Zikea McCurdie (00:02):

So welcome to NPIN's Designing infographics for Public Health Professionals training. This is part two of our training series. I'm Zikea McCurdie, Senior Health Communications Specialist at NPIN, and I will be your guide through today's training. So the purpose of this webinar, this per this webinar, is for any public health professional who wants to create their own infographics that are accessible to all audiences. In this training, you'll learn how to use design elements to create your infographic, ensure 508 accessibility and test and distribute your infographic. So as I mentioned, this is part two of our infographic training series. In part one, best practices in infographics and public health that took place last week we covered the following topics; identifying key components of infographics, identifying target audience and platform for infographics and creating key messages and how to find reliable data sources. So currently part one of the training has been posted to the NPIN website. I'm going to post that link in the chat for everyone here so you can feel free to check it out. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see part one. Now let's just jump into it.

Zikea McCurdie (01:26):

So today we're gonna cover infographic layouts, choosing colors, visual elements of infographics. We're gonna do a interactive activity, applying best practices again, and then we're gonna discuss creating and sharing infographics. And I'll leave you with a few key takeaways. Diving straight into it. Let's get into infographic layout. So we're gonna talk first about visual hierarchy. What is, well a thoughtful layout is needed in health infographics to guide the viewer's eyes seamlessly through key information. So what is visual hierarchy? It's the arranging of colors, sizes, spatial arrangements to establish a type of order which is crucial for health data, for better health comprehension. So as you see in our example to the right, you see that big text, of course you'll read that first and it kind of guides you through how text, formatting, spacing, size, all determines how an individual's eyes move through a graphic.

Zikea McCurdie (02:41):

So you wanna use the layout to tell a visual story. You wanna craft a cohesive narrative flow through strategic placement of elements, ensuring that the infographic tells a compelling story that resonates with the audiences. So looking at that example on the right, you see the tops dos and don'ts, and you see how your eyes goes from this big in title first and then it kind of flows down through the page. So you can see that they use great visual hierarchy on this post in order to help your eyes flow through the story. Now you wanna choose your infographic layout based on the type of information you're presenting and we have a few examples on the right that you can use as a guide. So if you're showing statistical information, you may wanna put the high stati, the key statistics at the top and then add your supporting text or any other supporting statistics under. If it's a timeline, you may wanna set it up in a way where you have the information on one side or maybe an image on one side, information on the other. And once again, this PowerPoint will be shared.

Zikea McCurdie (03:57):

And now let's jump into using colors in your infographics. So color choice is really important. It's one of the most important visual qualities of the infographic actually. You wanna keep your color palette between three to five colors and you wanna choose them based on relativity to the subject. You wanna be aware of certain emotional associations to colors and ensure that the colors in your graphic are appropriate for the objective.

Zikea McCurdie (04:28):

So we provide a little color psychology guide here. When choosing your colors for your infographic, you wanna opt to use your brand colors first. So if you are working with an agency that already has an established brand, automatically go for those colors when making your infographic. However, if that's not an option, you may choose to use color psychology to determine what colors best support your message. So on the right we have a few different examples. So yellow could be seen as optimistic, confident, and friendly, but it can also mean sickness, jaundice, fear or cowardice. Black can represent elegance, wealth, sophistication, but it can also represent mourning. Red can represent power, security, courage, excitement, but it can also represent danger, defiance, aggression and pain. So we wanna be aware of the psychological associations with colors when we're designing because these are things that tend to kind of stand out automatically.

Zikea McCurdie (05:35):

Next, when it comes to color, we wanna make sure we're using color contrast. You wanna utilize contrast to highlight key points, create focal points and to guide the viewer's eyes. Kind of like we saw in that first example of visual hierarchy. You wanna consider visual impairments as well and ensure that your color choices are accessible to all viewers. In that example to the right, you can see the example of like a high contrast, low contrast. So in box one we can see, we can read that really easily because that has a high contrast. But box two it's not as easy to read because there isn't much of a contrast between those colors. Same in boxes three and four. So you wanna ensure high color contrast for text and visual elements for better visibility. The contrast ratio between the background and the text should be at least 4.5 to one and oh, there was just a tool dropped in the chat that's really helpful to look at color contrast. Thank you for sharing that Allison.

