Another Example of Using Infographics to Present Information

It is really amazing how well infographics can convey information. Well made, an infographic can instantly explain a topic that no amount of text can. Infographics have been around for centuries, though their popularity has risen sharply in recent years due to the internet and social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. Their ability to convey information combined with the power of social media to spread that information around the globe at the speed of light has made infographics a very powerful tool. Take this infographic I came across this morning, for example.

Most popular girl names in the United States by state and by year from 1960 through 2012.

The Dimensions of Infographics

Most popular girl names is fairly simple information, but there are actually many degrees to this infographic.  For one, the names are divided into all fifty states, which without the map of the United States, loses much of its useful data.  Just from that you get most popular name by land area, and you can see how the region of the country affects which name is the most popular.  If the data were presented in a list rather than a map, all that information would not be readily apparent.

The second dimension of this infographic is time.  Using an animated GIF as the media format, the creator is able to show the change in name popularity by year, as well as by location.  This would be impossible to convey through text.  Each year would be a list of most popular girl names by state, but the motion of the infographic would be completely lost.  What is really fascinating about this infographic is watching popular names pop up seemingly at random in a certain region of a country, then spread across all fifty states in just a couple years.  You can see some names really grab hold like Lisa, which goes from most popular in no states in 1960 to all fifty in 1965, while others like Amanda pop up in a certain region of the country, only to peter out a couple years later.  This data is just not easily conveyed through text.

Infographics are the Future of Knowledge Transfer

We are a visual species, and while text and audio has been the most common method of spreading information since we evolved speech, the ability to quickly create infographics like this one is quickly making visual learning more and more popular.  I imagine that future generations will absorb the majority of the information presented to them visually rather than through text or speech, if they haven't gotten to that point already.  Infographics are just such a powerful and now simple tool to convey information that the old style of textbooks and lectures is not going to stand a chance.  They both will certainly have their place, but especially on the internet, infographics are the future of knowledge transfer.

If you are interested in creating infographics of your own, there are many sites on the web that allow you to create your own infographics.  I use Infogram and Prezi, which are fairly powerful yet easy to use.  I have used both a couple times, in GMO Corn: Correlation Versus Causation, Lagrangian Points Explained, and Save Money Like an Engineer.  If you are a blogger looking for a new way to convey information, or just want to explain something to your friends on Facebook, check these sites out.