Infographics: Information in Picture Form
Just as the title suggests, infographics are simply images with statics and numbers thrown in. It is generally something that someone can read by just glancing at. Infographics are a good way of informing the public or getting your point across about a certain topic. When creating your own infographic, there are many programs available online to help. For the purpose of this post, I will be comparing three different websites; Easelly, Piktochart, and Infogram, to see which (in my opinion) is easiest and most user friendly with creating an infographic.
All three programs that I played around with to create an inforgraphic required me to create an account. As such, I don't anticipate much Spam mail coming from these sites, however that is a subject for another day. Let's see how each one of these programs stacked up.
Easelly (http://www.easel.ly/)
This site is terrific because it already has created infographics where one can go in and change the titles and wording. There is also a bank of graphics to choose from. There is an option to upgrading to a paid subscription, with more accessibility features, but it seems the free version has plenty of features to choose from.
Piktochart (http://piktochart.com/)
This site has pre-created infographics, as well, but they don't seem to grab my attention. There are less to choose from, and the ones available don't give the user much of a variety. It seems that this site repeats the same format but changes it up by changing the color or the style of the font and background.
Infogram (http://infogr.am)
This website seems to be the most "basic" of the three. There is a paid subscription that I assume would give the user more options, however because I was just testing out the site, I went with the free version. The graphics presented seem to be more of the bar graph and line graph variety. It just doesn't seem as appealing as the other two sites.
In all honesty, I think each of these sites have great quality to them, but if I have to choose one to use on a personal level, I would choose Easelly. There is something about the layout and formatting that I like better than the other two.
All three programs that I played around with to create an inforgraphic required me to create an account. As such, I don't anticipate much Spam mail coming from these sites, however that is a subject for another day. Let's see how each one of these programs stacked up.
Easelly (http://www.easel.ly/)
This site is terrific because it already has created infographics where one can go in and change the titles and wording. There is also a bank of graphics to choose from. There is an option to upgrading to a paid subscription, with more accessibility features, but it seems the free version has plenty of features to choose from.
Piktochart (http://piktochart.com/)
This site has pre-created infographics, as well, but they don't seem to grab my attention. There are less to choose from, and the ones available don't give the user much of a variety. It seems that this site repeats the same format but changes it up by changing the color or the style of the font and background.
Infogram (http://infogr.am)
This website seems to be the most "basic" of the three. There is a paid subscription that I assume would give the user more options, however because I was just testing out the site, I went with the free version. The graphics presented seem to be more of the bar graph and line graph variety. It just doesn't seem as appealing as the other two sites.
In all honesty, I think each of these sites have great quality to them, but if I have to choose one to use on a personal level, I would choose Easelly. There is something about the layout and formatting that I like better than the other two.
While I definitely agree that Infogram does not have the flash and flare of the other two infographic web-apps listed, I found that the ability to manipulate data, as well as the various different charts and graphs, to be the best of the three. As a teacher though, I believe Easelly would be the one I would use in the classroom for many of the reasons you listed here. I think students would gravitate more towards the templates, patterns, and creation tools as opposed to the chart and graph creating tools.
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