Zikea McCurdie (06:42):

And now let's move into typography. So once again you wanna use that layout to tell a visual story. With your fonts, you wanna use legible fonts and ensure that text is sizable. For easy reading you wanna stick to a serif font or a sans serif font for readability and you wanna use varying font sizes, weights and styles once again to establish visual hierarchy and guide the viewer's eye. Looking at that example to the right, we can see that on the example on the left we have meat free standing out as the title. We can see the percentages and we can also see the supporting text. Then on the right we see that dark text over a dark background doesn't provide much of color, color contrast, so it's hard to see that text. And then there's more than three fonts used. So when you are using fonts you kind of wanna stick to at least one to two. And you wanna use fonts that pair well.

Zikea McCurdie (07:55):

Let's move into imagery in infographics. Oh, and we do have something in the chat about typography, about refrain from using all caps. Yes, please don't use all caps. Kind of going back to the thing with color, all caps could sometimes bring emotional responses in individuals. So you want to keep it just regular text with like capital letter at the beginning, lower case throughout. So going to imagery, you wanna make sure you're using imagery in infographics because it's the graphics part <laugh>. We wanna use images that are impactful in reinforcing key messages and that make the infographic more visually interesting. The images should align with the objective of the infographic and you wanna err on the side of caution with images. You wanna avoid using too many images that can be distracting to audience members and can take away from key messages.

Zikea McCurdie (08:59):

Then when you're adding your imagery, you wanna make sure you're providing alternative text as well. This is to ensure 508 compliance providing. Alternative text and descriptions for visual elements on digital infographics help to aid understanding. You wanna write alternative text that's descriptive, yet concise, keeping it ideally under 125 characters. Also it is important to consider this as you're designing so you won't have to go at the end to add everything in. So in the example we see to the right without alternative text, the image just says image 1234, which isn't very descriptive. So if an individual is using a screen reader in order to look at your infographic, that wouldn't help them understand what's being presented. Now on the example to the right we see that it describes that it's an airplane landing so that if a screen reader is being used, an individual who is who may be visually impaired can understand what the graphics are on the infographic.

Zikea McCurdie (10:08):

And now we'll move into the main part of infographics methods for data visualization. So infographics are nothing without the data that's presented and you wanna make sure you're presenting the data in the best way possible. So bar graphs are often used to show frequency and or comparing different groups. If you're using a bar graph, you wanna ensure you include a title for your graph. You also wanna keep bar graphs simple and you wanna use colors in order to increase appeal and maybe even to show differences in the variables. Also with bar graphs include labels for each variable in the bar chart. Going back to our training last week, remember we want to provide a lot of text and like description for key messages, not just images but words as well.

Zikea McCurdie (11:04):

Another type of data visualization that can be used are pie graphs. Pie charts are useful in communicating proportion. Once again, if you're using a chart, you wanna include a title for your graph. With the pie graphs, you wanna label all segments of the pie chart and then you wanna make sure you include text to describe the main messages. Next up we have picture and icon tables. So it's easier for viewers to determine frequency when using picture tables. So once again you wanna include a title for your graph. Then you want to place the information you want to highlight to the left when you're creating the pictograph. And you wanna use contrasting colors to show the differences between the percentage that you're trying to highlight and what isn't being highlighted. And then you wanna include text to explain key messages. So in this example here we see the image of 10 people standing in a row and the statistic is seven out of 10 early cases of early syphilis cases are among gay and bisexual men. So using our rules that are just demonstrated, you have the seven that are being highlighted on the left and that color is contrasted from the three that aren't being highlighted to show support for that statistic.

