{"id":9510,"date":"2017-03-28T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/?p=9510"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:47:24","slug":"data-collection-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/data-collection-techniques\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Data Collection Techniques For Your Next Infographic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey-.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9667\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey-.jpg\" alt=\"Infographics: Data Collection Techniques\" width=\"1095\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey-.jpg 1095w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey--300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey--768x421.jpg 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey--1024x561.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/datacollection-blogheader-grey--730x400.jpg 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1095px) 100vw, 1095px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What&#8217;s the secret recipe a truly memorable infographic? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Simple:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/infographic-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an original topic<\/a>, some fascinating data, and an eye-catching design. Bake it all together and offer some to your friends (by that, I mean market it).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article is going to focus on the second ingredient in the recipe: once you have decided on the topic of your infographic, you can start compiling the data. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But wait. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if you don\u2019t have a set of data prepared?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, then the next step is to research the topic and collect data and information about it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Collecting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scrapehero.com\/web-scraping-api\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">your own data<\/a> can seem daunting but it\u2019s not as hard as you might think. Thanks to the internet, you can easily find vast amounts of data with the tip of your fingers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if you use a few simple but effective research methods, you will be able to mine the internet for relevant data without wasting much time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it doesn\u2019t have to cost you a dime. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So how can you find data for your topic? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this article, I\u2019ll share seven data collection techniques for how you can go beyond simple searches when looking for data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9594\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data Collection Techniques\" width=\"632\" height=\"2587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1.png 2550w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1-73x300.png 73w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1-768x3144.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1-250x1024.png 250w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1-730x2988.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Embed this infographic by copying and pasting the code below:<\/em><\/p>\n<pre>&lt;img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3047\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/86942eb7-be7a-4132-ad5f-99e7a2e18884-1.png\" alt=\u201cInfographics: Data Collection Techniques\" width=\"1000\" height=\"4100\" \/&gt;\n&lt;p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 14px; padding-top: 4px;\"&gt;See this &lt;a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/data-collection-techniques\/\"&gt;infographic on Venngage&lt;\/a&gt;.&lt;\/p&gt;<\/pre>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/templates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<button style=\"color: #ffffff; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1; font-family: Helvetica, Oxygen, sans-serif; border-width: 10px 25px; border-style: solid; border-color: #FF9A16; border-radius: 3px; display: inline-block; background-color: #ff9a16;\">Create my own infographic now<\/button><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Append \u201cData\u201d to Your Topic<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best place to start a data search is by appending the word \u201cdata\u201d to the end of your search query or topic in Google. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a simple trick that narrows your search to topics specifically with data. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>For example, typing in \u201cmobile market share data\u201d will return results specifically with mobile market share data.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9525\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 1\" width=\"632\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data1-730x383.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Use Filetype:xls (or xlsx,csv or pdf)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another easy way to narrow your search to only files with data in them is to use the option \u201cfiletype:xls\u201d to narrow the search results to Excel (spreadsheet) files only. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s how: append \u201cfiletype:xls\u201d to the end of your query or topic. Google will return results that will download the file directly when clicked, instead of taking you to a webpage. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s that simple.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This trick is particularly useful when you\u2019re only interested in search results that have data files, and you don\u2019t want to sift through web pages looking for them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other file types that work are xlsx, csv and pdf.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9526\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 2\" width=\"632\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2-768x402.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data2-730x382.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Use Image Searches <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One research trick that might seem counterintuitive is to use image search. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hear me out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why would you use image search when you\u2019re looking for data? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because image search results for data-centric topics usually return charts and data visualizations. And if you visit the webpages of these images you\u2019ll find where the source data came from. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It takes a little bit more effort, but this sometimes works if the data is not readily available in a spreadsheet format.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9527\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 3\" width=\"632\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3-300x141.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3-768x362.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data3-730x344.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. Use an Existing Data Repository<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many existing data repositories that are available with all kinds of data. Some of these are free and some require a paid subscription. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is a list of lists of data repositories:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government data: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.data.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">data.gov<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Industry data: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">statista.com<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public opinion: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pewresearch.org<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gallup.com<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google public data: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/publicdata\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">google.com\/publicdata\/directory<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data is Plural, an assorted data collection: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1wZhPLMCHKJvwOkP4juclhjFgqIY8fQFMemwKL2c64vk\/edit#gid=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">spreadsheet<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open Access Directory (Life sciences and Academic): <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/oad.simmons.edu\/oadwiki\/Data_repositories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/oad.simmons.edu\/oadwiki\/Data_repositories<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research Data: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.re3data.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/www.re3data.org\/<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. Use Google to Search Within a Site<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a way to refine your search even more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you know that your data can be found on a particular website (like on one of the repositories above), you can further narrow down the search to include only results from that site. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s simple:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use \u201csite url: topic\u201d in your search query. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<p>To search for marital status data in the US census, you can use \u201cdata.gov: marital status\u201d to narrow your search to only the data.gov site.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9528\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 4\" width=\"632\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data4-730x399.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6. Peruse Academic Sources<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another place to find data that is often overlooked is in academic research.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember back in school when you used to peruse academic journals for <a href=\"https:\/\/awriter.org\/essay-writing-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">essay sources<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why not do the same thing for your infographics?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every day, hundreds of research papers are published in academic journals. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These academic articles often contain data or have references to data from which the results were based on. You can look at the Appendix or Reference sections for where the data came from. