8 Tips For Digital Newspapers on How to Use Infogram

06.04.2015 by roberts

observador

by Milton Cappelletti

Milton_Cappelletti.jpgI’ve always believed that visual journalism is the most effective way to tell a story on the Internet. That’s why I’ve dedicated my academic life to study all the visual possibilities of Web Journalism and ended up here, in Portugal, where I work with infographics and multimedia at Observador, a brand new Portuguese digital newspaper. Because we are a digital native newspaper, our editors are very open-minded when it comes to telling a story with images or interactive tools and it’s part of my job to look for new and effective ways to tell a story.

Before our launch, I started using Infogram to make simple and fast interactive infographics supporting data-driven stories and I thought that this could be an opportunity for my colleagues to learn about Data Journalism and Visual Storytelling, which led me to give a quick workshop to them and present the tool so they could use it whenever they felt they needed to.

At Observador, I used Infogram for two main purposes:

  1. Statistics: they give credibility to a story. Numbers speak more loudly to the audience when they are represented visually, especially when we think about the Internet, where we compete for the attention of multitasks/multi-tabs users. Examples: results of the polls for the legislative elections and Portuguese workers at Brazilian labor market.
  2. As a template for infographic vectors: depending on the story, sometimes we feel the need to push more towards visual components, so we use vector programs like Photoshop or Corel Draw to create an infographic. However, the graphics are drawn on top of Infogram’s charts so we can all respect the scale and proportions. Examples: participation of the center parties in European policy and mortality rates from respiratory diseases in Portugal.

After almost one year using Infogram, I have some recommendations about how to take the best advantage out of it:

  • Watch out for colors; sometimes they say more than the numbers. At Observador, we tend to use a gradient of the same color in the graphics because it works great for our white background. We also pay attention to some contextual meanings of the colors, like green (positive, good) and red (negative, bad) or the colors of the Portuguese parties. And dark grey is always better than black!
  • The data source is as important as the graphics itself. It gives credibility to the data and shows transparency to the audience.
  • Titles are the first step to call the attention of the reader. They must be short and translate the general meaning of the graphic in one sentence. Using action verbs may help.
  • Pie charts and bar charts are the easiest to understand. However, depending to the story, there are other options that can be more attractive and give the same results.
  • Experimentation is important but you need a second or a third opinion to make sure the infographic works. Don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think about your charts and mostly if the information is clear.
  • The best thing about Infogram is the interactivity. Grouping the data in an efficient way will allow users to use the radio buttons properly, giving them the feeling of being in control of the visualization. This user engagement is the main difference between a static and an interactive chart.
  • Because interactivity can play an important role, we have tell the users what they can do with the graphics: “Click on the option above to see…”, “Hover your mouse over the map to see..” They don’t know an infographic is interactive if we don’t say so.
  • At this point, we all know that it’s impossible to think of digital journalism without thinking about mobile communication. Because Infogram is web responsive, we have to take into consideration mobile devices when we make an infographic and adjust colors, title sizes or hover effects.
  • Show Infogram to other journalists. There’s feeling in newsrooms that infographics have a life of their own. Sometimes journalists don’t even know how they are made or what data is required to build a chart. This is why it’s important to present some examples of work done.

Finally, we are still learning how to use infographics at Observador in the best possible way. It feels like a hit and miss game. We, at least, have identified the need of communicating visually. Now it’s all about getting our hands dirty.