The Rise of the Info Graphic

You have probably noticed the ever-increasing presence of infographics all around the internet these days. If you are unfamiliar with this portmanteau of information and graphic, an infographic is a visual representation of information, data or knowledge.

They are often described as a trend, but I think this term is misleading. I do not see infographics going away anytime soon. As software to create them becomes more accessible, I believe instead we will come to expect them whenever the number-crunchers of the world are trying to explain their findings to the rest of us.

It’s easy to see the benefit of the infographic for large companies, government organizations and the media. Magazines such as Fast Company and National Geographic frequently use infographics to help their data hit home, and explain complex concepts and systems.  Yet I think there is a huge potential for small businesses and nonprofits to tap into the power of the infographic as well.

Give people something to NOT talk about

These days, a lot of online sharing focuses much more on visuals than words. The explosive popularity of Pinterest is easily harnessed for those who happen to offer a visually appealing product or service: a hair stylist, restaurateur or furniture designer for example. There are plenty of businesses, however, whose products and services do not translate so easily into enticing imagery.  Infographics are a way for businesses like doctor’s offices, accountants, or energy efficiency companies to join the party. Either by sharing infographics relevant to your industry, or tapping into data you’ve collected and producing your own, you are offering people something to connect with on a visual level.

In a recent Washington Post article titled “How can businesses use infographics?”, Nicholas Reese offers the example of the Tax Myth infographics on TaxReceipts.com.

“One of our most popular infographics —Tax Myth #2 — I will just file an extension and pay my taxes later — helped spread awareness of how tax extensions work, all while bringing additional exposure to the TaxReceipts brand through links and traffic.”

Break it Down

Let’s be honest. Have you ever told someone what you do for a living, and received a head nod accompanied by a blank stare and perhaps some polite mumbling? It’s possible that many people, including your potential customers, do not really understand what your business has to offer. An infographic is another way to express your raison d’être to your audience.

According to Buzz Small Business Magazine, a well-designed infographic saves a reader time, and can also be a time-saver for you:

“Oftentimes, it is easier to convey a message via infographic than to write the information into a succinct blog post. This also saves the reader time because infographics are much easier to digest than a full blog. We recently created an SEO Cheat Sheet for Small Business infographic that simplified the sometimes daunting task of optimizing your website for search.”

Make it Happen

I’ve hit you over the head with What and Why, but you’re probably still wondering how to incorporate infographics. One option is to find an infographic that is particularly timely or relevant to your business, relates to a specific blog post, or just anything that you think is worth sharing. Make no mistake, there are plenty to choose from. Here are a just few spots to search for a quality infographic:

Fast Company Design: Infographic of the Day

Visual.ly

Column Five Media

GOOD: Infographics

You can also try your hand at creating your own infographic. I recommend beginning with a read through Smashing Magazine’s The Do’s And Don’ts Of Infographic Design. Here are some words of wisdom from this article that I found particularly inspiring:

“Any time a research number is provided to you for an infographic, ask yourself how it can be visualized. Percentages can always be visualized with creative pie charts; numerical values in a set can usually be turned into a unique bar graph; and when numbers don’t fit on a consistent scale, you might be able to visualize them in a diagram.”

Spyre Studios outlines the conceptualization and creation of an infographic in a helpful post entitled The Anatomy Of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visual.

If you are thinking about the DIY route, check out some of these sites that can assist you:

Vector Pak and Creattica: Cheap or free icons and images that can be incorporated into your graphic

Create.Visual.ly: Offers some customizable infographic template, at this point I would file them more under “fun” and less “useful”. But still a really great gallery to find infographic to share or get inspired

Make Use Of - 10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics

Call in the big guns

If building your own infographic doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, it might be time to find a professional. While it is unlikely that you will find someone willing to create one for free, the marketability of infographics means that many designers are trying to add them to their repertoire. In addition, the lagging economy means many of these designers are more than willing to take on small projects.

Once you have a clear idea of the concept you would like to express, there are a variety of places to look for freelancers: Elance and Guru offer a worldwide talent pool, and Craigslist can help you find someone locally.  Sites like Dribbble and Behance allow you to search for the term “infographic” and view the profiles and portfolios of artists who have created them (these profiles often specify if the individual is seeking freelance work). In my opinion, however, the best place to start is contacting the graphic design or multimedia department at a local college or university. You might find someone eager to work on your project for much less than you had expected.

