Contents

1. Contents • Designers are not scientists • Good infographics are about more than good facts • A completely unscientific taxonomy of facts • Inspirational Infographics • Good designers worth working with

2. Designers are not scientists • They won't understand half of the content you send them • As communicators of science, we need to take the data which are scientists give us and translate it for the designers • Lots of fiddly little things you need to be responsible for: • Clearly identify scientific units and population sizes • Ensure units are consistent (Gt and Mt) • Ensure sourcing is consistent • Ensure data label requirements are clearly outlined

3. Good infographics are about more than the facts • They are about a story • The message is as important as the fact • Representing the message visually requires good communication cues Examples: Facts Message Visual Cues Bacterial growth rates approximately double with every 10 °C rise in temperature above 10 °C Climate change will affect food safety Spoilt food Agriculture contributes some 56% of global non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions Agriculture is the largest contributor of non-CO2 emissions Cows

4. Sample template for briefing designer

5. A completely unscientific and incomplete taxonomy of facts • Qualitative statements • Due to droughts, trees are becoming more vulnerable to higher mortality rates • One big number – percentage or absolute frequency: • Agriculture emits 5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year • To meet global food demand in 2050, agricultural production must be 60% higher by weight than in 2005. • Percentage of a population facts: • Agriculture contributes some 56% of global non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions • Changes in absolute frequencies – univariate or multivariate • The current population is 7.2 billion. In 2050 it is going to be 9.6 billion. In 2100 the total population is 10.9 billion. • Causal Relationships • If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30%. This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5–4%, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12–17%. Different facts lend themselves to different infographics and impose limits as to what designers can do

6. Qualitative statements • Tips and Tricks: • These are hard to make look scientific • Need to brief the designers with very strong visual cues

7. Big numbers as absolute frequencies • Tips and Tricks: • There are not many options with facts like this. • You only have one fact and don’t have the population size it belongs to. • BLOW THE NUMBER UP: make sure to get the balance of text to numbers to pictures right

8. Big numbers as absolute frequencies • Tips and Tricks: • You only have the percentage change figure • Scientists often think they’ve given you more detail than they have • No absolute frequencies mean no data labels

9. Percentage of a population facts as infographics Box Charts Focus on Numbers Pie Charts • Tips and Tricks: • Can use really simple charts • Think of every chart as a stand-alone piece, is all the data on their if people want to use it in a presentation? • Do you want to include frequency numbers of population sizes on charts as well as percentages?

10. Comparative data – one variable across different region/ populations/time etc • Tips and Tricks: • Lots of options for charts – this is what scientists tend to be after • Keep simple and add a clarifying qualitative statements • Think about data labels, scientific units, etc

11. Comparative data – different variables

12. Causal relationships Flow-charts with icons Traditional Flow-Chart Flow chart with icons and data These can be tricky for designers and require the most oversight and direction. We normally sketch a traditional flow chart and write down the data labels and text that need to be added

13. Example concept sketch for a causal relationship infographic About a third of all food produced is lost in the food supply chain 100% of food supply 66.6 % of food supply agriculture Storage Transport Possessing Retail Consumer 40% of food losses in low-income countries occur at storage, transport and processing levels 40% of food losses in high-income countries occur at retail and consumer levels Food Supply

14. Links to Inspirational Infographics Inspirational Narrative Infographics • The World Bank’s Infographic Series: • http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/19/Infographic-Climate-Change-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-South-Asia-South-East-Asia?cid=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT • Netherlands Global C02: http://infographics.pbl.nl/website/globalco2/ • The Institute of International and European Affairs Waste Not Want Not Series: • http://www.iiea.com/blogosphere/waste-not-want-not-the-problem-of-food-waste • Greenpeace Save the Arctic: • http://columnfivemedia.com/work-items/greenpeace-infographic-save-the-arctic-tour/ Inspirational Dynamic Visualizations • U.S. Gun Deaths Data Visualisation: http://guns.periscopic.com/?year=2013 Inspirational Visualizations that represent multiple variables cleanly and simply: • Fathom’s Health Visualisation: http://fathom.info/healthviz • Fathom’s Ageing Visulisation: http://fathom.info/aging

15. Links to Good Designers Infographics: • Column Five - http://www.columnfivemedia.com/ • Speak to Jake Burkett, jburkett@columnfivemedia.com& Travis Keith, tkeith@columnfivemedia.com Data visualisation: • http://fathom.info/about • http://www.periscopic.com/ • http://developmentseed.org/ Free sources to construct your own: • http://www.tableausoftware.com/public • http://infogr.am/ Infographic library: • http://visual.ly/ - do not recommend their paid-for infographic development service but they host a library of infographics, similar to Flickr which I recommend you upload your infographics too