This week’s free mHealth graphic is a SmartWatch ECG  icon / pictogram.

SmartWatch ECG Icon / Pictogram

Download Hospital Pictogram (.zip)

Feel free to download and use in presentation, brochures, websites, whatever. Free for commercial or non-commercial. Attribution is nice, but optional (though a nice shout-out tweet to @digitalsplash would be great). Available to download as .zip file which includes PNG image (.png) and Adobe Illustrator (.ai) formats.

Google Trends allows you to search up to 5 searches. I chose the following; “Health IT”, “Mobile Health”, mhealth, “Digital Health”, and “Wireless Health”. Note: you get vastly different results if you don’t include the terms in quotes, as I originally posted here.

Health IT, Mobile Health, mhealth, Digital Health, and Wireless Health Search Interest over Time

Free digital health icons downloads: smart pill, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and a smart phone mHealth device

This week’s free  icons download is a set of three digital health icons: a smart pill, Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and a smart phone mHealth device icon. Available to download as .zip file which includes PNG image (.png) and Adobe Illustrator (.ai) formats for each.

Once again these are free to download and use in presentations, brochures, websites, whatever. Free for commercial or non-commercial use. Attribution is nice, but optional (though a nice shout-out tweet to @digitalsplash would be great).

Download Smart Pill, EMR, and smartphone mHealth device pictograms (.zip)

Technology can be complex, and explaining and communicating what a new technology does or how it works or why it’s significant can be a challenge. Explaining complex technology with words alone often leads to what author, consultant, and visual thinking guru Dan Roam calls “Blah Blah Blah” – the result when smart people limit their explanations and communications to words alone.

In his latest book, “Blah Blah Blah: What to do When Words Dont’ Work,” Dan Roam distills visual communication down to a visual grammar that you can use to figure out how to explain and communicate with visuals and take the blah blah blah out of your technical explanations and communications.

I highly recommend Dan’s book and his Vivid Grammar Graph to anyone looking to be more effective in their explanations, but for a quick overview of Vivid Grammar and how to figure out what visuals to use in your explanations, check out this video where Dan explains the concept to Nancy Duarte of the presentation design firm, Duarte.

Dan Roam – Vivid Grammar from Duarte on Vimeo.

This week’s free digital health graphic is a hospital icon / pictogram.

Hospital Icon / Pictogram

Download Hospital Pictogram (.zip)

Feel free to download and use in presentation, brochures, websites, whatever. Free for commercial or non-commercial. Attribution is nice, but optional (though a nice shout-out tweet to @digitalsplash would be great). Available to download as .zip file which includes PNG image (.png) and Adobe Illustrator (.ai) formats.

2013 is shaping up to be the break-out year for digital health, health tech and wearable with thousands of new start-ups, entrepreneurs, innovators, devices and apps joining the sector. That’s a lot of new stuff to explain to customers, shareholders, VCs, and regulatory agencies via diagrams, brochures, infographics, videos, and presentations.

To make that a little easier, I’m starting a weekly free digital health and medical-related graphics giveaway. Look for a new pictogram or icon related to digital health, health tech, med tech, wearable tech, fitness or mobile health each week.

To kick things off, here’s four free graphics. Feel free to download and use in presentation, brochures, websites, whatever. Free for commercial or non-commercial. Attribution is nice, but optional (though a nice shout-out tweet to @digitalsplash would be great). Available to download as .zip file which includes PNG image (.png) and Adobe Illustrator (.ai) formats.

Doctor Icon / Pictogram

Download Doctor – Male Pictogram (.zip)

Patient Icon / Pictogram

Download Patient Pictogram (.zip)

ECG Icon / Pictogram

Download ECG Pictogram (.zip)

ECG on Smart Phone Icon / Pictogram

Download SmartPhone ECG Pictogram (.zip)

I follow digital health topics closely and I see a lot of missed opportunities to represent things visually. So, as a visual thinking proponent, it’s gratifying to come across examples where digital health is explained visually or visualization in the field is championed

Here’s a few examples that I’ve come across recently.

AOL launched it’s new video tech show Hardwired Tech and in it’s first episode, show host iJustine covers mobile health and wearable tech. Nice extra touch with the data visualization motion graphics used throughout the video to help convey the sense of the data be captured and reported.

