Infographics are all the rage. Infographics, short for information graphics, are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. I have created two of them:

Enlarge.

Enlarge.

I create them by hand editing HTML and then viewthe HTML page in the browser. If I want an image-only version of the page, I capture the screen using SnagIt. Because I know HTML, this is easy for me to do.I don't spend too much time on them. They are not too fancy. On teh other hand they could be worse.

• Google Search for Bad Infographics

Recently Technologist for the Office of the CTO, Shaan Hurley, shared an article with me:

• 5 Tools For Creating Your Own Infographics

Oh my, there are a variety of ways to make infographics.

• Infogr.am
• Infoactive
• Piktochart
• Easel.ly
• Many Eyes V2

I thought I would try some. I mostly used the defaults and tried to spend only a few minutes on each one.

• Infogr.am

  

• Infoactive

  I clicked on various links on their web site and responded to various automated email messages I received, but never stumbled upon anything where I could actually try something. I must have been doing something wrong.

• Piktochart

  

  As you can tell, I found Piktochart to be really tedious to use.

• Easel.ly

  

  This one wasn't too bad once I broke myself of my Windows UI habits, e.g. Control-C/Control-V does not work.

• Many Eyes V2

  

  I was not sure how to generate a stacked bar chart with all years on the same graph, but for the purpose of this exercise, this looks more interesting anyway.

Unless I would learn more about these tools and put in more time, I think my infographics would make Google's list. Based on my familiarity with HTML, for now, I will stick with what I have been doing.

Visual representations are alive in the lab.