13 - Informational Graphics

Source: http://blogs.cisco.com/

The above infographic is attempting to convey to the reader the massive increase in the number of devices that are connected to the internet today vs. 2003. While the topic is very interesting to see laid out in a graphical form, the brochure lacks clarity and purpose. Problems with the document consist of the following:

Color choice - The choice of color in this document fails to reflect anything significant about the topic at hand. The brown, wooden texture gives the reader a sense of incompleteness. This would work well in some topics that could be displayed, but something more modern would serve better for the topic at hand.

Flow between graphs - The graphs provided have a flow to them that carries the reader down through the document. However, this flow does not seem to honor any sense of real connectivity between each piece of information. In other words, the content does not seem linked in its order, but rather all piled in and formatted cleanly.

The information - The topic of what is being described here is not aided significantly by the graphics. While it is interesting to see the sheer numerical difference between the number of devices connected to networks now vs. previous time frames, the graphics provided to do so do not significantly increase the reader's understanding. It is my opinion that a bar graph, or a pie chart of the years would compare more cleanly and in a more meaningful way. Because the graphic includes so much text already, it seems that it may have done better as simply a short article.