Zikea McCurdie (12:40):

So before we jump into the next part of testing and sharing your infographic, let's jump into a quick activity to apply best practices to a few infographics. So as I share the infographics, please feel free to drop your answers in the chat. So our first infographic, what would you do to improve this infographic? Yes, less text, bigger font. Definitely. The colors. Yes colors as well. Change the background color. Less text. Change the flow. More contrast in color. You don't have to italicize headers. Yes. Increase hierarchy and contrast. Correct. And using simple images. All really great answers. Use a more serious font. That's a good one too. Remove all caps. Another good one. Fewer white blocks. Better flow. All great answers. Maybe using a deeper blue as the color to instill trust. That's a good one. Pulling on color psychology as well. So some of the things that we highlighted were there's too much text, also the text is really small, making it hard to read and there's no citation. Also love the call out how block five isn't as parallel to the rest.

Zikea McCurdie (14:32):

Yep, fewer messages. Great. So now let's move on to our next example. So what would you do to improve this infographic? Label each segment. Yes. Bigger font, larger text. Cut down on the categories. Not use a pie chart, that's an interesting one. Use a bar graph instead. Paste labels on the outside of the chart. Different colors. Bigger catchier title. Using a map, too much responsibility placed on the reader. Having a type of cohesiveness to the colors no citation. Once again, agreeing with using a bar chart, using a different chart that may be easier to read. Removing the center circle, maybe putting the total number of cases in the center categories are not parallel. Some of the colors are too similar. Calling out the main takeaway. So adding those key messages.

Zikea McCurdie (15:43):

Adding the largest segment to the left, that's a good one. Some things that we highlighted were there's no text that's describes what's being presented. No citations. Percentages and data are missing. Like yes we see the large spaces, but what does that mean when it comes to the percentage of the total cases. And there are no labels on the chart. And our last one, what would you do to improve this infographic? No, all caps. More contrast. Putting the label at the top, not on the side. Yes, the person of focus is on the right and not the left. It does need citations. Yeah, the sideways text does make it a bit harder to read.

Zikea McCurdie (16:50):

Use both genders if it's not only reflective of one. Change the words change which words are capitalized to draw attention. I love that call out for visual hierarchy. Flip the title direct to a website for less text. The icons at the bottom are hard to see. Color contrast. Use fewer fonts. It needs to be centered and or straightened. Some of the things that we highlighted were the pictogram highlighted the statistics on the wrong side, there's no citation. Use the key three key messages to correspond with the set of graphics. I like that that speaks to the visual hierarchy as well.

Zikea McCurdie (17:43):

The half graphic looks like a pill <laugh>. All right, thank you you everyone for participating and for your answers. So now let's move into design software. So what can you use to make your infographics? So we highlighted three tools. First one is Canva. I'm sure we've all heard of Canva in some instance. If we haven't, it's a user-friendly platform with drag and drop functionality. So some of its features include templates, icons, charts and customizable layouts. So it makes it a lot easier when you're going through the design process. Another one is pictochart where you can create professional looking infographics with ease. Another one that has a large library of templates, charts and graphics. Pictochart is pretty much dedicated to like infographics. Visme is another good one too. I see that in the chat. Another one is PowerPoint. You can use PowerPoint as well. It's a versatile infographic creation tool. Some of the features include pre-designed templates, shapes and objects. And you can use smart art graphics. In the chat I do see a call out. Canva is wonderful but when you export the graphic it doesn't work with the screen reader. That is true. You will then have to edit the graphic afterwards using like PDF tools in order to add those 5 0 8 compliant aspects.

Zikea McCurdie (19:17):

Next we wanna talk about reviewing and distributing your infographic. So after you've created your infographic, you want to conduct a review. You wanna proofread text for grammar and spelling errors, double check all the information that you have for accuracy and ensure that the images you've included and the charts accurately depict key messages. You wanna double check color contrast and the readability of text and then share your drafts of the infographics with peers and colleagues to ensure alignment with infographic goals and key messages. So you wanna ensure accessibility in your infographic design. I've highlighted a few aspects for accessibility throughout the training. So in order to practice true health equity, it's important to ensure your infographics are accessible to you as many people as possible. It's important to make sure you consider the following steps throughout the design process. And if using PowerPoint there's a simple way to check 5 0 8 accessibility within your document.