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the data isn\u2019t public, you can try contacting the writer (or lead investigators) of the article for the source data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And you know what? <\/span><\/p>\n<p>More often than you might think, they will share the data with you.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some sites to search for academic research:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/scholar.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Scholar<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Books<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/osf.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Open Science Framework<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/scihub.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sci-Hub<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7. Conduct Original Research<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, you can do original research to gather your own data. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019ve picked <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a truly unique topic<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, then chances are no one else has done it before and the data does not exist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t panic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the contrary, congratulate yourself&#8211;you might have something great in the making here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many different research methods you can use to collect data. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, when I was a graduate student, I took an entire course just on research methods. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the sake of brevity, I\u2019m going to present a simplified manual data collection method we use quite often at Venngage. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is simple enough that most people can start using for many different fields and cases.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here it is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Step 1: Define Your Sample Size<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The first step is to define the sample size.<\/p>\n<p>Think:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How big will your data set be? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The size of your data set will depend on how many people you poll, or how many objects you need to code and count. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to be statistically significant, you can refer to this <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">guide<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to decide how big your sample size needs to be. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some examples of the sample size we used for the following infographics:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Infographic and Research Topic<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Sample Size<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Race of Oscar Winners<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1684 people (all Oscar winners until 2015)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creepypasta<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70 stories<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/6-formulas-for-the-perfect-pinterest-infographic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Popular Pinterest Infographics<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">150 infographics &gt; 1000 pins<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/can-you-fall-in-love-with-someone-through-text-message-infographic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Falling in Love via Text<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">40 people<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/game-of-thrones-infographic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones Betrayals<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">53 acts of betrayal (from seasons 1-5)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>Step 2: Define What You Want to Measure<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The next step is to define what you want to measure for each subject you are sampling.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The way we do this at Venngage is to define one measure for each question we want to answer for the topic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, for the Game of Thrones Betrayal infographic, we wanted to know more about the acts of betrayal in the TV show, and why the characters committed those acts of betrayal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9529\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5.png\" alt=\"Infographics: GoT\" width=\"632\" height=\"666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5-285x300.png 285w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5-768x810.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5-971x1024.png 971w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data5-730x770.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here were the questions we asked and what we wanted to measure: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are perpetrators and victims of betrayals connected? <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Measure: Relationship (ex. spouse, father, mother, ally, friend, boss, employee, enemy&#8230;etc.).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the house and role of the perpetrator and victim? <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Measure: House and Title.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What was the main reason for the betrayal? <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Measure: Reason (Power, Revenge, Love, Loyalty).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What was the gender of both the perpetrator and the victim? <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Measure: Gender.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you have the measures figured out, create a spreadsheet and add a column for each measure.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the example above, we made a spreadsheet using the following columns: relationship between perpetrator and victim, perpetrator\u2019s gender, perpetrator\u2019s house, perpetrator\u2019s role, perpetrator\u2019s reason for betrayal, victim\u2019s gender, victim\u2019s house, and victim\u2019s role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9530\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 6\" width=\"700\" height=\"143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7-300x61.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7-768x157.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data7-730x149.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9531\" style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd;\" src=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6.png\" alt=\"Infographics: Data 7\" width=\"700\" height=\"141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6.png 976w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6-300x60.png 300w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6-768x154.png 768w, https:\/\/venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2017\/03\/data6-730x147.png 730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Step 3: Manually Code Your Data <\/b><\/p>\n<p>The last step in our data collection method is to manually code your data.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s what I mean:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For each subject in your sample, record the values in the spreadsheet. If you\u2019re manually measuring each sample, then you will enter one row for each sample. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the Game of Thrones infographic, each row was a separate act of betrayal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, you guessed it:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We watched every episode from season one to five and listed each betrayal as a row with all the resulting columns filled out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This can be quite time consuming and if the measurements are simple, you can use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wishup.co\/blog\/virtualassistantjobdescription\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">virtual assistant<\/a> or temp workers to help you out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for a sample size of less than 100, it should not take more than a few days\u2019 worth of work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well worth the effort for original data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, there are other methods of original data collection that you can use, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/how-to-make-an-infographic-from-your-poll-and-survey-data-in-4-steps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conducting a survey or poll<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hiring a research company,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or automatic data collection (<a href=\"https:\/\/scrapfly.io\/blog\/web-scraping-with-scrapy-splash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scrapy web scraping<\/a>, API, or with a <a href=\"https:\/\/crawlbase.com\/blog\/best-web-crawling-tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Web Crawling Tools<\/a>). <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The end result is a spreadsheet of all the data you need for your infographic.<\/p>\n<p>Some tools you can use to collect your own data:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.import.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Import.io<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.askattest.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Attest<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s the Groundwork!<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point in the<a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/how-to-make-an-infographic-in-5-steps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> infographic creation process<\/a>, you are equipped with an engaging topic and some solid data about that topic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nice work!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this groundwork done, you get dive into the design process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my next article, I\u2019ll walk you through the steps for how to choose the best infographic template for your information. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have any questions or would like any clarification, feel free to drop a comment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s the secret recipe a truly memorable infographic? Simple:\u00a0an original topic, some fascinating data, and an eye-catching design. Bake it all together and offer some to your friends (by that, I mean market it). 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