This infographic was submitted to us by Medical Assistant Online.

I like the unique approach to background imagery on this infographic. It’s very dark and dynamic, incorporating burning paper, bright bricks and then falling down into blackness. It could be distracting, but the designer knows to make it less of a feature as the infographic progresses, so that the text and numbers can be the focus.

There’s a lot of good information here, and although it teeters on the edge of too much text, I think it manages to stay on the concise side. I’m not enamored with the traditional typeface choice, though: there are just too many fonts to choose from to play it so safe.

There are also some typos/inconsistencies that could use addressing. For example, “$2.7 Trillion” didn’t need to be capitalized, since it was part of a sentence. It’s immediately followed by, “That nearly $8,650″ — the second typo in a row, in the first factoid. That may stop some viewers from continuing on.

This infographic is also on the light side for data viz. The image of Texas with “x2″ on it sort of conveys the idea… but an image of Texas with a double-sized image of Texas underneath or next to it would be even better! The percentage of our population comprised of older Americans could have also been visualized, and the ratio of infant deaths chart could contain an actual numbered scale.

The more visualization of numbers, the better: that minimizes the amount of reading a viewer has to do to get the information.

In all I’d give this a B-. It’s got some qualities of an infographic, but could use some polish, too.

This infographic was submitted to us by MPHProgramsList.com

This makes a good tool to help people understand crucial terms related to health care. Interpreting insurance plans can be incredibly daunting and stressful, leaving people wondering how much they will have to pay for any given charge, from doctor’s visits to medication to surgery.

I can tell that during ideation, text was intended to be kept to a minimum. It’s important to remember, though, that any amount of text on an infographic appears much more heavy-handed than if one is prepared to be reading an article. For instance, the description of HMOs is just two sentences long, but it’s four entire lines of text. When I read infographics, four lines of text often get skimmed. I’m looking for a few words or sentence fragments that convey the idea without getting verbose. That description could be reworded:

“Most restrictive managed plan. Members choose primary physician in network; responsible for all out-of-network costs.”

Sure, it’s not as formal, but it gets the message across fast. Infographics should let the imagery do the talking.

I’d love to see a visual comparison of the HMO vs. PPO, In Network vs. Out of Network costs–perhaps just the total cost at the end. Those numbers translated to a chart would be a quick way to show what costs you the most and least, and by how much. It isn’t until the final two sections that we get any data viz at all.

As an infographic I’d give this a C, because it could be lighter on text and heavier on visuals. However, it does contain plenty of relevant explanatory data and I think serves its purpose quite well, so as a tool I’d give it an A.

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/health-care-information-tech-full-infographic.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/health-care-information-tech-full-infographic.jpg" alt="infographic" width="600"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br />Via <a href="http://carrington.edu/cccblog/carrington-college-california-news/health-care-cost/">Carrington College California</a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This infographic was submitted to us by the folks at Carrington College California and covers health care costs in the United States. Here is what they had to say about their submission:

The Infographic outlines details on the huge costs of health care and medical insurance in the United States. Some of the stats on this infographic include percentage of those with and without medical coverage, types of insurance costs and dollar amounts on the most expensive medical procedures. We created this infographic as a way to show the cost of maintaining our health care industry and it’s potential effects on our graduates.

This infographic has a lot going for it. The color scheme is works very well, especially since the overall design is linear and simple – the color scheme keeps things interesting. The icons in the “Most Expensive Medical Procedures” section are nice – they fit in with the overall design and also manage to represent internal organs without being gross (bonus). It might be nice to use different icons for the two heart procedures, but not entirely necessary. The price tags are a nice touch, but they aren’t really a form of data visualization – a good alternative would be to show a graph comparing the costs of these procedures against one another.

The “Haves and Have Nots” section is a bit confusing – there needs to be some sort of title for the pie graph so that the reader can know what it is about. It might be safe to assume that this graph is a breakdown of the what types of insurance people have, but it needs to be made clear by the graph in some way. Coloring in the states to show the number of people who are uninsured in a really interesting idea and a great way to visualize that data.

The bottom sections are clean, but the color scheme gets a little repetitive here – too much blue. Maybe one of the sections could be a different color so that everything is more clearly defined. All that said, this is a great and informative infographic!

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/yahoo-askamerica-infographic.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/yahoo-askamerica-infographic.jpg" alt="what are the nations most pressing issues" width="665" height="475"></a>Via: AskAmerica.Yahoo.com and Yahoo News<br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This infographic comes from Yahoo News and their Ask America project. It covers the responses of 1,671,276 people who were asked what their most pressing issues of today are. The questions asked covered culture, the economy, energy, immigration, national security, the state of the union, and the courts. Here’s what respondents had to say about these issues:

• Is Obama out of touch or is he just busy working hard on big problems? – the majority said he’s out of touch
• Should tax cuts be extended only for the middle class or should Bush tax cuts for wealthier Americans also remain in place? – respondents were split down the middle for this
• Should the wealthy oil companies be taxed more to subsidize alternative energy sources? – respondents were again split down the middle
• Would you like your state to adopt an immigration law similar to Arizona’s? – the majority of respondents said yes
• With China’s speedy economic rise, can America still maintain its superpower status? – While most respondents said yes, this was almost split down the middle
• Is the tea party powered in part by negative appeals based on race? – the majority of people said no
• Should the courts invalidate the health care law because of the requirement to buy insurance? – the majority of people said yes

These are clearly interesting responses for sure. Marketers may want to use this information as well to determine the typical political demographic of Yahoo users.