Zikea McCurdie (20:34):

So on this slide I'm just showing you how to check accessibility on PowerPoint. You'd use the review tab, check accessibility, and then it will open up a panel that will show any 5 0 8 or accessibility errors currently in your PowerPoint for you to edit. We do also have a training on creating 5 0 8 PowerPoints that can be found on the NPIN health literacy website as well. So now just jumping into our key takeaways. You want to utilize visual hierarchy and layout to emphasize focus areas in your infographic. You wanna ensure readability in your infographic based on thought choice and using appropriate white space.

Zikea McCurdie (21:25):

Use color psychology to guide your color choice to support key messages. And finally ensure you review your infographic before exporting and sharing. I'd also like to highlight here that if you are in an agency that requires clearance, you also want to make sure you put your infographic through clearance before sharing it as well. And now I will jump into some of the questions we have. Remember to drop any questions you have in the q and a box so we don't lose track of any of those questions. And make sure you connect with us on social media as well to jumping into the q and a. I'd like more discussion on all caps please. One of the images in this presentation used all caps in the title. I feel like all caps has its purpose but should not be used as a standard for non heading type text. Would appreciate feedback and thoughts. That's a great question Danielle. Well that's great feedback Danielle. And a great observation. Yes, that is true. So the cap, the title can sometimes be in all caps because it will help to draw attention to that title and sometimes it can support with visual hierarchy and supporting what you said. It shouldn't be in non heading type text. So your key messages should be written out in standard format.

Zikea McCurdie (22:49):

Next question, if a graphic has only been added for decorative reasons, is it appropriate to use alternative text or should alternative texts always describe the image explicitly? That's a really good question. So if the graphic is there for decorative reasons, there's actually a way for you to click that. It's decorative if you're using PowerPoint so that it won't come up on the screen reader, you'd use alternative text in order for like a more detailed infographic. Vizio is another platform for infographics and so Visme. All right, our next question. Will you cover how to include sources slash citations for infographic content without making it distracting or too wordy? It's so important to include the sources. Yeah, so when you're including your sources on your infographic, you wanna make sure you're putting it at the bottom. So typically it will come after all the information you've presented.

Zikea McCurdie (23:51):

You might wanna add like a dividing line and you wanna put the text kind of smaller for the citation. So the citation would not be recognized in the same it won't be in the same like font size or font weight as the rest of your key messages in the infographic. It should be smaller in the corner and at the bottom typically. Remember put your questions in the q and a everyone. I'll try to jump to anything in the chat after I've reviewed everything in the q and a. What is the best way to deal with color coding when you have too many categories to have a lot of contrast in a chart? Okay, that's a good question Bree. So personal opinion when it comes to color coding. One, when you're presenting some of the information you wanna be aware that you're not presenting too much information as well. So you wanna limit your categories and your data points to about four to five data points anyway and we highlight this in our first training for the best practices and infographics. And with that you might wanna use different shades of one color. So if you're using colors such as blue and green in your infographic, you may use different shades of blue in order to show the differences between the different categories but ensuring that you're still making them 508 accessible and that they have color contrast against the background.

Zikea McCurdie (25:24):

So I have a question about part one. Yes, part one is on our website if you have not been able to access that, please feel free to send me an email and I will send that over. Does CDC have an option to get Canva premium for free? I don't have access to that information. I would suggest reaching out to the communications department within your respective division to get more insight in that area. Do I have a favorite infographic design tool? I do. I personally love Canva. But I also might use other design software such as like Adobe illustrator or things of that sort. But typically Canva's my go-to. Are there any colors we should avoid for accessibility? I'm thinking about colorblindness. So when it comes to accessibility, it's not exactly colors to avoid it is just making sure that the contrast of the colors that you're using stands out from the background that you're using. So and if that's something that you would like to avoid with for colorblindness, it's okay to keep your font to like a black font so that it's easier to read. And then also if it comes to like some of your images that might have a little more color, this is where you may want to use your alternative text more.

