If The World Were ... An Infographic

Source: ASIDE, 2014

With the plethora of infographics in the media, it's important for our learners to understand how to design information. We continue to incorporate the creation of infographics as part of our curricula to help them do just that.

Our students have made several visuals since the beginning of the school year to explain acronyms and to promote fundraisers. With each new attempt, they’ve continued to hone their design skills.

The most recent infographics featured in this post were based on the books If The World Were A Village and If America Were A Village by David Smith. Each student was given a specific aspect addressed in the books to create his or her design. Since the topics covered in the books included the data, this ready access to facts and figures enabled the students to focus on the design of the information to visually represent their content.

Source: ASIDE, 2014

We also set certain parameters. Their font selection was limited, and they could only use design elements such as shapes and colors to emphasize the information. Our objective was to help them realize that design shouldn’t overshadow the message being portrayed.

They went through several iterations before arriving at the final product, and it paid off. Even the kids remarked that these were the best infographics they’d design thus far. We could only smile and appreciate how proud they felt.




Design literacy, like other literacies, needs to be learned. We can’t assume that because our students have access to the bells and whistles of technology that they know how to do it. We’ve written many posts on DLIT, talking about the combination of design, literacy, information, and technology to create content. Today, more than ever, it’s a prowess we need to continually cultivate.