Creating an Infographic!

 An infographic??  What in the world is that?!? 

This is something completely new to me! Well, I have seen them and used them as a teacher, but did not know that "infographic" was the proper term for it! Now that I know the proper lingo for these informative visuals that are much more pleasing than just reading an article, I was given the challenge of creating one myself based on the data in an article from the PEW Research Center site. I decided to choose an article based on the use of social media, particularly Facebook. The article was titled "10 facts about Americans and Facebook". 

Now that I had my article, I needed to figure out how to create an infographic! Technology is a huge challenge for me, so I was pretty nervous, I'm not going to lie! But I was linked to 3 sites to cruise through to get ideas and a template. Below are my personal opinions on these sites and which one I chose to use. 

#1 Infogram https://infogram.com/  This site seemed pretty basic at first. You could choose a blank template and start from scratch, but that wasn't for me. I needed some construction already in place. They had templates for maps, timelines, dashboards, posters, and of course infographics. Most of the templates, however, required that you upgrade. This was not going to be happening since this was my first stab at creating one! I chose a template and it became complicated quite quickly, for me anyway! The amount of choices overwhelmed me and it was information overload. I am just a drag and click kind of person, and this site seemed a bit more complicated than that, from adding charts and timelines to the width and height of icons! This site would be great for someone who has a handle on creating an infographic, but not for the novice! One who has creative abilities and knowledge of infographics and computers would have a blast with this site and create some amazing things! 

#2 Easelly https://www.easel.ly/  This site looked appealing at first, showing off many visually fascinating infographic templates already created. But yet again, even though there was a pretty good selection to choose from, you have to upgrade to get much much more. This site seemed to strictly focus on infographics, or they called them "Public Visuals". They did provide you with a search bar and a category bar. The category bar listed choices from social media to holidays. Easelly seemed less overwhelming than Infogram. There are not as many items to choose from and change once you have selected a template. This was a plus for me, the beginner! Playing around with a template, I found that the UNDO arrow does not UNDO everything! That UNDO arrow is one of my favorite friends and has saved my life many times! This made this site almost a deal breaker right then! But I kept working with it, and it is pretty basic. Works pretty well for a beginner to create the basics. It seems if you want to go the "fancy" route, then you would have to pick an already created infographic, or you would need to find another site. 

#3 Piktochart https://create.piktochart.com/ 

TOP CHOICE! Piktochart is similar to Infogram in that it has more than just infographic templates to choose from and create. It appeared to me to have more of a selection of templates without having to upgrade than the previous two sites did. Once a template is chosen, it let me conduct my favorite...CLICK AND DRAG! I knew instantly this would be the site I would be using to present my information and data from my chosen article! The choices in design features was not overwhelming, not was it limited. Piktochart was easy to navigate and understand. Again, not too much, and not too little. It was easy to download pictures and images that I had in my files and/or I pulled off of internet searches. Graphics and pictures were easy to apply to the templates, as well as maneuvering and sizing them. Deleting already made items on the template was simple as well. Being the novice of infographics, this site was the best fit for myself! The infographic I created seems simple, yet satisfying...in my personal opinion anyway! This site made it easy to be able to share as well! Look below to view my infographic "10 WOW-ing Facebook Facts about Americans"! I have also added the link at the bottom of the infographic for better viewing pleasure! The article I collected the data from is in a link at the bottom of the infographic. ENJOY!

https://create.piktochart.com/output/56222485-10-wow-ing-facebook-facts-about-americans