Visualising Data

Johan Oldekop gave a good talk about visualising data with infographics at the Showroom here in Sheffield yesterday evening. Johan’s from Sheffield University’s Institute for International Development and his event was part of the 11th Annual ESRC Festival of Social Science.

The event was about how academics might use infographics to bring the results of their research to a wider public audience. Johan talked about his research into conservation by local communities in Ecuador and showed us the infographic he’d designed with a colleague that they hoped would make the research more accessible to a non-expert audience.

There was a good discussion in the group about the dangers of over simplifying, about other ways of using digital technology to share research findings and about open access to the raw data gathered during the research. I like the idea of a more interactive digital version of the infographic - something that’s similar to the reporting dashboards we sometimes develop as part of the web applications we build. There are already tools available online for building and sharing interactive dashboards.

The point was made that not everyone has access to the web and there’s still a need for printed media. That got me thinking - how do you share infographics about academic research with people who don’t use the web? What about big advertising billboards - maybe universities could buy advertising space around town and use them to showcase the best infographics? And QR codes in the infographics would make it easier for interested people to download more information onto their phones.