The IBM Watson Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Adviser demo shows the interactions of a hypothetical oncologist and patient as they move through consultations, tests, treatment options, patient preferences and pre-authorization. It showcases IBM Watson’s capabilities in natural language processing, hypothesis generation and evaluation, and machine learning.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers scored big in my book with this animated video explanation that shows how rising costs, market pressures, and scientific advancements are creating new opportunities for growth in health care.

They’ve also created a visual timeline to show how stakeholders will be impacted by the rollout of ACA.

And lastly, Dave Dickinson, Former CEO of Zeo, wrote an article last week, Can personal health data motivate behavioral change? It depends., in which he says that the presentation of the data matters in trying to get personal health data to motivate behavioral changes.

Motivating behavioral change through data visualization can be very powerful, but it is more of an art than a science. We will need far more artists, user interface experts and psychologists to help make our data work harder to motivate better health. Yes, it will take a village of talent, but I believe a far more creatively diverse one than most technology-based innovators may feel comfortable residing within.

Script word count to video duration

When responding to requests to develop custom animated explainer videos, one of the most common expectations to manage is the duration of the video. Specifically, most people think they can get a lot more information into a short video than is realistically feasible.

A common rule of thumb that I provide is the script word count to video duration formula. This is a very simple formula. If you’re going to hire a professional voiceover artist to do the narration, plan on about 30 seconds of video for each 75 words in your script. Use your text editors word count tool to determine how many words are in your script. Then use the simple table or line chart to get a good approximation of how long your video will likely be.

To many people, infographics are those really tall ‘tower infographics’, so popular on sites like visual.ly, filled with illustrations and a few numbers, popularized in the last couple of years by online marketers as link-bait. But, to a growing number of long-time information designers and journalists in the visualization community, this new style of graphics is no more an infographic than than a Twinkie is a fine meal.

These contemporary graphics have probably raised awareness of the use of visuals in communication. But, like many others, I’m beginning to wonder if they’re doing more harm to the visualization community than good. As both creator and curator in the visual communication space, I’m finding myself asked more and more frequently to review and share ‘Infographics.’ While I appreciate the time and enthusiasm that these people put into creating them, I find it hard to justify sharing most of them and I think it’s only fair to explain why. But doing so requires some context. I’ve been meaning to write a detailed chronology for some time about the great infographics debate and it’s associated “chart junk” debate. So, in somewhat chronological order, here’s some key events in the ongoing debate.

As best as I can tell, the debate seems to have started with Edward Tufte. Tufte, is probably the most famous contemporary information designer, considered by many to be THE authority on information design. It was Tufte who, if he didn’t initiate the great debate over graphics in information design, certainly made it more visible with the great “chart junk” salvo fired at information designer Nigel Holmes in Tufte’s 1990 book Envisioning Information.

But until the rise of big infographics, that debate likely had a limited audience of professional information designers. Big Infographics? In May 2010, data viz guru Nathan Yau of FlowingData.com chronicled the rise of what he called ‘Big Infographics,’ in his post, The Boom of Big Infographics, a great post that sets the background for the rise of the big tower infographics that are so prevalent today.

The debate seemed to heat up in 2010 and 2011 when Scott Bateman et al published, Useful Junk? The Effects of Visual Embellishment on Comprehension and Memorability of Charts in April 2010.

This prompted a couple of responses from Stephen Few, a thought-leader of the rational, conservative, scientific segment of the visualization community. Few chronicled the origins of the chart junk debate himself in his April/May/June newsletter, The Chartjunk Debate: A Close Examination of Recent Findings and followed up with commentary on the Bateman article later than year with another newsletter, Benefitting InfoVis with Visual Difficulties? Provocation Without a Cause – both highly recommended reading for anyone interested in visual communication of data and information.

The increasing use tower infographics by online marketers as link-bait began to draw the ire of many, exemplified by Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz in his October 2011 scathing cease and desist letter: Stop Already with the F*cking ‘Infographics,’

The fact is that these monstrosities are not infographics. These atrocities are crimes against good taste and everything that infographics really should be. They’re just a bunch of statistics jammed together on horrible vertical pages, bloated with bad drawings and clipart created by primitive monkeys using CorelDRAW! 1.0—graphical disgraces that most often disguise spam, commissioned by iniquitous companies looking to increase traffic to their sites. They should be stopped at once.

He then went on to point out good examples of real infographics as curated on Edward Tufte’s site.

