Haiti Aid

I think that this piece of information graphics is very good at setting out the story of what it is explaining through the combination of both text and image. It is showing the support that was received from around the world – through January 19 – that has given $1 million or more.

The images are made up of shapes that remind me of those that you can produce using a spirograph, the geometric tool. Perhaps this was done because the information is telling us about figures and so the strong link to mathematics is displayed in the image.

The key that can be seen towards the bottom of the page highlights what the colours represent as well as the size of the circle shapes. If a larger amount of money was donated this corresponds to the circle being larger to represent this. However, the shapes do not really fit to scale in terms of the amount of money. You would expect that if two million dollars were donated then the shape would be twice the size of the one million dollar shape. This is where the key brings clarity along with the inclusion of the amounts within the diagram.

The key not only shows what each colour represents, but it also shows what amount the sizes of the shapes means. I think that the key does make it clearer to the audience that the shapes are not to scale of the amounts donated. I think that including the source of the donation along with the amount on each shape with text, this makes it much clearer for the audience to see who or where has donated what amount of aid.

Overall the design of this piece is highly visual with the use of colour and type, making it attractive to the eye. It is not too complicated and the key stands out by being highlighted within a box. It is set out simply so that you can get that information quick and easy rather than having to search for it.

There are also little drawings of parachutes dropping aid amongst the shapes, which reinforces the fact that the design is about the aid given to help the Haiti disaster. Infact, the shapes that contain the information about each donation are reminiscent of a bird’s eye view of a parachute (as if it is dropping aid). At first I did not pick up on this. But after looking more closely this design has cleverly been arranged and is understandable to its audience.