The “Magical” iPhone

Author: Katie Boyd, intern

In my opinion, technology is at its very best when it transforms an idea that once seemed to be pure fiction into reality. We see this happen all the time in the science fiction world (Bluetooth headpieces, gesture based interfaces, and video conferencing all debuted in sci-fi entertainment), but there is much less overlap between stories developed in fantasy genre and what technology can achieve. Those of us who love to read about dragons, wizards, and magic rings, are left out in the cold.

I recently realized, however, that little pieces of my favorite fantastical franchise, the Harry Potter books (and movies), are being brought to life through my favorite mobile device: the iPhone. The parallels between iPhone functionality and the fictional world imagined by author J.K. Rowling are fascinating. It all started with a rainy day re-watching of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry receives the Marauder’s Map. In case you’re not familiar with this device, it allows Harry to track the movements of his fellow wizards, displaying the name and whereabouts of anyone on the Hogwarts castle grounds. Back in 1999 when the book was released, nothing resembling the Marauder’s Map existed in widely accessible technology. Today, as the folks at Apple would say, there’s an app for that.

Both Apple’s Find My Friends and Google Latitude for Android make it easy to keep tabs on people. Unlike the Marauder’s Map, these require an opt-in, which could make it difficult to track the movements of your enemies.  It certainly comes in handy for the folks you do want to run into though. Find My Friends for iPhone incorporates a stylish leather-bound look, evoking an old-fashioned map feel, but even better would be a branded Marauder’s Map application, utilizing the existing functionality while adding a parchment-like skin.

Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Another bit of Harry Potter lore now accessible on your iPhone is the wizard world’s version of a photograph. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg’s cinemagraphs were the moving images shown in publications such as the Daily Prophet. Apps like Cinemagram and GLMPS are making the cinemagraph an increasingly popular and accessible way to capture a moment, I can picture these images slowly replacing still photography across the web. With the growing number of e-readers and tablets it seems to me like a matter of time before they begin popping up in news applications, and some iPad users have even expressed their desire to see an e-paper experience that resembles the Daily Prophet.

I recently saw Amber Case speak about mobile devices, in a talk entitled From Solid to Liquid to Air: Cyborg Anthropology and the Future of the Interface. Case describes smart phones as being “larger on the inside than they are on the outside.” We can pack them with a seemingly infinite amount of information, but they never get any bigger or heavier. In her slideshow, Case referenced a campaign created by Maxtor, showing a physical representation of eight years worth of digital photos. If we were to print out all of the information we carry around every day in a smart phone, it would start to look something like this:

From caseorganic's photostream

Upon hearing about a tiny device that provides storage without expanding, I immediately thought of Hermione’s beaded handbag, which contains all of the supplies necessary to live on the lam in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: including food, clothes, and a tent. Clearly the iPhone isn’t quite there yet, but perhaps J.K. Rowling is doing a bit of technology forecasting here. I wouldn’t put it past her. The woman is a genius.

The Story of Picle

A new app called Picle takes visual storytelling to the next level by recording an audio clip along with photos. The idea for this app apparently began when Made by Many’s Alex Harding asked the question “what would Instagram sound like?” This is a nice video delving further into the story of Picle, and how it captures a moment in time.

Navigating the Sea of Web Apps

There are so many different web apps available today, and an excessive number of them are geared toward business. These software solutions claim to help streamline your tasks, such as updating social media, tracking and analytics, and creating forms and surveys. Yet the sheer breadth of options creates a tyranny of choice; sifting through is too time consuming for many organizations. When there are over 150 apps available to make using Twitter more efficient, why should you even bother?

This dilemma might have been what Mashable had in mind when they published a list of tools recommended by community managers. If you are curious about how you can benefit from online tools, their advice is definitely worth a look. Mashable’s contributors highlighted some of my personal favorites, I added a few more that I find extremely valuable:

Bitly – Link Shortening and Tracking

I use Bitly every time I share a link on Facebook, Twitter, or a blog – it shows how many people clicked on the link over time and which site they accessed the link from.

