Participatory Infographic

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Synthesize complex concepts or data into a collaborative visual format to share key messages quickly.

Use it when: Use at the end of an analysis phase, educational unit, or strategy workshop when a group needs to extract and communicate central takeaways.

Skip it when: Skip when the source material is still disputed, when participants have not yet reviewed the underlying information, or when the schedule cannot afford at least an hour for visual production.

Group arrangement: Small teams of 3 to 5 participants (2 teams at 6 participants, up to 5 teams at 24 participants) working at separate tables or breakout rooms.

Timing: Source recommends 60 to 120 minutes. UWT set a standard 75-minute plan for up to five teams.

Materials and tools

• 1 sheet of large butcher paper or poster board per small team
• Assorted chisel-tip and fine-point markers (multi-color packs)
• Sticky notes (multiple colors)
• Printed collage material, magazines, or simple icon printouts
• Glue sticks and scissors (1 set per table)
• Rulers or straightedges
• Scrap paper or blank printer paper (several sheets per table)
• 1 printed topic brief or data sheet per team
• 1 printed Infographic Planning Template per team
• Access to a collaborative digital whiteboard platform (such as Canva, Mural, or Google Slides) with digital shapes and icons if running online or hybrid

Before participants arrive

1. Arrange room into separate group tables with plenty of flat surface area.
2. Distribute poster board, markers, glue sticks, scissors, scrap paper, planning templates, and reference data to each table.
3. Prepare the central prompt or data summary to display on a shared screen or chart.

Say this to open

Welcome. Today we will turn our findings into a participatory infographic. Your challenge as a team is to select the most important facts, steps, or ideas from our source topic and present them visually on poster paper. You will have 10 minutes to plan the layout, 35 minutes to assemble it, and then each team will share their design.

How to run it

1. Introduce purpose and topic 5 minutes

   Explain the goal: turn complex notes into a scannable visual narrative. Hand out the topic briefs or display the focus questions. Verify everyone understands the core facts to represent.

2. Form teams and assign roles 5 minutes

   Divide participants into teams of 3 to 5 members (maximum 5 teams total). Ask each team to self-assign responsibilities from the planning template: Scribe/Text Editor, Visual Layout/Sketcher, Cutout/Production, Spokesperson, and Fact-Checker/Timekeeper. Follow the template guide for 3-person and 4-person role combinations.

3. Plan the structure 10 minutes

   Distribute and direct teams to the Infographic Planning Template. Teams review source data, complete the guide, agree on their main message, and choose a structural layout such as a timeline, process map, comparative chart, or central diagram. Teams sketch a quick draft on scrap paper before touching the poster board.

4. Create the infographic 35 minutes

   Teams build their posters using markers, paper cutouts, callout boxes, and icons. Remind teams at the halfway mark to check visual hierarchy, ensuring the headline and main data points stand out at a glance.

5. Present and tour posters 12 minutes

   Hang all posters on the wall. Each team spokesperson delivers a 2-minute summary explaining their visual hierarchy, key message, and design choices. Limit presentations strictly to 2 minutes per team across up to 5 teams.

6. Debrief visual synthesis 8 minutes

   Gather the whole room to discuss what visual techniques made the information easiest to digest. Take 3 to 4 observations from the floor.

Debrief questions

• Which visual choices made specific data points immediately understandable?
• What was the hardest detail to cut when turning raw notes into visual summaries?
• How might you use visual structuring in your daily reporting or community communication?

Finished output: Physical poster-sized infographics (or digital canvases) synthesizing topic findings into structured diagrams.

Remote

Run in an online whiteboard like Canva, Mural, or Google Slides. Assign each team of 3 to 5 to a separate breakout room and private canvas containing digital shape libraries and text templates. Run step timings identically. In step 5, screen share each board sequentially while spokespeople present.

Hybrid

Place remote participants together on digital teams using shared online canvases, while in-person participants work with physical posters. During presentations, display digital canvases on the central room screen, and aim a webcam at physical posters so online members see every artifact.

Access and participation choices

• Provide varied roles: participants can focus on text editing, information architecture, sketching, cutting, or presenting.
• Offer high-contrast paper and thick markers for visual clarity.
• Allow participants to contribute quietly to visual construction without speaking during whole-room presentations.

If the session gets stuck

A team spends 20 minutes debating visual styles without writing or drawing anything.

Step in and ask them to choose one central number or sentence first, write it in the center of the poster, and build three branch points outward from it.

Participants write dense paragraphs of text instead of using visual hierarchy.

Provide a quick prompt: challenge the team to replace any paragraph longer than two lines with an icon, arrow, or bulleted stat.

Terms used here

• Visual hierarchy: Arranging text and images by size, weight, and position so the most critical information catches the eye first.