The infographic was done in 2011 during my internship with OMD, a 4A advertisement company. There was a lot of statistical data about social media which was divided into different topics. My job was to turn the data into infographics.

This project was completed while Weibo was the most popular social media platform in China.

Thinking

• Unique types of data should be expressed with the same kind of chart (IE. bar chart, pie chart or radar chart).  We would need to determine which kind of chart would best facilitate reader understanding.
• It should be interesting, tell a story and not look like data from Excel.
• The layout of the infographic should include different sections and support the organization of different types of data.  Because of width limitations in the web view, many iterations would be necessary to find the proper fit, especially for handling landscape options.

Solution

• The reading order of this infographic followed the basic rules of left to right, top to bottom.  Also, it was necessary to keep the information clear and the layout neat.
• Used the same style for a group of demographic data (age, income, education level). Differentiate Weibo and Twitter with different groups of colors.
• Used a radar chart to show “Who to follow” on Weibo. Two dimensions of data insight should be presented: the difference between male and female and what did users follow most, both male and female.
• Used illustrations to visualize the content. For example, when talking about the numbers of Weibo users, compared to the entire population of Brazil – using the illustration of Brazil soccer stars.  When talking about “Gender,” used the portrait of the leading roles in a popular movie at that time called “You Are the Apple of My Eye,” etc.