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Many of the web pages we see today use a grid for optimizing web layouts. Usually that is an invisible or subtle structure that guides the placement of the page elements determining the margins of the piece and space between page elements. And even though web designers have been slow to embrace the grid concept, now they are increasingly turning to grids, and even more explicit grid-based forms, to control the structure of web pages.

In modern web design the use of grids is very much obliged to the modern typographic grid that became associated with the International Typographic Style of the 1950’s. At that time a number of graphic designers began to devise a flexible system able to help designers achieve coherency in organizing the page. The result was that grids came into public awareness; however they have in fact long been used extensively in other design mediums.

The grid is used to structure content. It serves as the framework for page layout dividing the page horizontally and vertically into columns and rows to order the elements of the design in literally a grid of X and Y pixels. The elements are then placed on the cell border lines and overall aligned on horizontal and vertical lines, and items of equal hierarchical importance reside within columns of the same width. So when you’re designing a website that needs to follow the normal visual design standards, that’s a grid which is considered as a first priority to align all visual objects on the web page.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of grids, let’s explore the evident advantages and disadvantages of using the grids. As for the advantages (+) of the grid-based system being applied to web design, we should mention the following:

• the grid through organizing a massive content into evenly distributed columns and rows makes a compact arrangement with its own visual rhythm. Such consistent guidance allows users to easily follow the layout, develop familiarity with a project and rapidly absorb the information;
• besides, the layouts that have adapted the grid style do not feel chaotic or somehow messy, but look clean, structured, readily intelligible and streamlined. Grid structures the content so that the viewer can easily assimilate and retain it;
• at the same time grid offers a certain level of stability to the structure of web design that establishes visual unity and cohesiveness throughout a series of related pieces. This means that web developers, by following an existing framework, have a logical and usable structure on which they can build the website;

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I’m sure that web community is grateful to all those people who have devoted plenty of their precious time to creating infographics, you really can’t find a better way to visualize a huge amount of data in a way more efficient and comprehensive. Without a doubt 2010 was a year of informational graphics and this design technique has become one of the main trends of the last year, creating both positive and negative factors in a further development of this practice within the bounds of web design industry.

Creating a really interesting, communicating and useful informational graphic is a really complicated task, which requires skills and tons and tons of patience. I have been a witness to when unwise usage of this design technique had caused a splash of negative reactions on giant social media networks such as Digg.com or Reddit.com – which is obviously not what the authors have designed these infographics for. There was a period when anyone thought he could design an infographic, promote it and gain certain benefits. But in fact there’s a lot to think about before actually starting to work on it. First thing whether a web community actually needs the information you’re about to provide. The second problem is about the visual appeal of your graphic. The right correlation between the quantity of information and visual techniques used to present it is an extremely important thing. So if you don’t want to confuse – or even irritate – your visitors please be careful while creating next informational graphic, otherwise it may harm the reputation of your website.

Types of Data

There are three basic types of what is best presented in a form of an infographic. Knowing all about your info will help you from the very outset of creating infographic. Of course you can mix these types/approaches but it would be better to use one of them, besides it easier for the audience to perceive. Believe me – in most cases infographics have enough “heavy” facts within just one type of info, don’t make it all even harder. So, here are the three types we’re talking about:

• Time – it is the most popular one because timeline perfectly illustrates dynamical changes of any process, and you shouldn’t worry about the structure – just choose whether it will be a horizontal or a vertical timeline. It is much easier to collect information simply by checking time period and looking for interesting, useful and significant data concerning the topic.



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• Quantity – you can set this type as the directing vector of general data presenting in your project. Of course you have seen many examples containing various quantitative analysis, however you should never forget that mostly people can’t accept and remember many numbers so, don’t go too far with them.



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• Space - this type describes physical relations between some objects or conceptual locations. To be more precise, infographics of this type describe some physical processes or they are geolocation-oriented.

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What is also important is the communication approach in creating informational graphics. Our article is devoted to the static infographics which are the most widely spread ones around the web, basically when someone says “infographic” the static infographics are what you think of the first. In addition to this approach there are also two other major types used. Here’s more on each of them:

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