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I love infographics. I present much of my research via infographics. Sadly, I'm not that talented (though I am pretty proud of my Data Stories and work with a fantastic graphic designer to make my ugly sketches into beautiful reality). I also love to share my infographic inspiration with you! Here, in my third installment of "Infographic Inspiration," I focus on how graphics can be used to tell a story.    1 - Making Comics. Since my Data Stories are narrative in form, I picked this up to see how thinking about comics could help me think through how I present the Data Stories I share. It certainly has done that, but in reality, it helped me think through how we could better practice deliberate eudaemonic curiosity through how we view the world and make sense of it graphically. Citation: Barry, Lynda. Making Comics. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2019.
2 - Design Is Storytelling. I've been known to say that every survey I write is intended to allow a respondent to tell me their story. This book only reinforced that thinking. Similarly, when a visitor experiences an exhibition, there are two main storylines to consider: the one the museum is telling through the narrative arc of the exhibition (or a virtual program), but also the one the visitor is living as they make their way through the experience. The question is … where is the call to action, the rising action, the climax, and then conclusion/knowledge built? If any of this thinking intrigues you, pick up this book to think through how your museum develops exhibitions, virtual content, etc. … and yes, infographics. Citation: Lupton, Ellen. Design is Storytelling. New York: Cooper Hewitt, 2017. 3 - Info We Trust. Part history, part meditation, part science, part technology, part philosophy, and part theory. The book is hard to describe. Yet I loved the dive it took into how we all make sense of information. Did it have concrete advice for me? Not necessarily. But it has made me a better thinker and synthesizer. And that will serve me well in my own Data Stories. Bonus: Chapter 11 dissects museum experiences and the data of an exhibition (including objects, labels, and meaning-making). Citation: Andrews, RJ. Info We Trust: How to Inspire the World with Data. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2019. If you come across an infographic you think works particularly well, send it my way at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com! |