Zikea McCurdie (27:04):

And I, moving on to the next question. I was told recently that Canva is still not approved for federal use. Can this be confirmed? So I don't have insight to that information currently. Once again, you may want to reach out to your communications department within your respective division or organization. Can you elaborate on being 508 compliant? Yes, of course. So we do, we did kind of cover 508 compliance in part one as well. So 508 compliant means that the graphic itself is accessible to individuals who may have visual or audio impairments. So that just means that it's completely accessible to all individuals no matter what status they may have or any impairments.

Zikea McCurdie (28:06):

Next question. Do you have trainings for social media creation? Actually yes we do. If you visit our NPIN website and you look under trainings and social media, we have two trainings that we actually presented last year. The first one is using, it's about writing and editing for social media and we have another that is on creating a social media campaign. Next, what is the preferred citation style for sources on infographics? We covered this in part one and for that the citation style is typically like M-L-A A-P-A. I typically use MLA format for my citations. Answering live. Next one, how small is too small for a font size for citations? So I would say don't go below like size, like eight point font at that point it's not really easily readable so individuals won't be able to see it. And also depending on where you're sharing your infographic, so if it's something that's online, you might wanna make it a link as well so that people can instantly click on it and be able to view it. If they're not able to read it themselves.

Zikea McCurdie (29:29):

Next question. When a logo is used in a presentation, is it okay to just name the entity represented by the logo or should the alternative text be more descriptive? Great question. When a logo's being used, you can describe the entity that's being represented by the logo, just like your example. So if it's a Y-M-C-A logo, the alternative text can say like YMCA logo. Perfect. Next question. When using Canva for images are designed in the development of a course, is it necessary to give credit on each slide? I'm sorry Aisha, could you expand more on that question? Feel free to expand more on it within the chat. That would be really helpful so I can understand exactly what you're trying to pinpoint what that question. So I'll leave that in there for now.

Zikea McCurdie (30:23):

Let's see. Back to the citations. Do you have a few examples or templates, especially with long citations? So in our first PowerPoint, in our first training that we did last week, we had a lot of examples with the citations, especially long ones at the bottom. So I invite you to check out our training website check out our training <laugh> on the NPIN website under health literacy. It has our PowerPoint right there and you can open it up and see those examples so you can follow that as well. Oh, the link to the training, of course I can drop that in the chat. Next question. Is there a good resource for beginner learning of color psychology? Well, there are a few resources for that. Color psychology is really a interesting topic. There's a few different places you can go. I would look at, let me actually pull some up and I'll drop that in the chat. So I'll hold that question there so I can come back to that. What is a good software to use when creating in cre in when creating interactive infographics? I've been using PowerPoint but it is somewhat tedious. Thanks for sharing that Aisha. as I mentioned, Canva is a good one. You can try Visme, Pictochart or Vizio, those are also pretty good software to use when creating infographics.

Zikea McCurdie (31:59):

Can you share which tools are approved to create infographics? Once again, you can use Vizme, Pictochart, PowerPoint or Vizio to find out what's approved for your respective organization. Or excuse me, division. I would reach out to your communications department. Just to clarify that. How do we add alternative texts? So adding alternative texts is different depending on what type of format you are using for your infographic. If you're using PowerPoint we do have our training on creating a 508 presentation that will show you how to add alternative texts if it's PowerPoint, if it's a PDF that is a different process and we actually have a resource. Let me just double check really quickly. Yes, we actually have a resource on how to create 508 compliant PDFs so that you can learn how to add your alternative text to any PDFs.

