This infographic was submitted to us by Baines & Ernst, who also provided this description:

According to the new Infographic from Baines & Ernst – The Cost Of Celebrations – us Brits spend a whopping 2.4 billion on Valentine’s day! But that’s not the only celebration where we splash the cash…

This graphic is packed with stats and features some nice illustration. It’s an interesting choice of holidays to include (no winter holidays or graduations?) but it is good to have a specified focus!

It seems a little random to me whether some facts were included in the main body of the infographic or in the “Did You Know?” section at the botom. I think better differentiation would make this a bit more intuitive for the reader.

I also want to see data visualization here. The stats are listed and sometimes accompanied by iconography, but they are never visualized with charts, graphs, pictograms, etc. Data visualization is key to a great infographic — so much so, in fact, that without data viz, it isn’t really considered an infographic at all.

I’d make the design a little more focused, too. It’s a bit “busy” with objects jutting in from all sides, overlapping each other – it’s tough to know where to look.

In all I’d give this graphic a C-. It’s got the data down, but it needs organization, visualization and some de-cluttering!

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<div align="center"><a href="http://submitinfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/American_family_finance_statistics.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://submitinfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/American_family_finance_statistics.jpg" alt="infographic" width="430"><br /> Click to Enlarge </a><br />Via <a href="http://www.fastloantree.com/blog/american-family-finance-statistics/"> FastLoanTree.com </a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This infographic was submitted to us by FastLoanTree.com.

While there are a lot of numbers here, there are only 3 instances of visualized data, all grouped together at the end of the IG. For the rest of the statistics, the numbers are simply written out without any visual accompaniment. A bar graph could be utilized for many of the top stats, to show the average household income relative to average savings, credit card debt, home value etc. It’d be interesting to see how debt compares to savings, for example. Then as for the percentages, a simple pie chart or pictogram (both are utilized later in the infographic) would help illustrate the proportions.

Since the infographic leads off with a list of numbers that aren’t visualized, it isn’t particularly engaging from the start. Beginning with data viz would be a good way to draw the viewer in to hang on for the rest of the information, if you weren’t planning on visualizing the rest of it for some reason.

I’d also like to see an introduction and conclusion. This infographic launches into a list of numbers, and then ends promptly with a logo. There are no section headings, either, so we end up with a set of random facts that lack a storyline. Infographics should tell a story, rather than just collecting assorted facts.

In all I’d give this infographic a C-. It could use organization, a storyline, and increased visualization to create a great infographic.

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/us-decade-infographic.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/us-decade-infographic.png" alt="infographic" width="430"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br />Via <a href="http://www.mapszipcode.com/usa-2000-vs-2010"> MapsZipCode </a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>>

This infographic was submitted to us by the good people at MapsZipCode, who say of it, “The first decade of the 21st century will go down as one of the most turbulent decades in the history of the United States (from 9/11 to two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the explosion of the national debt…). This infographic compares the changes at the beginning and the end of the first decade.”

The data within is fascinating, and held my attention throughout. I love the color scheme; it’s inviting without being flashy. The two-sided horizontal bar graph at the bottom of the infographic is also pretty interesting, and there is really not much text that isn’t represented by an image. It’s also extremely thorough without being boring.

On the critical side, much of the data visualization gets repetitive, and isn’t as unique as I’d like to see. About half of the data is represented in arrows and bar graphs. I love the gas pump visualization, even, as an inventive way to house a very simplistic spread of data. So, a little more ingenuity in originality would be great to see here. The Budget Distribution pyramid was a little hard to interpret, especially at the microscopically small top tiers, since the pyramid representing the year 2000 didn’t have any of the labels attached. Percentages, while a little boring, might have made this statistic more effective. While I think budget distribution is crucial and engaging data, the impact of its redistribution over the last decade is lost in the very minorly different pyramids.

Overall, I’d give this infographic a B: it’s clean and professional, well-organized, and highly informative, if a little dry. A good example of not letting text drive your infographic. You can’t have “infographic” without “graphic.” (Or “info.”)