About this Page
This page includes general tips, resources, and examples for reading and analyzing infographics.
Reading and Analyzing Infographics
General Tips for Reading & Analyzing Infographics:
- Make sure to read all text (inside and outside) of the infographic. This includes the name of the author, creation date, source information, description, and key (if there is one).
- Think about the main idea of the infographic. Do you understand the infographic's purpose? Can you summarize the purpose of the infographic?
- Be critical! Think about your likes and dislikes of the infographic. Making informed opinions of infographics that you see will help you become a stronger infographic creator.
Questions to Consider When Reading & Analyzing Infographics:
When reading and analyzing infographics, there are three specific aspects of the graphic that you should pay special attention too. Those aspects are design, message, and critique. Design refers to the aesthetic and artistic choices that the infographic creator made. Message refers to the content and purpose of the graphic. Lastly, critique refers to the opinion of the audience (you). The critique is formed from the personal, informed opinion of the audience. The questions listed in the table below are not meant to be exhaustive, instead these questions are supposed to help you start to think critically about infographics in order to create an informed opinion of them.
Resources:
Baker, F. "Media Literacy: How to Close Read Infographics," Middle Web: All About the Middle Grades, May 30,2017, https://www.middleweb.com/34963/media-literacy-how-to-close-read-infographics/.
Davis, M. "Enhancing Literacy Instruction through Infographics," Literacy Now (blog), December 11, 2015, https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog%2Fliteracy-now%2F2015%2F12%2F11%2Fenhancing-literacy-instruction-through-infographics#:~:text=Infographics%20offer%20complexity%20through%20multiple,language%20of%20content%20area%20subjects.
"Evaluating Information-Applying the CRAAP Test," Meriam Library, California State University, accessed October 18, 2021, https://library.csuchico.edu/sites/default/files/craap-test.pdf.
"Infographics in the Classroom Teacher Toolkit," California Academy of Sciences, accessed October 18, 2021, https://www.calacademy.org/educators/infographics-in-the-classroom-teacher-toolkit.
Thacker, E., et al. "Reading Analyzing, and Creating Informational Graphics in the Elementary Classroom," Social Studies and the Younger Learner, 30, No.4 (2019) 15-18, https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/yl_310415.pdf.
It is important to practice reading and analyzing the infographics that you are interested in creating. This will allow you to become familiar with the design, structure, and style of infographics in that field. Below lists some resources you can visit to find infographics and practice viewing them.
Finding Infographic Examples:
- American Public Health Association Infographics
- Census of Governments Infographics & Visualizations
- 101 Best Infographic Examples for Beginners
- Infographics from Tableau Public
- Daily Infographic
- Information is Beautiful
- The Pudding
- Adapting the Framework: InfographicsThis links to a library research guide from the University of Michigan. The first section of the guide will probably be the most helpful when thinking through reading and analyzing infographics.
- Infographic Interpretation and Creation (Student Version)This is a pdf of the infographic visual literacy module made for students from the University of Toledo.
- Principles of DesignThis links to the Principles of Design from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Knowing about the elements of design can be helpful when trying to determine why infographic creators make the design choices that they do.