Infographic Critique

Infographic Critique

Olivia K. Burd

MS in Professional Writing, New York University School of Professional Studies

PWRT1-GC1020: Document Design and Data Storytelling

Mr. Simon A. Mullin

March 2, 2025

The infographic “Profiling True Crime Fans” was created to show an overview of the different types of people who are fans of true crime. The graphic shows four separate colors, each of which represent a different section of information. The green is related to ages of true crime viewers. The most common race and gender information is represented by the color orange, and lastly how fans obtain their true crime information is in the color red. Overall, the data on this graphic informs the reader about the true crime fan demographic.

This critique examines the effectiveness of the information presented and the organization and presentation of that information. There are elements of data, color, layout, and design that make this graphic effective, but there are also ways it could be improved.

. The graphic is created by Jennifer Carole, who deems herself a “communicator” and a crime survivor. The information presented on the infographic comes from a survey that Jennifer created then shared with her audience. As stated on her website jcarole.com, “over 600 people took my survey and the results are compelling” (Carole, 2019). Though 600 responses is a substantial amount, the pool of respondents is small in comparison to all true crime fans in the world. Because this survey was only shared with Jennifer’s audience, the data results are skewed and inaccurate. The title of the infographic Profiling True Crime Fans is misleading for this reason. There should be some specification on how the data presented was found, as users are unaware that the survey was taken by only 600 of Jennifer’s fans by looking at the graphic.

Of the 600 survey participants, 80 percent of them were from the United states, and the other 20 percent were from outside the county. The largest percentage of U.S. respondents were from California (Carole, 2019). This information also plays a role in how the data is skewed, which again is not addressed anywhere on the graphic. There are aspects of the data shown that might need more explanation for the user to have a deeper understanding, as the semantics are lacking specificity. Munzener defines a data set's semantics as “its real-world meaning” (2017). An example of this is the “hang” section in the bar graph that is at the bottom of the graphic, in red. The word “hang” standing alone does not tell the audience what exactly that percentage means.

Jennifer Carole created this infographic with asymmetry in mind, however, she added graphics that were unnecessary, such as the green and orange figures. These elements take away from the data that is supposed to be at the forefront of the infographic. The overall graphic would have been more impactful if the top half was formatted similarly to the bottom half, where the focus is the bar graphs. The graphics could have been layered behind the chart, like the handprints are at the bottom of the infographic; that way the data remains the focus to the audience.

A majority of the information presented in this infographic is written in bright, bold colors, however, “black is [also] a color” (Lupton, 2015). The bright colors in contrast with the black background is what allows the data, which is written in bright colors, to stand out to the viewer. Furthermore, there is white text that is used to create highlighted or ‘bolded’ words, and the black background allows that element of design to stand out as well. Overall, the dark background also creates an ominous feeling for the audience that relates to the topic of the graphic.

For the balance and rhythm of the graphic, Jennifer successfully used an asymmetrical balance but the Gestalt principle of proximity and colors aided in allowing the viewer to see which elements of the graphic belong together. As the viewer looks at the graphic they can visually see that the green image in the top left goes with the age chart and that the orange chart goes with the three silhouettes that are next to it. Even if this graphic was in black and white the viewer would be able to tell what image goes with which data because of proximity.

Jennifer created this infographic with asymmetry in mind, however, some of the graphics seem unnecessary, such as the green and orange figures as they take away from the important data. The overall graphic would have been more impactful if the top half was formatted similarly to the bottom half, where the focus is the bar graphs. The graphics also could have been layered behind the chart, like the handprints are at the bottom of the infographic; that way the data remains at the forefront.

This infographic lacks in terms of utilizing varying scale, meaning the infographic falls flat. The lack of variation prevents the data from standing out amongst the graphics that are also used. There are no areas on this graphic where it seems as though something is a different size than the things around it. However, placement matters too and the placement of the handprints at the bottom does add a level of depth to the graphic, and the image in green at the top of the graphic also adds depth. Adding more variation in size of the graphics would allow the bar graphs and statistics to stand out more. As it currently is, the orange silhouettes specifically, almost take away from the graphs closest to them due to the size of the silhouettes being larger than the written data.

Overall, the combination of colors, graphics, organization of information and the actual information presented allowed for this to be a fairly successful infographic. Jennifer’s background, experiences with true crime, and her fan base were also well represented through the infographic which added to its success. However, there are some elements that could make this stronger. The data presented could be more inclusive or further explained to the viewer. Some of the graphics that she chose to include are far too large to the point that they are taking away from the data.

Appendix

References

Carole, J. (2019, April 27). True crime preliminary research results: Infographic!. Jennifer Carole, Marketing Strategist Using Content to Influence. https://jcarole.com/true-crime-preliminary-research-results-infographic/

Lupton, E. & Phillip, J. (2015) Graphic Design: The New Basics. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

Miller, K. (2022) Graphic Design Fundamentals: An Introduction and Workbook for Beginners. KT Design, LLC.