Infographic, Final Draft

Our final infographic is intended to be more supplementary to the methods that will be deeply discussed and explained in the scientific paper. While we tried to simplify our design and allow there to be a seamless flow with the audience, we wanted to use icons to send mental ideas to the audience about the precautions and protocols that will be in the scientific paper.

What We Changed

Our final changes ended up being minimal, but intentional. We added the containment protocols as we knew that the given information was important to include. We decided that using icons provided a cohesive pattern and theme throughout the infographic. This would help provide images to the ideas being discussed. Therefore , we felt that the text would not need to be repeated unless indicated during the final production process. We found that it was important for our infographic to look seamless and effortless while also being helpful to those reading the paper to easily understand the infographic and gather quick ideas by being straightforward.

Our Story & Goals

The infographic’s goal is to display a story about the containment protocols on a cruise ship and places where they are most important. As said above, our goal was to create supplemental value that helps add to the paper rather than replace it. Our story is to provide an idea of specific places on a cruise ship and to explain the protocols that correspond to them, and to do this in an effortless way. We also tried to keep a very muted color palette that we believe helps make the reader innately feel at ease while absorbing the information so they can gather the full idea without distracting feelings.

Incorporating Class Readings

Through our assigned readings, we have learned how important illustrations are in scientific documents and how they can be skewed or improperly represented. We also realized the importance of humanizing numerical data, or data that is about humans but may not be represented as so. In our infographic, we tried to have our icons make a human connection to the reader. All of our icons represent an action item or object that humans interact with. Due to this simplicity that we incorporated into our infographic, we want the audience to connect with these ideas as though they will perform them and associate themselves with them. In doing this, we anticipated for our audience to relate more to images rather than graphs and charts that dehumanize numerical data. Additionally, we anticipated a significant amount of whitespace in our illustration to help emphasize the audience’s concentration to the icons so their sole focus would be on the icons and how they relate to them, hence strengthening the humanization of our infographic. We also wanted to make sure that this process happened organically, so that the audience has a feeling of understanding that helps grasp the information that will be provided in the paper.

Final Conclusion

We wanted to go with a simpler infographic with minimal words because we wanted it to be supplemental to the contents of the paper. We were able to achieve this design by using pictorial representations and icons instead of words. This was achieved in conjunction with an effective use of white space to be more esthetically pleasing and allow ease of scanning the infographic while still understanding the main idea.

Sources:

• Arnheim, Rudolph. (2004). Pictures, Symbols, and Signs. In Carolyn Handa (Ed.). Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World: A Critical Sourcebook. (pp. 137-151). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s (Original publication 1969)
• Dragga, Sam and Voss, Dan. “The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations” in Cruel Pies, 2001
• Tufte, Edward. “Visual Statistical Thinking” in Displays of Evidence for Making Differences. Ed. 1997, Graphics Press

Thank you for following along with our infographic journey!