{"id":865,"date":"2020-08-24T12:30:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/?p=865"},"modified":"2020-08-24T12:30:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:30:56","slug":"how-to-get-infographics-right-when-it-really-really-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/how-to-get-infographics-right-when-it-really-really-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get infographics right when it really, really matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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… Yeah, same.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So here\u2019s the deal: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said they \u201chope to finish this pandemic [in] less than two years<\/a>,\u201d which seems to me to be a charmingly Pollyannaish way of saying this pandemic could last \u2018round about two damn years, y’all<\/em>. There are a lot of perspectives from which this might be a disaster, but from a marketing and advertising perspective, it\u2019s a challenge: Unfortunately, people quickly get inured to a constant stream of COVID-19 information, and over the next two years, there\u2019s going to be a lot<\/em> of new information that they\u2019ll very much need to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need me to tell you that information these days has to be eye-catching, accurate, informative, and easy to understand. (Obviously, I\u2019m telling you anyway.) And \u201cmake an infographic or explainer video\u201d is hardly a revolutionary approach to message strategy. (… Starting to wonder why I bothered with this post.) But whittling a lot of complex information into an easily scanned graphic can be quite the task, and when pretty much everything you need to convey could be life-saving, getting it right is important. Here are a few pieces that do the job well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been getting a lot of information about how<\/em> to mask ever since the CDC announced that we should. But we aren\u2019t always told why<\/em>. Some people question why a healthy person should go to the trouble of wearing a mask, and this infographic from Clovis Community Medical Center<\/a> illustrates the risk of transmission when masks are and aren\u2019t worn. Just enough text, quite\u2026 evocative <\/em>spit-droplet graphics, easy to consume at a glance. I\u2019m for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Transmission figures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As one might expect, the medical journal The Lancet<\/em> has actual statistics on the effectiveness of various types of COVID-19 precautions. I like this graphic<\/a> for how it presents those statistics clearly, because numbers are hard<\/em>, y\u2019all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fake Ne \u2014 nope, not going there<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic of\u2026 we\u2019ll say misleading<\/em> news isn\u2019t as deadly as the COVID-19 pandemic, but it can definitely be a contributor to coronavirus spread. That makes it another thing to guard yourself against. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has a (downloadable) graphic<\/a> with simple tips for identifying misleading news stories before you accidentally share something bad that could go viral, because God knows we\u2019re full up on viruses at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Confusing statistics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the most confusing things about this entire pandemic is the math. Statistics are complicated, projections keep changing, and people pull out a lot of very<\/em> different numbers to discuss the same pandemic. This video<\/a> breaks down two of the most-used numbers: case fatality rate (CFR) and infection fatality rate (IFR). Dr. F. Perry Wilson takes some mad-wicked high-level concepts and makes them understandable. The video is short, it\u2019s clear, it has helpful graphics, and it\u2019s actually comprehensible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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