Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

The Infographic

Today, the use of infographics has become widespread in order to make factual information more attractive to readers and easier to digest. We shouldn't be led to believe that the infographic is a new idea, regardless of how fashionable it has become. The graphic below, drawn by Charles Joseph Minard in 1861, depicts Napoleon's disastrous march to and from Russia in 1812–1813. The light colored line shows Napoleon's march to Moscow, and the black line shows the army's return, with the dramatically narrowing thickness showing the diminishing size of his army as it moved from place to place. In 1999, Martin was creating complex visualizations and came across this image. The simple way this graphic communicates so many dimensions of information and supports the telling of a great story created the seed from which the ideas in this book grew.

The techniques for the design of a visual story have a lot in common with the techniques used for modern infographics. The primary difference is that we are focused on creating a story to influence an audience to change, not just an educational or informative representation of data. Modern infographics give the audience a chance to enter the story at different places, and develop their own meaning as they review the information.

It is worth studying infographics to gain sources of inspiration, to spot patterns and designs that can be reused, and for the creation of the one-page visual story. A number of compilations of infographics ...