NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is comprised of three divisions: Emergency Response, Assessment and Restoration, and Marine Debris. Collectively, the Office of Response and Restoration provides comprehensive solutions to environmental hazards caused by oil, chemicals, and marine debris.
OR&R has an outreach team whose mission is to share information, promote environmental stewardship, and communicate the Office's expertise.
Information on OR&R's activities, services and products are broadcast via social media, a regular blog, a website, media engagement and direct communications with government and NGO partners, legislators, academia, and industry. In the past few years, we have increased the use of info graphics, to make complex messages more easily understood and engaging, and to broaden our reach to interested audiences.
Why info graphics?
Readers expect visual content. Nearly two-thirds of the updates you see on social media are visual content, according to a recent Citrix report.
On average, total views increased by 94 percent if a published article contained a relevant photograph or info graphic when compared to articles without an image in the same category, according to a Skyward study.
The average human attention span is 8 seconds (down from 12 seconds in 2000, according to a Microsoft study), and our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. Info graphics make it easier to engage the viewer before they move on.
Working with several graphic designers with distinct styles, we have augmented select stories with info graphics that summarize key points by combining minimal text with related visuals. The info graphics are designed to also stand alone. This poster will show examples of a range of our info graphics employing a range of approaches:
Arctic model of oil spill exposure and injuries
Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process
Questions guiding NOAA's oil spill science recommendations
Assessing environmental harm from the DWH oil spill
Techniques for responding to oil spills at sea and on shore
Lost human and cultural resources
Responder tools (applications, mapping products)
This poster will demonstrate how choosing a compatible style and technique for the specific information you are attempting to communicate is critical. It will also show our process for creating info graphics.
With the growth of the internet and amount of information available it is critical to make our information stand out. In general, words, combined well with images into engaging info graphics will convey information in a fast, memorable, and easily transferable way.