EU Budget Plans 2011

Here is an information graphic that shows the budget plan for the EU in 2011, taken from the BBC news website. The use of colour, shape and orientation has been changed to represent each figure. I don’t really think that the colours have any specific link to the areas that the show, such as a lilac colour being used for the ‘Rural Development’.

I think that the shapes of each one are quite good at showing the amount of money being funded for each matter. Obviously the larger the shape, the bigger amount of money being set aside for that particular one. An example being that for the Common Agricultural Policy 43.7bn Euros have been set aside for that, which is quite a high figure in comparison to Security and Justice being given 1.5 bn Euros. You can also see this difference between the two shapes representing each amount. The strip, which curves off to the side to lead you to the text is much thicker for the CAP than for Security and Justice, which is only very thin. I also think that the way the strips curve off to the side in order to lead you to the text works quite well because it allows more room for the written explanations and also allows the text to be placed on both sides of the diagram. If they did not curve off to the side they would all meet at the bottom and so there would much less room for the text. This would then look cluttered and much more off-putting to actually read. So in terms of aesthetics this is actually very pleasing to the eye.

Also, I think the way that the overall amount being budgeted appears right at the top of the infographic draws your eye to it and is easy to understand that this is the overall figure, simply because of it's placement on the page.