Click to Enlarge

Add this Infographic to Your Website:
Simply copy the code below and paste it into the HTML of your blog, website, or Static FBML box on Facebook

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-All-Time-Infographic.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-All-Time-Infographic.png" alt="infographic" width="430"><br /> Click to Enlarge </a><br />Via <a href="http://meoble.com/thoughts/top-10-most-pirated-movies-infographic/"> Meoble </a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This was submitted to us by Meoble.

This is an example of something that by definition really is not an infographic. There are graphics, yes, and there is also info, but because the info isn’t visualized, this is what we call a viral visualization. It’s an interesting topic, so there’s potential for the IG to go viral, but the numbers are simply written out. Without data viz, it’s not an infographic.

If this was turned into one creative, color-coded bar chart (say, the skin print of the Na’vi for Avatar downloads/grosses, the bat symbol for The Dark Knight, etc.) it would qualify as an infographic–well, a very short one, anyway. Right now there isn’t even a difference in text size–The Incredible Hulk and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End both got 14 million downloads, but the number for Hulk looks much more significant because of the font size.

Again, though, this is definitely a topic that people are interested in, so it contains valuable information and may still be passed around as a viral visualization. As an infographic, I’d have to give it a failing grade.

An important aspect of creating an infographic is making sure that your design is shareable. This is the difference between an infographic and a viral visualization (an infographic that leans more on eye-candy and niche statistics than traditional infographics do). Most of the infographics that are shared online are viral visualizations, and one of the reasons why is that they are more interesting to look at.

The infographic element that is perhaps the most difficult to creatively visualize is the ever-so-common pie chart. Here’s an example of a traditional pie chart. (Note: The data is imaginary survey data created for the purpose of this post.)

Conventional pie charts are simple as they are, but on great infographics they seem to have a little something extra. For this one, I dressed it up with a unique color palette and an attractive font (Knockout, one of my favorites). This is great for a simpler, B2B infographic, but it could use a little something more if I wanted to use it in one of my viral visualizations.

This chart has been reworked in the style of one of the infographics from our portfolio. Shrinking the smaller sections of the pie charts adds a level of depth to the graphic and makes the larger pieces more prominent, leaving more of an impression. The trick with this one is to balance the slices of the pie. This trick makes the chart a bit more interesting without completely abandoning a clean, simple aesthetic.

The hollow or “donut” pie chart is one of my favorites. It’s a bit more unique but still very simple. Leaving the white space in the center of the pie chart also creates a few more design opportunities – many designers will put accompanying copy inside of the graph, or call out the data with the percentages or an icon. There are a ton of possibilities here! I recommend this technique if you are overwhelmed with data that is best represented with pie charts–it allows your design to stay consistent and cohesive without being repetitive.

This final example is a bit more complicated, but when it’s done right it can work very well. We see it on a lot of viral visualizations. You still get your point across, but you leave a lot of workable white space and it is more visually interesting without being confusing. Notice all of the pieces begin at the same point–this chart is more of a hybrid of a bar graph and a pie chart. It works very well if you have to work with several data points.

All of these tricks can be done very easily. If you’re using Adobe Illustrator, make all of your charts using the chart tool and rework them after the fact–this way you don’t have to eyeball the data and your graph can stay accurate. Examples three and four can be done quickly using the “minus front” tool – a huge time saver!