Information Design

12:30 pm to 3:30 pm, U.S. Eastern Time (9:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific) on May 11, 12, 18 and 19 (Thursday and Friday over two weeks).

Day One: Fundamentals

• 1The role of Infographics and data visualization in visual story telling

• • The role of infographics to summarize complex stories, find the key message and present it in an impactful way.
  • Visual structure and story flow.
  • Identifying opportunities for infographics in text-driven reports and presentations. Making visual choices.
  • Information and visual insight versus decoration.
  • Choosing the right focus, angle and level of complexity for your audience. Making it relatable.
  • Providing context and adequate comparisons.
  • Exercise: Speed sketching.

• 2Using charts

• • Functionality. Finding the most appropriate and revealing chart for a dataset.
  • Chart types and when/how to use them. Alternatives.
  • Math for graphics: calculating percent change, rates, indexing, adjusting for inflation, mean and median, etc.
  • Design issues with charts. Scales. Legibility. Data distraction. Data distortion. Color.
  • Data sources.
  • Quick chart exercises.

• 3Using maps

• • Geographic maps.
  • Thematic or data maps and their essential role in storytelling.
  • Types of data maps: choropleth or area maps, dot density maps, bubble maps, flow maps, range maps, heat maps, cartograms, small multiples, etc.
  • Map issues: projections, typography, achieving clarity.

Day Two: Designing graphics for print and online. Storytelling

• 4Online infographics

• • Graphics on desktop, tablets and smartphones. Differences.
  • How readers interact with screens. What user testing tells us.
  • Presenting large datasets online.
  • Trends. Less interactivity, more linear storytelling – How the New York Times and other publications are radically changing their visual storytelling. Readers just want to scroll.
  • The mobile first strategy. Readers access digital ontent primarily on smartphones. Strategies for graphics on smartphones.
  • Storytelling forms online. Different ways of telling stories with graphics from simple static images to long format storytelling and expansive multimedia projects.
  • Exercise: Smartphone graphics:
    We’ll take an existing print infographic and sketch out a version optimized for small screens. We’ll discuss choices in editing, navigation and interactivity.

• 5Infographics and dataviz design

• • Best practices to approach the design of storytelling infographics: Hierarchy, content organization, typography. Integration in the page.
  • The role of color as a layer of information. Using color strategically.
  • Online design issues. Dashboard design.
  • Week 1 Homework exercise:
    Participants will sketch out (by hand) and email a large infographic with multiple components (Illustrations, maps and charts). Estimated completion time: 2.5 hours. All exercises will be reviewed one-on-one via email.

Day Three: Reaching New Audiences. Tools of graphics and dataviz

• 6Homework Review

• • We’ll discuss a selection of the homework exercises to highlight issues in content/editorial choices, alternative approaches to showing the data and telling the story, visual choices and overall design issues.

• 7Motion graphics

• • Short explanatory videos that are easy to share and work well in any platform and device are gaining enormous prominence in news sites and social media. How we can use them.
  • Creating effective animations: writing a script, storyboarding, finding the right duration, tone, pace and style. Resources for voice over, music and sound effects. Ideas and techniques.

• 8Graphics for social media. The power of infographics and animations to disseminate our key messages

• • A high percentage of readers will encounter our stories in social media rather than on our site. How we can disseminate our content effectively without losing brand loyalty.
  • 3-step strategy for social media: attract – engage - call to action. Graphics for social media need to take stories or graphics that are often complex and deliver a clear and concise key message in one simple image or video.
  • Approaches and best practices for different social media.
  • Exercise: Storyboarding and animation.

• 9Tools for infographics and online data visualization

• • An overview of the most practical and reliable tools for infographics and data visualization in a fast-paced environment. Illustrator, Photoshop, Excel, Interactive data visualization and mapping without programming (Tableau, Flourish, Datawrapper), mapping (QGIS, Arc GIS for Adobe Creative Cloud), D3.js and many others.

Day Four: Hands-on with data visualization tools

• 10Hands-on exercises: Interactive data visualization without coding: Tableau, Flourish and Datawrapper

• • In our last day we’ll explore some of the best and most practical different interactive data visualization: We’ll demonstrate step-by-step use of Tableau, Flourish and Datawrapper to create online data visualizations and maps from a series of provided Excel datasets. No previous experience with the tools is needed.

• 11Q&A:, resources and handouts

• • Throughout the workshop, we’ll answer questions live by voice and chat. At the end, we’ll answer any remaining questions and provide a list of books, blogs and resources for those interested in expanding their knowledge. All the presentations used during the workshop, or presentation recordings, will be sent to the participants.