On Teaching Narrative Infographics in an Information Visualization Course

Although not currently a standard topic to teach in a technicallyfocused information visualization course, I have found assigning a Narrative Infographic an effective way to introduce narrative and story into the presentation of data visualization. By teaching the skills explicitly, I guide students towards using pictorial components responsibly for engagement, staying on the right side of chart junk. Although the assignment requires the creation of a stand-alone static design, I have observed positive transfer to web-based final projects. I also report on strategies I have developed to reduce problems of student anchoring on prior chart-based assignments. The most successful has been the instigation of a before-to-after practice assignment paired with a mid-project in-class progress review check.