Let me go back a few years:
After spending slightly more than a year in my previous role, I moved into a new role in my Organization. This new role was my first experience in Customer Management analytics. The amount of data was more than I had handled ever before. The impact I could have on my employers’ profitability was huge.
I worked hard to deliver good quality analysis but the impact from these analysis was lower than what I could have created.
This is a common situation many analysts face during their career.
The transition from being a number cruncher to a story teller (of course, based on numbers) is more difficult than it sounds. Thankfully, Infographic came to my rescue. Although, the purpose of infographics is to share content and increase visibility over the web, they can be used to create stories in effective manner.
You can find various tips on how to create good infographics over web, however the purpose of this article is to tell “How you can use Infographics to create compelling stories from your analysis?”
[stextbox id=”section”]What is an infographic?[/stextbox]
As per Wikipedia:
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. The process of creating infographics can be referred to as data visualization, information design, or information architecture.
Simply put, you need to answer the following question:
[stextbox id=”section”]Elements of an infographic:[/stextbox]
Infographics are important because they change the way people find and experience stories – especially now, when more and more infographics are being used to create editorial content on the web. Infographics create a new way of seeing the world of data, and they help communicate complex ideas in a clear, crisp and beautiful manner.
A good infographic must:
.
[stextbox id=”section”]How can infographic help you create a story?[/stextbox]
You might almost think that what does an infographic have to do with creating and presenting a story? Well, it does! As a tool, it forces you to create and present your story on a single page. It ensures that you remove all the clutter around the story (in your mind and on paper as well) and present it in simple & graphical manner.
Doesn’t that sound like a story?
One of my mentors used to advice “If you can not present a project in 10 slides, you are not clear about what you have done.” Once I was comfortable creating story in 10 slides, the milestone moved to 3 slides!
Let us take an example, Economist recently produced an interactive infographic on how Google Chrome has become most widely used browser. This is how it looks:
Now imagine the number of slides you would have required to tell this story?
[stextbox id=”section”]So, how do create a story with an infographic?[/stextbox]
Just follow following steps:
Using this process, you can use infographics to create stories out of your analytical project. To start with, can you create an infographic summarizing this post?
Image 1 credit: residentsvoices.net
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Hi Kunal, This is great article. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks Ram
Hi Kunal, Its awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing. Thanks, Deepak Rai
Thanks Kunal...awesome...best content on story writing..