Infographics for Information Conveyance: A Light History From Early Days (Stasis) to Today (Motion, Interactive, Immersive)

Introduction

For higher education recovery from long-term challenges, such as the multiple years of the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic, it helps to maximize opportunities for learning. This means learning materials that are used in real time and those that are digital leave-behinds for formal, informal, and nonformal learning. [Formal learning refers to accredited learning managed by formal agencies with oversight; informal learning refers to learning that is a byproduct of non-learning activities, and nonformal learning refers to course-based learning that is not credit-based.] Infographics have long been used to enhance learning. While they are not considered glamorous, theirs is an approach that would benefit learners as they strive to address learning loss from 2020 – 2023 as the world emerges from the pandemic.

An informational graphic or “infographic” [an amalgam of information + graphic] refers to static “visual representations of information” (Andry et al., 2021, p. 1; Bigelow et al., 2014, p. 17) or data, concepts, and knowledge (Nhan & Yen, 2021b, p. 85). Said eloquently: an infographic is a “visual translation of data” (Bradshaw & Porter, 2017, p. 57). An infographic contains “verbal, pictorial and schematic components” (de Castro Andrade & Spinillo, 2018, p. 187). Information graphics “combine elements of data visualization with design” (Harrison, Reinecke, & Chang, 2015, p. 1187). Infographics offer overviews of a topic (Szoltysik, 2016). They are “a form of knowledge assemblage” (Featherstone, 2014, p. 147). Through “a fusion of data and graphical elements,” infographics tell an information story (Lu, et al., 2020, p. 1). Infographics are often “self-contained pictorials” (Balkac & Ergun, 2018, p. 2514), which means that they can exist in a stand-alone fashion with full details. [One researcher writes: “An ideal in infographics might be something like a self-interpreting artifact” (Rosenberg, 2015, p. 40).] There are assumed efficiencies of infographics. Infographics offer “a way of delivering the maximum amount of content in the least amount of space while still being precise and clear” to “tell a story, show relationships, and reveal structure” (Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2016, p. 42). Another definition asserts that an infographic is “a highly effective visualization tool, which allows (creators) to present organized and structured information about any event, fact, object or phenomenon in a graphical form” (Tarkhova & Tarkhov, 2020, p. 66). Infographics can serve as “instructional materials” (Yildirim, 2016, p. 109). Digital (and digitized) infographics “rarely fit on one screen, the reader usually has to scroll (and sometimes zoom in) to read them in full” (Veszelszki, 2014, p. 100). At least one definition suggests that infographics are necessarily web-based:

Another also focuses on the online versions of infographics. Infographics take on many forms, but are most commonly found as “online posters…and short animated videos (usually less than five minutes)” (Bellato, 2013, p. 1). Developers of infographics pre-filter learning contents and so get “straight to the point” (Bellato, 2013, p. 3.

Another definition reads: “a complex compilation of connected images that convey an idea” (Hsiao et al., 2019, p. 26). The feature of having a core central idea is similar to that of essays with a core idea as an organizing principle.