I have been following Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Program on and off over the last few years, and I thought this infographic was pretty good. I do like that the author chose a color scheme that is faithful to the color scheme used for OLPC's marketing materials and to the colors used for the designs of their laptops.
I thought they grouped elements very well, and the graphics are pleasant in appearance. I did take issue with the orientation of the graphic. It is very long on the vertical axis, and does not work well for display on computer screens since they use landscape orientation. The portrait orientation of the infographic would not necessarily be an issue if the infograohic is intended to be displayed in print as a poster, but because of the conflict of proportions it is like trying to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole. It seems that the designer did not use empathic design principles to understand how the user would interact with the information of the infographic. http://pinterest.com/pin/178173728978784582/
I really like the maps and the time line as a way of representing data. It's clear and beautiful. What do you mean by this statement: "It seems that the designer did not use empathic design principles to understand how the user would interact with the information of the infographic"
ReplyDeletein UX there is the notion of designing with empathy for the user. Most monitor displays are landscape oriented (they are wider than they are tall). Unless the infographic was designed for print, the proportions do not fit those of a standard monitor.
DeleteThe extreme vertical bias of the layout causes the type to become so small that it is hard to read on a monitor, and if it is zoomed in then it causes the proverbial "vertical scroll of death". Both of these are undesirable.
Even with mobile devices that can be rotated, the dimensions do not match up. If the infographic was meant to be printed as a poster then everything is fine, but for web display it its a bit cumbersome.
My biggest comment is "Is it too wordy in places?" I find that I only read through paragraph of texts on infographics that I'm highly motivated in the subject matter. If I'm just slightly interested or moderately interested, I'm reading single words and/or short phrases only and skipping the block-y stuff. Could they reach a broader audience by re-wording the longer stuff into shorter text while still preserving the integrity of the information being conveyed?
ReplyDelete