Infographic

1. I think I am going to focus on the topic of recycling. I don’t think there are too many misconceptions about the benefits of it, but I think that people don’t quite understand the magnitude or importance of the issue.   I try to recycle as much as I can and I try to influence my friends to do the same.  I want to work on making the earth more sustainable with my engineering degree and I think that this is a good place to start.
2. The goal of my infographic is to inform people of how much recycling can benefit the earth and what it means to not recycle.
3. The audience for my infographic is mainly people of my generation. I think that people in their teens and twenties will be critical to sustainability in the future.  I hope to portray the importance of recycling to these people.
4. I think my infographic will be more persuasive because it will use strong comparisons. I want my infographic to show how much recycling can actually benefit the earth and how much recycling can harm the earth.  By comparing the magnitude of recycled products to common, relatable things, I think my message will be understood very clearly.
5. Two infographics that I would use as inspiration for my work are English by the Book and Email: Not Dead, Evolving. I would use English by the Book because it uses blocks of various sizes to show the magnitude of something, without directly using a bar graph.  The other one has a similar effect, but I am drawn to the way it uses color to create distinctions between different categories.
6. I will need information about how much is recycled and the numerical benefits of that are. I will also look at numbers that show how much the earth can gain from recycling or how much it can be harmed by not recycling.  I think that scientific journal entries could be a useful tool on this topic.  I am unsure if government sites will have a lot of information, but I think that newspaper article could also be useful.

What is your general view on recycling?  Do you know the benefits of recycling?  How accessible is recycling in your everyday life?

Final Infographic

My friends give me a hard time for always making sure that they recycle all of their paper, cans, bottles, etc.  I wanted to look at this topic and find facts about how beneficial recycling can be for us and our society.  A common misconception with the current generation is that recycling doesn’t make that much of a difference, but it does.  My infographic shows that recycling can make a very large difference in our country.  My infographic also shows the potential that recycling has because we still aren’t recycling at a 100% rate.

I think my infographic shows information well because of the use of graphs and charts.  I took the raw data and made it easier to read and compare.  The side by side bar graphs and progress meters really allowed for the reader to compare multiple things at one time.  I also think that the layout of the infographic shows a relationship between the various topics.  Arranging “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” around the famous recycling triangle allowed for natural movement throughout the different graphs.

I modified a few graphs to make the information more readable and understandable.  I initially had the Recycle chart as a bar graph, but I later realized that a percentage meter would be much easier to interpret.  I think that using a header/title for each chart was an effective was to separate all of the information.  Adding a sentence or two explaining each chart was also helpful.  Doing those things allowed for each of the graphs to be easily accessible and easy to understand.

I am most proud of the way that I used phrases associated with recycling in my infographic.  I think that using “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” in my infographic really brought my whole infographic together.  By looking at each part of that phrase, I was able to provide a wide variety of information about recycling.  I am also proud of my color scheme throughout the infographic because the different shades of green emphasized the “Go Green” motto.  I think all of the different greens stood out individually, even though there were so many different shades.

This project made me understand why some colleges offer majors in this particular field.  It is very difficult to portray information like this, especially with no prior experience.  Doing a project of this magnitude takes more than just the ability to research.  You must take that research and manipulate it into something that everyone can understand at a glance.  It requires the ability to understand how people perceive information, which is something that takes a lot of practice to master.  I think it also requires an artistic eye to see what shapes, colors, etc. work well together within the infographic.