Building an Alternate Index Infographic

There is no single way to create an infographic.  Styles depend greatly on the content, audience and purpose.
Today’s post is the first in a longer series focused on practical data visualization.  Each post will cover a different style of visualization that attempts to solve a specific problem.

You have many audiences

Funders, politicians, researchers, students, parents, employees, etc., etc., etc.  We write for lots of people, but so often we only write one thing.

The way we read

A change in strategy

When releasing a pdf, most researchers and evaluators send everyone to page one.  But why?
You know your audiences.  Some people want the bottom line, some people want to know about a specific state and some people want to actually start on page one.  Why not tailor your strategy to give them what they want, or rather what they would actually read.

Prototype: Alternate Index Infographic

Here’s a prototype  [pdf] of something I call an Alternate Index Infographic.  I think lots of smaller reports is the future, but the present is still about one big report.   This type of infographic can be easily altered, creating different visual indexes for different audiences.
It’s a pdf where the individual images are hyperlinked, creating an interactive infographic.  The main version links to different pieces of the World Bank annual report website.
I created an alternate version that links to specific pages in an online hosted pdf.  It’s a little bit more temperamental but potentially viable in situations where creating an html version of a report is not viable.

Further applications

This kind of approach can be used for more than just reports.  Why send your audience to a home page if you can send to the specific web pages they would care about?  You could also tie together resources from multiple sites.
I’m creating a set of step by step instructions for all of the visuals in this series.  If you’re one of my patrons you’ll see it soon.  If not, this will be part of a greater workshop I’m in the process of building.