TweetDeck – Twitter Management

This app gives Twitter a big boost with extra functionality. Easily monitor what people are tweeting about your brand and your field, and reach more followers by scheduling tweets to be published at any time of the day.

Kuler – Color Theory

Adobe’s Kuler (pronounced “cooler”) allows you to see how different colors play off one another, very helpful when deciding on a color palette. I especially like the option to sample colors from an uploaded image to generate a theme.

Podio – Project Management

Podio has created highly customizable tools for everything that goes on behind the scenes, including project management, collaboration, company intranet, and employee social network.

Basecamp – Project Management

Basecamp is an easy way to keep everyone on the same page: share files, allow multiple parties to revise a document, and maintain a record of ongoing discussions.

// Katie Boyd, intern

Keeping up with mobile

In the last few years, the mobile market has grown with a fury. Mobile is a disruptive technology, creating completely new ways for consumers to spend, and rapidly upending technologies we have been using for years (digital cameras, home computers, and books, to name a few). It is very young, and has only been in the hands of consumers for a few years. And it is truly gigantic – according to Phone Arena, smartphones outsold personal computers in 2011. So, as mobile technology continues to grow and develop, and simultaneously smash everything in its path, I can’t help but picture it as a giant toddler.

That combination of nascence and force can be more than a little frightening, especially for those of us in the web design field. Dave Hewitt’s recent article on TechCrunch does a great job of describing the challenges this new realm poses for media professionals. Here is an excerpt (Check out the whole article):

“This year, the market demands a more entrepreneurial mindset. Mobile is not just the hot topic of the moment — it’s the future. Embracing this reality requires a shift in thinking and many brands still do not have a mobile or encompassing digital strategy in place. Moreover, many agencies are still growing a set of basic mobile capabilities. Creating both smartphone and tablet-optimized experiences, along with the increasing need to pick platforms and develop apps, is becoming the norm.”

I believe that we have only begun to scratch to surface of how mobile capabilities can be employed. We are so used to waiting for technology to catch up to our impossible ideas.  Mobile has created a world where our ideas have trouble keeping up with technology.  To me, it appears that the biggest challenge facing agencies in the mobile era is simply learning how to dream bigger.

// Katie Boyd, intern

We Love Star Wars

Found some pretty awesome Darth Vader fan art today, we just had to share:

More at Behance

Social Skills: Add niche marketing to your social media strategy

Think back to your last major online purchase. You probably spent some time on the web, researching all of the options you had to choose from. You read reviews of the product, compared pricing between different e-tailers, and if you’re anything like me, shared a product with your friends and family via e-mail or your favorite social platform for consideration prior to making the final decision.

This is social shopping. Niche online communities that make it easier than ever to share, rate, collect, personalize, review, interact with, and purchase products online. It has become a cost-effective way for e-tailers to further strengthen the relationship between their brand and customer.

A few companies that do it well include:

Gilt Groupe

One of the original flash-sale sites, Gilt Groupe offers its members high-end goods at discounted prices. The deals site focused initially on designer fashion, but has achieved horizontal integration into luxury travel, food, and events through its subsidiaries Jetsetter, Gilt Taste, and Gilt City.

Fab.com

Fab stands out among the seemingly ever-growing number of flash-sale sites by offering a wide variety of products, and arranging recent purchases and favorites into an addictive news-feed format. After requesting membership, users are immediately put on a waiting list, adding a feeling of exclusivity to the site. Users can easily comment on items and link their tweets to the live feed, adding to the social shopping experience.

Joyus

We already know that people love to watch videos online. So, why not combine videos with shopping? Joyus has pioneered a new integration of watching and shopping, allowing users to see a product in action during their shopping experience. The tutorials are helpful and informative, and provide immediate access to the products they feature. Watch out for this space in 2012!!

Flash-sale sites and tutorial videos possess some barriers to entry; not everyone can offer their product at a discount, video production gets expensive, etc. Niche social networks are another way to build your brand, engage a broader audience, and maybe even generate sales.

