Message Design and Infographics

            After reviewing the information about infographics and familiarizing myself with the tools associated with them, I realized how beneficial these can actually be to the viewer. They provide a visual aspect that the reader should be able to analyze effortlessly. In order to come up with information that was relevant to today I researched the Pew Research Center Project website where I was able to locate an article about the Covid-19 pandemic and the role that digital technology has played in the United States. I created my infographic based off of the information I found to be most useful in understanding this particular concept.
           Creating infographics is a task in itself especially if you are a newbie and have never attempted this task before. Reading the articles, listening to the podcasts, and TedTalk was helpful however the three websites created specifically for the purpose of infographics made life tremendously easier. Anyone is able to utilize these websites.
           I started off exploring Easelly (https://www.easel.ly/). The name sounded appealing to me and right off the bat I saw all of the templates it offered for use even with a free account. No watermarks are included on your final product, and it makes your presentations and reports much more visually appealing. As I dove into the actual free account when I signed up, I picked a template and found myself quite frustrated within the first three minutes. I liked how the infographic was set up however I couldn't make changes to the template easily without it being a complete hassle. I felt as though I should of just started from scratch however I had no idea where to even begin. I tried to add graphics to my presentation, and I was only given about 5 to choose from. In order to see the rest I had to upgrade my plan. I was a little disappointed with the gallery that I had to choose from when I input a variety of search words. I feel as though with this site you have to be more familiar with infographics and what you are doing before you are successful in Easelly.
            I then tried Piktochart (http://piktochart.com/). I love the way that it is set up for collaboration, the menu is organized and has a clean look. The menu even gives you options for different projects that you could potentially work on such as inforgraphics, presentations, flyers, posters, reports, and social media. The options seemed to be endless! I immediately got drawn in and selected a template that I felt could work with my information. It was seamless to make the changes to the template. I understood what the toolbar would give me, and I was able to click on literally everything on the template and change it to whatever I desired. It was completely customizable and that was such a great feature. The way the website was set up allowed me to focus on the information first and foremost and Piktochart made it visually appealing. The site gave me the basics to get started even though I had never created an infographic before. The only downside is that there is a watermark on all projects created unless you pay for your account. You are able to upload your own images or choose from a huge gallery of options. I found everything I needed....for FREE! Here is my final infographic product.

                                                                                                                                                                                    The last site I explored was Infogram (https://infogram.com/. With the free account there are a lot more stipulations on the account. You can see the content that is public, you can create 10 projects, up to 13 maps, and you can include object animations in your presentations. You can also include only 5 pages per project. The template designs are professional and laid out nicely. There are a variety of project options to choose from on this site as well from maps, posters, infographics, Instagram Posts etc. It is organized and easy to understand. When I selected a template, it was also user friendly and easy for me to use. With this site, instead of the words being written out to explain what each icon meant on the toolbar, I was left to just click and press the icon to see what each one did. All in all it created a nice presentation however there are many stipulations on the free account unlike the other two sites. 

                                                                         References

Anderson, M., & Vogels, E. (2020, May 31). Americans turn to technology during COVID-19 outbreak, say an outage would be a problem. Retrieved July 01, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/31/americans-turn-to-technology-during-covid-19-outbreak-say-an-outage-would-be-a-problem/

Create and share visual ideas using infographics. (n.d.). Retrieved July 02, 2020, from http://www.easel.ly/

Create engaging infographics and reports in minutes. (n.d.). Retrieved July 02, 2020, from http://www.infogram.com/

Create Infographics, Presentations & Flyers. (n.d.). Retrieved July 02, 2020, from https://piktochart.com/