Zikea McCurdie (33:03):

Perfect. Do we have, do you have a training on the use of graphics for scientific presentations or posters? We don't currently have a training for that, but thank you for that idea. This infographics training is kind of like an introduction to that aspect, but that is something that we can take back and think about in more detail. Our next question for process, do you suggest finalizing copy and text before moving to design? Yes, I do think for process definitely finalize your copy in your text before you're putting it in the design. So you wanna make sure, going back to training number one when you're discussing your key messages, you wanna finalize what it is that you wanna say. And then from there and get those key messages down pat. And from there you can move into the actual design phase.

Zikea McCurdie (34:00):

So I'm going to pause to see if any other questions come in. I am looking for the resource for color psychology. I can't remember the exact link. All right, so actually you can go to colorpsychology.org to learn more about color psychology as well, <laugh>. And it breaks down more about what that means. Our next question dropped in the chat. Do you suggest doing mockups first in Canva or elsewhere? Mockups are always super helpful, especially when we think about going back to that first training testing your infographic and seeing how it might affect your target audience. So with mockups personally how I like to work with mockups is I might not design them first using the design software. Sometimes I like to draw it out in order to look at how the layout looks before I then go into the design software to design it. So my mockups are a little bit more like drawn out. But I'm also a very like visual person, so it just helps me to get those ideas out when it's drawn instead of when I come to the design software. So I'm not just starting from like a blank page. I at least have like an idea in my mind when I draw it out first.

Zikea McCurdie (35:32):

All right. Waiting for a few more questions. Scrolling through. All right. Oh, thank you Aisha. I was just about to follow up on your question again too. So you're creating training modules for your team. You use Canva to design and create the infographics. Should I reference our give credit to Canva for the use of graphics? Oh no, you wouldn't have to use you wouldn't have to credit Canva for the use of the graphics or images. Cause canva's images are like free license and the reference on each individual infographic would be from whatever data sources you're pulling that information from.

Zikea McCurdie (36:22):

All right. We have another question. Thanks for sharing the link to the first session. Can you also share the link to this session? Of course. Once this session has gone through, its review, we gotta review the transcript and put it through our own internal clearance. We will post it on the NPIN training website. We'll make sure that a link is sent out to all of our participants. Next question, have you ever used Venngage to develop an infographic and collaborate with a team on the same product? So I haven't personally used Venngage but from what I've seen on the platform, it's pretty similar to like a Visme or a Vizio. But I do think that if it's something that you're able to collaborate with a team on, that makes it really helpful when it comes to testing and reviewing your infographic. 'cause You can allow multiple members to kind of have a look at it and have that insight so that you're making sure that you're creating an comprehensive and inclusive infographic.

Zikea McCurdie (37:29):

I'll pause for a few more questions. So next question. Remember to put them in the q and a but do we need to use reference or give credit for the images also? Also, what source do you use for images? So personally for images I may use a like a stock image or a stock icon website. Typically I don't give credit for those images because they come from a stock website. Or for the icons. For some images, yes, you may want to use credit, but those typically for images that have to be credited, they are something like a photographer may have taken. And that type of imagery isn't typically used in infographics. Infographics are more like icons. So like iconography things of that sort.

Zikea McCurdie (38:35):

What other questions do you all have for me? Oh, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing that in the chat. You all have shared a lot of really great resources in the chat. So if you haven't had a chance to scroll through and see some of the links that's been shared with some of your fellow attendees, I would definitely check that out. There's a link for submitting, for clearance for Canva. There's an icons link. We have our link to the trainings in there. Let's see, what other links do we have in here? We have a few suggestions on types of software to use to make sure you guys are checking out the chat as well.

Zikea McCurdie (39:34):

All right, so it's slowing down on the questions. So I would like to thank you all for joining us again today. Thank you for all the amazing questions. As I mentioned, this training will, it is recorded and it will be posted to the NPIN website. Give us about a week and it should be up there. And we hope to see you at our future trainings. We do also have a few resources. So when you all do get access to this PowerPoint, you will have access to these resources too. It's my pleasure. Have a great day everyone.