2011 wrapped up with Jessica Hullman weighing in on the subject in her paper “Benefitting InfoVis with Visual Difficulties” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Volume 17 Issue 12, December 2011.

In May 2012, Ian Lurie proposed that these latest graphics shouldn’t even be called infographics, but rather posters, and enumerated 11 Reasons Your Infographic Isn’t an Infographic.

Andy Kirk, founder of Visualising Data, a UK-based data visualization design agency penned a thoughtful piece on the criticism debate in July 2012, which Robert Kosara quickly criticized on Eager Eyes, which prompted a An Analysis of Visualization Discourse by Michael Babwahsingh.

Another more moderated point of view of contemporary infographics was published recently in the Harvard Business Review just this last March, We’ve Reached Peak Infographic, and We’re No Smarter for It.

Alberto Cairo documented the origins of this schism along with his own insights in The Functional Art (p61 – 72), a book I highly recommend to anyone interested in visualizations. He says,

There has always been a fundamental clash in information graphics and visualization between those who favor a rational, scientific approach to the profession, emphasizing functionality, and those who consider themselves “artists,” placing emphasis on emotion and aesthetics.

And recently, Cairo shared some additional thoughts on the topic in an interview on iCharts, and on a guest post on Randy Krum’s Cool Infographics blog, What Makes an Infographic Cool.

The New York Times is considered to be the elite of the elite in information design and infographics. Their graphics editor Amanda Cox was recently interviewed on Harvard Business Review and offered the perfect sound bite for this debate:

Nicely designed posters with a few numbers on them aren’t really data viz.

Is this really an infographic?

Which, brings us up to date, as far as I know, on the great debate. I have no doubts that the debate will continue.  Despite the objections and attempts at education from the professional information designers, I suspect that the term infographic has now forever become synonymous with tower infographics. It would be nice if there were separate and distinct terms to describe the two types (I like the term info-posters myself) – after all, if you compare the styles you should see quite a difference.

Compare most of those ‘info-posters’ that are so prevalent on the web today with the infographics produced by the New York Times or National Geographic, or any winners of the Malofiej Conference or many of the visualizations on visualizing.org. Are they really the same thing? Yes, there may be some commonalities, but the metaphor that comes to mind for me is like comparing fizzy, sweet soda pop to a nice complex red wine – yes, both are beverages, but aside from that differences outweigh the similarities.

So, I think it’s incumbent on those who do see that there’s a difference to try to educate the public about the those differences and inform about the potential and power that true infographics have to visually communicate and explain.

Updates:

I’ll continue to post links to articles I come across that are relevant to this debate, in chronological order. Feel free to post links you find in the comments section.

Beware the Strawman – Stephen Few, May 9, 2013

What needs (business, organizational, communication, design, etc.) do infographics address?
At their essence, infographics are a form of visual communication. We live in a complex world, bombarded by information. Visuals resonate with people. Our brains are wired to process visual information and infographics are a great tool to help our brains process that information. So, well-made infographics have the capacity to help us understand and make sense of complex topics. In his book, The Functional Art, Alberto Cairo argues that infographics are a “tool for our eyes and brains to perceive what lies beyond their natural reach.” So, in a very real way, infographics can help us make sense of the complex world.

What response should good infographics creators look to achieve from their work (i.e. what do you want people to think, say, feel, etc. when they engage with it)?
As with all communication, the specific response will depend on who the audience is and what story or message is being communicated. But in general, an infographic should tell a story and leave the reader with a sense of increased understanding of the subject. A good infographic should be visually intriguing and draw the reader in, make them want to analyze, compare, and explore. If the infographic has been successfully designed, readers will come away with an increased sense of understanding of the topic.

You definitely don’t want the reader to feel frustrated or lost. To accomplish that, designers should anticipate what questions the reader will want answered and figure out how the infographic should be structured and organized to answer those questions and facilitate understanding. This includes determining what data to leave in, what to take out, what form the data should have, and how it should be structured.

Going back to Cairo’s analogy of infographics as a tool, they should be designed such that they help the reader accomplish some task. They need to have the ability to let the reader ask a question, and, through exploration of the infographic, find the answer.

What kinds of skills, personality, and/or thinking does it require to create great infographics?
I think the most essential traits are a sense of curiosity and desire to learn, along with an interest in a broad range of topics. Additionally a desire to explain things. Respect for the audience and the data is important. The abilities to see relationships in the data and come up with visual concepts to represent ideas and data are great skills to have. Good reasoning and critical thinking skills are needed to find the right story in the data and to tell the right story.

