After working here for just two months, I have been introduced to how effective Drupal is as an open source Content Management System. I decided to design an infographic for my first blog post, showing facts and figures about Drupal, proving why it is becoming so popular. I am going to take you through how I got to my final design, and some tips that I found useful!
1. Research
Infographics are visual representations of information.
So first things first, collect your information and data! I did this by looking on Drupal.org as well as searching through articles I found written about Drupal. All the data collected needs to be up to date and factual. As I worked on the infographic I continually updated the numerical facts from the Drupal website as they were being updated everyday.
When collecting data, I tried to look out for numerical based facts and statistics as these give you more to play with when illustrating graphs and charts
TIP: Ensure you list all the sources you obtained your information from, to ensure their authenticity. Otherwise you could have made all of it up!!
2. Initial Ideas
Now we can focus on making the data look nice! I wanted to base my idea around the Drupal logo (A) and decided I would design my infographic using illustrations of water, pipes and taps, having the Drupal logo “pouring” out at the end.
I decided the colour palette would also be based on the Drupal logo using the three shades of blue and white (B+C).
Here are some of my initial ideas…
TIP: Try to keep to a simple colour palette to make it easier on the eye but consider using bright colours and bold fonts to make the text stand out!
3. Putting it all together
Below is my first attempt at displaying all of the information in one image.
Individually I liked how each element worked, however I think I went a bit over the top and crammed all the information in at once making it quite hard to follow! There was also no set direction of how to read it ie.left to right. In the end, I decided to change to a more vertical layout so the reader can follow the text from top to bottom following the pipes and water running down the page.
TIP: Make sure you space out your text – this helps the information to flow much better!
4. Thinking outside the box
I wanted to show the collected information in a creative way to make it more interesting to read. For example I used a globe to illustrate a pie chart describing “number of people worldwide” (D). I think it works well as it links to the information being displayed as well as putting the figures into context.
I found it more difficult to do this with a bar graph as I was limited to two bars (E). I decided to use icons of people to represent the size of the communities as it is visually more interesting but still shows the relevant information (F).
TIP: Be subtle! A small change to a graph can be more effective than lots of add ons and decoration!
5. Finishing touches
After reshaping the layout of the infographic, I realised the majority of it was made up of text. I added small icons as visual aids to sit alongside the text (G) and detailing to the pipes (H). These helped to make the whole thing look more interesting and more like an infographic than just a colourful article. I also made sure the title stood out by adding an illustration of a cloud (I), making the whole infographic flow together as one image!
TIP: Double check your margins! It will look much better if everything is lined up!
Here is the final infographic in three different sizes!…
budda - November 20th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
I love the play on the word “Drupal”.