Roundtable: Visual Storytelling

facilitated by Ruth Miller

Areas of interest

1. Tech products/practices
2. Development: how to actually design an infographics
3. Packaging and distribution

Tech Products and Practices

Products

• Helps to have a tech-savvy staff member, and get software into as many hands as possible.
• Can be difficult to get software.
• Open-source or low-cost alternatives can be available: GIMP and Sketch (Photoshop, but web only), Inkscape (Illustrator), Quantum GIS (Arcmap), Mapbox, Tilemill, Mangomaps (mapping).

Mapping: Why are other mapping products better than Google maps?

• Customized look and feel.
• Easier to assign data to marker.
• Arcmap and Quantum are better for analysis than display.
• Mango and Tilemill are better for display/communication.
• Google maps is useful when collaborating with lots of people.

How to Design Content

• Storytelling: What story (or part of the story) do you tell? How do you narrow down and focus?
• Collaboration is key.
• Context can be visually supported rather than explicitly laid out in text.
• Looking for language
• People may have different kinds of questions: interpret quickly what you're trying to pull.
• Does the wording or the imagery come first? It varies.
• Decide whether a story needs imagery or should be an infographic.
• How to decide what to focus on: trial and error; sketch and doodle, even if you think you can't draw well; train yourself to be brief; get good pens but cheap paper, brainstorm ideas to explore, sketch stories, storyboard.

Resources

• Abby VanMuijen's videos on global poverty

newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/08/globalpov-art-videos-and-twitter-take-poverty-curriculum-to-the-world/

• Noun Project: a site whose goal is to create icons for every noun than exists.

thenounproject.com

• Edward Tufte: an example of narowing down story to its most essential components

edwardtufte.com

• For kids Photo Voice

photovoice.org