Here are a few cost-effective options that may benefit you and your business:

Pinterest

Pinterest is an online bulletin/mood board, urging users to “organize and share things you love.” People have found a variety of uses for Pinterest, including wedding planning, recipe organization, and DIY-experimentation. This is not a forum for bragging about your product or trying to promote your message, instead it is an opportunity to capture a customer’s imagination and share inspiration. Clothing e-tailer Modcloth has been particularly successful in building a Pinterest following, as described on Mashable.

Svpply

Similar to Pinterest, Svpply allows users to share a wide assortment of internet finds. However instead of sharing videos or images, Svpply focuses exclusively on products.  The site can function as a public online wish-list, or simply a space to display one’s status as a “tastemaker”.

Polyvore

Clothing lovers can spend hours (ok, days) combing through Polyvore’s beautifully curated “sets”. Part social network, part online style aggregator, Polyvore allows users to create a set comprised of clothing, accessories, and home items and then serves up links to purchase the featured products online. Each set creator has a profile, and shoppers can follow their favorites for inspiration.  Polyvore has nailed it: the perfect combination of a friendly online community and ease-of-purchase.

Naturally, products that are visually appealing have an edge in the niche social network game. Most of these sites function as a sort of digital moodboard, allowing people to express themselves by sharing images that reflect their preferences.

Social shopping has added another layer to the already complex social media landscape. The benefits to consumers are pretty obvious, but how can businesses effectively harness social commerce? I came up with a short list of steps that any business can take to get in on the social shopping action:

Find your niche

Even if they are not directly connected to commerce, just about every product category has its own version of an online wish-list. This is a place where highly engaged consumers are advocating their favorite brands and sharing them to a broad audience. Pinterest and Svpply are general-interest sites where users share information about products. There also are many similar sites that focus on a specific market. For example, a clothing designer could maintain a profile on Polyvore, a restaurateur might share the latest food finds on Foodspotting.

Get Visual

The social shopper communicates using product photos and videos.  If your products are not pictured, or your photography is not appealing, you are effectively shutting out customers who might share your product with their network.  Roll out the welcome mat by displaying photos that are compelling to your audience and tell the item’s story. Make every photo share-worthy!

Join the (Third) Party

Explore partnerships with flash sale sites such as Fab.com, Gilt Groupe, and The Foundary.  Many retailers have found taking a hit on profit margin in order to gain a broader reach can be beneficial in the long run.

//Katie Boyd, intern

Point West has arrived.

Point West has arrived. Check out the before and after shots below.

BEFORE

AFTER

Site Launch: Salon of the Dames

Salon of the Dames, purveyors of rare vintage apparel, recently hired us to design and develop their new corporate website.  Their goal was to create a luxury web presence that would effectively represent their unique garment collection, while handling complex functionality and creating space for users to contribute.  In order to stand out from the crowd, we knew the website needed to draw viewers in visually, as well as offer a new way to shop and share online. We wanted to draw inspiration from a rich and ornate aesthetic while maintaining simplicity and ease-of-use.  The color palette is striking and memorable, yet allows the imagery of the unique products to take center stage.

In order to facilitate a vibrant online community, we developed a custom content management system, allowing sellers to update their collections with ease.  Integrating the online shop with Paypal creates a streamlined and secure e-commerce experience.  As a result collectors can curate their own virtual showrooms, enticing customers to return often and see what’s “new” (or in this case old).

The Salon of the Dames website feels like your favorite vintage store – classy, timeless, and brimming with one-of-a-kind treasures.

Post by Katie Boyd – Harlo Intern

Movember Madness

It makes sense that we would be passionate about men’s health.  After all, there are quite a few men over here at Harlo Interactive.  So, for the month formally known as November, these men are putting down their razors and growing moustaches to raise awareness for issues surrounding men’s health.

Here are some facts from the Movember movement that we found especially compelling. (Warning: you may be inspired to grow your own mo after reading)

• 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
• Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in American males between the ages of 15 and 34.
• An estimated 13 million adult men over the age of 20 in the US have diabetes- and a third do not know it.
• Four times as many men commit suicide compared with women
• 24% of men are less likely to go to the doctor compared to women

Keep an eye on our progress, or support our effort by checking out the Harlo Handlebars Team Page.