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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/mindset-list.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/mindset-list.jpg" alt="infographic" width="665" height="1995"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br />By <a href="http://www.ecampus.com" target="_blank">eCampus</a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

Today’s infographic comes to us from eCampus. They provided a very long description during their submission, so I’ll dive into my critique first. Their infographics are improving, but I feel like there is still room for improvement. This design feels like a lot of clip art slapped together. There isn’t any data visualization, instead there are images that compliment the text, but if the text were taken out, the images would not make any sense… so it’s not really an infographic. As I’ve said many times with their infographics, their logo is way too huge at the bottom. It deters from the entire infographic and makes this infographic look too self serving. Infographics should provide information for a wide audience and that audience should feel top of mind, but the size of the logo at the bottom makes it seem like the audience doesn’t matter.

There’s so much data out there about the class of 2011 that could have been included in this infographic like the expected graduation rate, the number of 17-18 year olds using Facebook and other social networks, and more. I really wish that were included because right now this infographic is sub par at best.

Here’s what was said upon submission:

Online textbook e-tailer eCampus.com recently compiled research from Beloit College’s Mindset List into a detailed infographic explaining the constantly changing culture that today’s college students are immersed in.

According to the infographic posted on the eCampus Blog and at http://images.ecampus.com/images/new-ecampus/mindset-list.jpg, students in the Class of 2011 have never seen Johnny Carson alive on television. During the course of their lives, students have always had access to the World Wide Web as well as bottled water. It is the norm for students today to see commercial product placement in films and on television.

Every year, Beloit College publishes the Mindset List allowing teachers to know what current culture is for their students. This allows teachers to know that U2 is much more than a spy plane to their students. “In a constantly changing culture eCampus.com is glad that we are able to keep our customers informed and current on important topics.” said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. “At eCampus.com we strive to provide good useful information to our customers to keep them learning even beyond the textbook.”

The infographic also details the real time autobiographies created by the Class of 2011 through social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. According to the infographic, Fox has always been considered a major network during the lives of these students. Also it is normal for today’s students that Humvees, minus the artillery, are available to the public.

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/Top10.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/Top10.jpg" alt="infographic" width="665" height="1995"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br /><a href="http://ecampus.com" target="_blank">eCampus.com</a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This infographic comes to us from eCampus. Recently they submitted an infographic that questioned whether the cost of college is really worth it. This infographic showcases 10 things that have impacted the world over the last 10 years. When they submitted this infographic, they actually wrote quite a lot of good information, so rather than showing what they wrote first, I’m going to dive into the critique as that sometimes gets lost when we post the submission content first.

There are a few things I like about this infographic: The typography and the background. This is the same way I felt about the last infographic they submitted. Here’s what I don’t like: it relies TOO much on text to drive the story. As Matt mentioned in yesterday’s post, an “infographic is a graphical representation of information.” If you can take the pictures out of the infographic and it still shows the exact same information, then it’s not relying on images to display the data. This is more akin to a nicely designed article. This is the problem that keeps coming up with infographics these days.

The other big issue I have is that the ecampus logo is too big and doesn’t even fit into the design. This is too blatant and will deter bloggers from sharing the infographic, which is unfortunate because infogrpahics do not return a good ROI unless they have a viral appeal.

Here’s what the folks at eCampus had to say about the infogrpahic when submitting it:

As 2011 nears, eCampus.com took a look back at some of the most important things that have occurred in the past decade.

Some events that have shaped the last decade were great milestones in American history such as the election of America’s first African American President, Barack Obama. However, the past ten years have also seen great devastation such as Hurricane Katrina, and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Also included are the BP Oil Spill and the Global Recession. These events have changed our country in many ways that will never be forgotten.

Things such as eCommerce and Social Networking have changed the way that people shop and interact with each other. The Harry Potter series debuted in 1996, but took the world by storm in the last 10 years, quickly becoming one of the fastest selling books of the past decade as well as the highest grossing movie series of all time. The Apple iPod changed the music industry just as the Apple iPhone changed the way we communicate with each other.

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/cost_of_college.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/cost_of_college.jpg" alt="infographic" width="665" height="1995"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br /><a href="http://www.ecampus.com/" target="_blank">eCampus.com</a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This infographic comes to us from eCampus.com and seeks to answer one simple question: is the cost of college really worth it? Upon submitting the infographic, the folks at eCampus said the following:

According to the infographic posted on the eCampus blog, tuition is rising at an average rate of 5.5% every year. Students at a public 2 year institution should expect to get the cheapest education, paying on average $2,713 for 1 year of classes. Private 4 year colleges come with the highest price tag, averaging around $37,000. This totals the cost of a 4 year education at a private college to be approximately $148,000.

At such high costs students are racking up student loan debt like never before. Over two thirds of all graduating students have some type of student loan debt. The average student loan debt is now $23,186 per student. On a repayment plan at $175 each month, students can expect to pay off this amount in 33 years, paying over $45,000 in interest along the way. This leads over 7% of all student loan debtors to default within the first year of repayment. “These figures could make your head spin. By publishing statistics like this in an easily digestible manner we would hope that we can help educate our customers to make good financial decisions”, said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. “At eCampus.com we strive to provide great deals for our students so that college isn’t so difficult on their future finances. In addition to our already great deals we are now renting textbooks and saving students more money than ever before.”

The infographic also details the difference in earnings a college student might experience depending on their degree and major choice. According to the infographic, engineering students stand to make the most money during their careers, with petroleum engineers making the most at $157,000 per year. On average, students who graduate with a bachelors degree will make half a million dollars more per year than people with just a high school diploma, but still $1.3 million less than someone with a doctoral degree.

When it comes down to it, there are some definite pros and cons to this infographic. I prefer to start out with the pros: The font chosen for the infographic is great, as it’s the same font used on dollar bills. The background helps to emphasize the theme by showcasing faded dollars as well.

Now for some cons: The infographic relies heavily on typography to showcase the information, which is good, but a little overdone. There are many points on the infographic where more charts/graphs could be used rather than lists or large to small text. There’s not a lot of imagery driving this infographic, even though there’s a lot of opportunity for it. That would all be fine if it weren’t for the eyesore con: the logo at the bottom is overwhelming. It clashes with the color scheme and is way too large. All infographics are used to grow brand awareness and build links, but this is too much self promotion and it will likely discourage other bloggers from posting this infographic on their own sites. Make the logo smaller and bring its transparency down to 50% so that it isn’t too “in your face,” and the infographic would be drastically improved.