoms include visual and audible reactions upon first exposure (details of this left to your imagination), a sense of being lost, ‘not knowing where to start’ and ‘not knowing where to go next’. It affects motivation and concentration and crucially, impacts a person’s ability to process information, even resulting in a complete block. Not good news for anyone at the delivery end of complex information communication.

What does this mean for all those involved in IT communications and wanting to successfully leverage the impact of high quality infographics? Should they jump ship and retreat into visually barren, dense blocks of text? Impose compulsory PhDs in visual literacy and graphic design? Dole out the smelling salts and stress balls at every meeting? The answer may well lie in some basic teaching of the ‘fourth R’: graphicacy. Nope, I’d never heard of it either.

Graphicacy is the ability to understand, interpret, generate and present all forms of visual, non-textual two-dimensional formats. That’s photographs, diagrams, maps, plans, charts, graphs etc. to you and me. From early years at school right through to the workplace, it seems we are all just expected to ‘pick up the skills as we go along’, despite growing evidence that these skills are in fact largely learned rather than innate. Clearly this disconnect gives rise to difficulties for many. Studies have shown that prior background knowledge, and two main types in particular, are essential in successfully understanding all forms of visual and graphic information: 1) knowledge of the particular ‘graphic system’ used to display the subject matter, and 2) knowledge of the actual subject matter contained in the graphic

Infographics are without doubt a paradigm shift in the way we consume information. The more we are exposed to them, the less 'shocking' they will be... and our graphicacy will improve. Only then will a picture truly be “worth a thousand words”.