![]() This singular impressive focus guides all other decisions.įor example, if designing an infographic on climate change impacts, the core message could be: “Global CO2 levels have risen over 50% since preindustrial times due to human activities.” Any data not serving that precise point gets eliminated. Isolate the one key insight or conclusion you want audiences to take away. ![]() Resist the temptation to highlight multiple data points. I start every infographic project by clarifying three foundational planning elements: Start by Identifying the Single Core Insight No animation technique can save a weak core narrative, so laying the proper groundwork is essential. Laying the Foundation: Planning for Narrative Flowįor me, the most crucial work happens long before I ever open Photoshop or After Effects. My hope is that it provides a roadmap to help fellow designers harness the power of strategic animation and visual communication to create infographics that enlighten, engage, and inspire. This guide represents the best practices I’ve learned on that journey. Painstakingly animated charts that took weeks to produce only to realize they failed to focus viewers on the core message.īut over time and experience, I’ve developed reliable frameworks to ensure my infographics inform first and dazzle only second. There have been plenty of lessons along the way.Ĭomplex healthcare processes that left viewers confused when explained statically suddenly clicked once I broke them into stepped animated sequences. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of animating everything from public health PSAs to animated musical data sculptures. That emotional connection and reaction affirmed my instinct that animated infographics could make a difference in how we engage audiences with data. Viewers gasped audibly when hotspots like China bloomed rapidly from green to red. The moment I saw the timeline play out visually, with country dots growing and shrinking dynamically based on real data, I realized the power of animation to turn abstract information into impactful knowledge. We were assigned to present research on global carbon emissions trends, and I decided to turn the dry numbers into an animated map timeline showing emissions data by country over several decades. I still remember the first animated infographic I created back in design school that sparked my passion for this medium. Well, enough history lessons! Now I’ll switch gears a bit and tell you about my entrance into this world. The increasing processing power of computers has enabled complex 3D and virtual reality animations to take infographics to the next level. Today, animated infographics have exploded in popularity and are used across all mediums – from explainer videos to dynamic digital displays. He created interactive animations that showed how all the countries of the world have developed since 1809, which are freely available on the Gapminder websiteĪnimated infographics started going viral on social media thanks to sites like Infogram which allowed designers easy creation and sharing. This allowed for the creation of sophisticated motion graphics and interactivity.Įarly innovators like Hans Rosling used these new digital tools to bring infographics to life through his Gapminder animations that visualized global development data. ![]() ![]() The real breakthrough came with the advent of powerful animation software like Adobe Flash in the 1990s. But these were fairly crude and limited in scope. In the early days of the internet, rudimentary animated gifs were sometimes used to add a sense of motion to infographics. However, animated infographics are a relatively new phenomenon that emerged in the digital age. Static infographics have been around for centuries, with early examples like William Playfair’s economic graphs and Florence Nightingale’s visualizations of disease data. By the end, you’ll have a deep understanding of how to wield animation as a powerful narrative tool to enlighten and inspire. In this in-depth guide, I’ll share my insider tips and lessons learned for fellow infographic creators. Animated infographics take this a step further by incorporating motion graphics to bring the data to life.Īs a professional data visualizer and infographic animator, I’ve had the pleasure of bringing all kinds of datasets to life through motion over the years.īut it wasn’t always easy – when I first started out, I had to learn the hard way how tough it can be to take raw statistics and craft them into intuitive and engaging animated stories. Infographics are a popular and effective way to present complex data and information in a visual format. ![]()
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