Rip it up and start again.

1. The info graphic is easy to understand as it is in a long strip format, which makes the reader move down the page one point at a time and this makes the information readily accessible. However the images alone do not allow the user to understand the information therefore they have to read the writing to find out what point is being made. The focus of the infographic is the usage of the website Stumbleupon, and this is made clear through the constant repetition and stats given about the website. At times too much information about other websites has been given which begins to distract the viewer away from the main focus, which may be a downfall.

2. All the stats on the poster were new to me and one which particularly surprised me was that Stumbleupon was used more than Facebook, as I had originally thought that Facebook was the most commonly used social media website. 

 The bar charts and the graphs facilitate the most learning as they are clear and we can refer to past knowledge to make a guess as to what they mean without reading the small print whereas the diagrams that are just pictures, for example the baby bottles, do need text to make them understandable.

3. The target audience would be a person or a company who are looking to create a webpage or social media page to benefit themselves or their company. Therefore the relationship would be that of a service provider trying to engage a consumer of the service. This infographic would be used to try to gain Stumbleupon business by showing stats about their website compared to their competitors and proving that their website offers better results. The designer targets and engages the audience by making Stumbleupon’s stats stand out. This is achieved by using a bright orange colour, and making the competitor websites a subtle colour to make sure potential customers focus on Stumbleupon the most.

4. There is use of hierarchy within this poster as the title has the largest type and the text which describes the graphics, is smaller in size. Subheadings have also been included at a size which is in between the title and the information, and the graphic around the subheadings helps them stand out and adds to the hierarchy. 

Heading

Subheading

 

Description 

The layout is in a long strip, which leads the user through the poster from top to bottom like a list. There is little use of white space, as the images and information come one after another to create the list effect.

5. The typography used is kept to a minimum and consists of small statements or sentences to get the point across clearly and quickly. 

 1

This keeps the viewer engaged and interested by not boring them with long paragraphs to read about facts and statistics. The text used is also fairly small in size compared to the graphics or images that it is describing to make sure the image is the focus and the text doesn’t distract too much from this. Hierarchy is shown through point size and colour change at certain parts of the poster and borders are added to subheadings, for example “STUMBLEUPON DRIVES OVER 50 PERCENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES” and “HALF-LIVES” to make them stand out.

Sans-serif fonts are used to again give a clean look to the poster, which will prevent the user being distracted from the images with fonts that are bold and have their own personality. All caps are used to make the information feel like headings for each individual graphic or image. (As shown in the above image: 1)

6. Some of the imagery used doesn’t add meaning to the poster, but is used to illustrate the facts in a visual way. For example the fact that the number of Americans born in a minute is eight doesn’t need the image of eight baby bottles to make it understandable but it does add a visual aid to engage the user and make the poster look more interactive and fun. The imagery used is also relative to the facts so when talking about time, a stopwatch is used and when discussing links, a chain with links is used. 

This link between graphic and information makes the poster more interesting for the viewer and also helps them to understand the information. The images used on the poster are therefore symbolic as the baby bottles symbolise the statistic of people being born and the stopwatch is symbolic of time, which is another statistic the poster is giving information about. The poster is mostly geometric through the use of bar charts, graphs and other images but there are also some organic shapes and images used, for example the symbol of the sun/day used when describing how long a link will last on a web page.

7. The poster’s main focus is Stumbleupon. The facts about Stumbleupon are in a bright orange colour to make the website the focus of the poster and immediately attract the viewer to their stats when they glance at the poster. The other colours used throughout the poster are subtler and tend to blend into the poster to make this the second thing the viewer will see and makes sure they don’t focus on these facts too much. The implication is that Stumbleupon is  bright and vibrant while the others are more bland and uninteresting.

8. The research content has been taken and put into bar charts and graphs to show the information visually but at times the images or charts do not give the viewer enough information, therefore they have included type to explain the images and make the stats absolutely clear to the viewer. They have also used logos such as Facebook, Twitter etc instead of just writing the words, which again allows the viewer to relate to it more quickly as they are used to seeing these logos on a daily basis.

9. The images and graphics are simplified to make sure the fact or statistic is still clear and not lost within the image and to keep the facts the main focus of the poster. They allow the user to see clearly what fact or stat the poster is showing, in a visual way, which makes it more interesting for the viewer.  The images, colours and layout reminds me of Jason Munn’s poster where he takes simple information and uses imagery to show or hint towards the topic. 

This makes it a fun piece to look at as you can understand the information quickly and easily without having to read too much. 

It is also suggestive of the New Typography movement and in particular Lester Beall’s public service poster, which promoted the use of electricity through the rural electrification administration in the 1930’s. His use of flat shapes and schematic drawing to convey the message with minimal use of text is also what this poster tries to achieve.

10.

- Sign up for the website and see how they work.

- Research the facts and work out which ones are relevant and need to be included.

- Work out what is the clearest way of showing each statistic or fact as an image. - Work out a colour scheme that will complement the website and also attract the viewer to the important information on the poster.

- Think of the psychology of colours and how people respond to advertising to portray the correct message about the company’s own website. 

-Work out the order and layout of all the information to make sure it is legible and not too cluttered and confusing.

- Choose a neat and legible typeface to use for the poster

- Work out the information hierarchy from the most important information to down to the least.

- Produce the poster and print.