‘Insightful’ and ‘Enlightening’

The four features of any visualisation are:

1. Functional
2. Beautiful
3. Insightful
4. Enlightening

This section focusses on the ‘Insightful’ and ‘Enlightening’ part of any graphic.

1) Insightful (0:54)

• Insight is the discovery of unexpected or relevant information in any data set.
• A visualisation is created to give readers access and insight to data that they would otherwise not have.
• Many infographics lack context, meaning that they are not very insightful or relevant.
• A number on its own is meaningless, it becomes relevant in context.

1a) What is the point of your graphic? Of your story? (3:17)

• If something stands out, highlight that bit of data.

Example - Homicides in the District – Washington Post: (4:24)

• The graphic is an interactive graphic of homicides in Washington D.C.
• It also offers an extra feature to explore some of the main trends found in the data. 
  This serves as an entry point into the data. 
  

1b) Annotation (5:54)

Interesting highlights in the data that you can explore are called ‘Annotations’. The feature used to access these highlights is called the ‘Annotation layer’.

You have three layers:

• The visual representation of the data.
• The navigation layer where readers can explore the data in interactive graphics.
• The annotation layer where you highlight the revealing or interesting data points. 
  Write a proper headline, a short introduction, and explain the context of the data for the graphic. 
  

Example - A Chicago Divided by Killings – The New York Times: (6:46)

• The first two layers consist of a map of homicides in the city of Chicago, with an overlay of the racial majority in each area.
• The third layer highlights some of the districts where exceptions or extremes can be found.
  An introduction to the graphic helps the reader to understand the data.

1c) Structuring your infographic as a story (8:17)

If a visualisation can be structured as a story, the information is often more easily understood.

Example - Brazil’s Demographic Opportunity (PDF) – The Functional Art – Alberto Cairo: (8:34)

• The graphic is based on the 2010 census data on Brazil.
• The first part shows the increase and decrease in population in the different regions.
• The second layer added context: comparing census data with fertility rates.
• The story: The consequences of the current fertility rate in Brazil.
• Main graphic: Brazil’s population has grown from 2000 to 2010
• Line graph: Fertility rates per country
• Third and fourth graph: Brazil’s population growth will decrease and the population will grow older
• Final part: How Brazil can transform the population challenge into an opportunity

2) Enlightening (12:02)

• Graphics can change a reader’s mind in relation to certain important issues.

Example: (12:31)

• Preconceived ideas and how visualisations can confirm the preconceived idea. 
  Example: In Brazil private schools are better than public schools. 
  

Enem scores – INEP:

• The goal is to show the differences in school quality, with a focus on private and public.
• The second goal is to show the differences per region.

The Enem school ranking – Época magazine: (15:09) 

• Bars representing 27 states, representing 100% of the schools in that state, but positioned according to the percentage of schools scoring above and below average:
• There is a big difference in the scores received in schools per state.
• The graphic confirms the preconceived idea.
• A filter is added to switch between all schools, public schools, and private schools:
• There is a big difference between public and private schools.
• The graphic shows the evidence behind the preconceived idea.

You have learned (18:30)

The key elements for creating a visualisation. Make it:

• Functional
• Beautiful
• Insightful
• Enlightening

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This video, with the exception of the Adobe Illustrator bonus tutorial, is the final video tutorial of the course.

When you are finished with these last few steps, you can go to the next part and take the final quiz of the course 'Doing journalism with Data: First Steps, Skills, and Tools'.

If you receive a percentage of 70 or higher, you will receive a Certificate of Completion.

But first, I'd like to you to carry out some exercise questions. Please continue by clicking the 'Next' button below.

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Reading list:

Complete reading list for all 'Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization courses' by Alberto Cairo 

Recommended articles for all sessions

• Infographics and visualizations as tools for the mind
• Data visualization for human perception 
• Visual encoding
• The 8 hats of data visualization design
• Graphic Cheat Sheet
• Essential collection of visualization resources
• Storytelling with data
• The narrative eros of the infographic
• Emotional data visualization
• Heroes of visualization
• A confederacy of truth-tellers