If you have a basic sense of curiosity and wonder with a desire to learn and explain, the other skills can be learned. There’s an enormous amount of material to help learn the craft: books, courses, seminars, conferences, white papers, and websites. Looking at and exploring a wide variety of infographic styles, especially the leaders in the field such as the New York Times, will serve anyone well who wants to create infographics.

What personal strengths does it take to create infographics?
There’s a pretty wide variety of styles and types of infographics and several continuums you can judge them by. One prevailing type is the infographic that is very rational, scientific, data-centric. On the other end of that spectrum is the more “artistic”, decoration-focused approach. Different types and styles appeal to different creators and audiences. Which style is most appropriate depends on the audience and their knowledge, taste, and expectations.

I’m a very analytical person with an engineering background so I tend to prefer a more data-centric style of infographic. Most of the graphics and visuals I’ve created focus heavily on data and very traditional graphs and charts. While I’ve studied graphic design, I’m not what most people would consider a graphic designer. I don’t have a degree in graphic design. Artistic decoration is not my forte. So, I try to play to my strengths, the ability to find and analyze data, see the bigger picture, distill the information down to essentials and represent that in as clean and simple way as I can.

I think people need to play to their strengths. For decades there’s been a debate in the infographics community between the more austere, data-centric approach and the more artistic approach. This started with Edward Tufte’s criticism of Nigel Holmes’ work as ‘chart junk.’ While I tend to favor the more data-centric approach, I realize that there’s a big range in personality, learning, and communication styles. Many artistically-minded people aren’t even going to be interested in looking at work from the more conservative information designers because they would see it as dull and boring. So I think there’s a legitimate audience for and value in infographics that aren’t my particular favored style. They may not resonate with me, but they may resonate with a more artistic person. It gets back to knowing who your audience is and designing to their needs and tastes. So, understand what your strengths are and play to those. But also continuously grow and learn and expand on those strengths in order to improve your craft.

How do you categorize the styles/types of infographics out there?
There are several ways to categorize style and types. One way is the data-focused vs decoration-focused spectrum previously mentioned. Related to that is how abstract vs how figurative an infographic is.

There’s also been a big change in infographics, or the mainstream perception of them, in the last few years. For decades, up until just a few years ago, infographics or information graphics were primarily the product of journalism publications – newspapers and news magazines. They’ve been an essential element of publications like Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, New York Times, etc. for decades.

Over the last few years though, with the rise of social media and internet marketing, web marketers have popularized a new style of ‘infographic’ that is vastly different from the traditional ‘journalistic-quality’ infographic. These are the very tall graphics that are usually very focused on decoration and light on data with the main intent to drive traffic to websites. The difference in these two styles has become the predominant way I classify infographics now. The difference to me, is like the difference between soda pop and wine. They’re both beverages that each has its time and place. The web marketing-focused infographics are obviously the soda pop in this analogy, fizzy, sweet, and popular but not a lot of depth and complexity to them (usually). Contrast that to the more traditional, journalistic quality infographic, that, like a nice red wine has a lot going on – multiple layers and a lot of complexity.

In what new direction would you like to see infographics go in the next few years?
Continuing the soda pop and wine analogy, there are some traditionalists in the data visualization community that would like to see all that soda pop go away and only have wine to drink. I think there’s room for both, but I would definitely like to see the popularity pendulum shift a bit away from the ‘pop-infographics’ towards the more data-dense, meatier infographics. I think we’ll continue to see changes though. We’re seeing new tools and services appear all the time that make it easier and easier for anyone to create those pop-infographics. I think it will be inevitable that we’ll see more and more pop-infographics of lowering quality as more and more people without training gain the ability to create these graphics.

But we’re also seeing an increasing number of resources becoming available to learn the art and craft of creating infographics. A great example of this is Alberto Cairo’s “Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization” course, a free massive open online course hosted by the University of Texas School of Journalism. I was fortunate enough to get in on the first course last fall with 2,000 other students. A second iteration of this course with 5,000 students is just finished up and there may be subsequent offerings.

As far as other trends in infographics, I think we’ll continue to see more and more interactive and video infographics. Both are much more labor-intensive to produce than static infographics but offer much richer and more immersive experiences.