Where does research even start?

- Now, while I've stated that the roles of researcher and designer should be separate, this doesn't mean that we should just skip over the steps required to research an infographic. The research and narrative of an infographic are both, after all, integral parts of the infographic creation process. So a thorough explanation of this process is warranted. And the most common question that I'm asked about this process is simple. Where do I even start? To understand this, it's best to start with the end in mind. Now, here's an example of what a final research document should look like. This represents the word-for-word text that should appear on the final design. Headlines are clearly marked, important text is bolded so that the designer knows what text is the most important to exemplify, and the copy is stripped down to the bare minimum, relying on more of an outline approach with bullet points to best organize the data for design. Traditionally, you would start developing something like this in one of two ways. You will either be provided with a variety of content to reference and build your narrative from or you'll have to seek out that content yourself. Now, if you're provided with the content upfront, it will likely come in the form of whitepapers, links to specific articles, research reports and Excel spreadsheets. With content like this at your disposal, you can treat the research phase as you would a book report. Go through all of the content, identify key themes, conclusions and data points that stand out and build a narrative around that information. Sometimes, the only thing that you're given is an Excel spreadsheet of data. For example, a client may want to produce an infographic, outlining the results of a survey that they did. In that case, they may send you a spreadsheet of participant answers to work from, like this. Through the use of pivot tables and data analysis, it would then be your job to identify key insights from the data to inform and then write your narrative. Of course, we cannot all be data scientists and this course would go on for hours if I went down the rabbit hole of executing full data analysis through Excel. If this is of interest to you, I encourage you to check out the litany of courses that LinkedIn Learning has on the topics of data analysis and data science. But what happens if you don't have any content to work from to start? This is the scenario that most researchers find themselves in and therefore, will be what we focus on for the sake of this course. If you don't have any sources to pull from, you should always start your research off by considering your five Ws, and the questions that you need to answer to meet the demands of those five Ws. Start at a high level by asking yourself questions like what matters most to my target audience? What information are they lacking? What information will help validate the conclusions or the goals that I want to accomplish? Then start to narrow your focus by asking more specific questions. In the example of the history of e-commerce, I may wonder the following. What key moments in history made e-commerce possible? What technology led to the creation of e-commerce and what technology fuels it today? How has e-commerce evolved over the years? Are there key players in e-commerce that have made it what it is today? Or who benefits from e-commerce? What value does e-commerce bring to the US and the global economy? What key moments in history have forced changes in e-commerce? And where is e-commerce going in the next 20 years? Take the time to list out every question that you think your audience and stakeholders will have. Then narrow your list to questions that, once answered, will deliver value to your audience and help you accomplish the goals of your infographic. This exercise shouldn't take too long but it will save you time chasing the wrong leads in the long run.