Designing interactive infographics to stimulate environmental awareness: an exploration with a University community

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action addressed not only to governments but also to businesses and civil society. In this scenario, Universities play a key role in achieving the SDGs and, also, in creating awareness about these global issues. As an example, the University of Bologna is carrying out several initiatives related to sustainability matters. Considering, in particular, the environmental dimension, the University undertook different strategies to reduce the waste of paper, embracing the dematerialization and paperless movements. To make these initiatives visible to the University community and to increase awareness about these issues, we designed a system that intends to provide data related to the implications of such initiatives in terms of paper waste avoided and benefits for the environment, to be exploited using different devices. In particular, this study focuses on the design and the evaluation of two infographics, conceived by two different groups of experts and researchers: one “animated” and one “aesthetic”. The evaluation intends to present the differences in terms of perceived design and informative dimensions, with the final aim to present insights on the design of infographics able to foster awareness, targeting specific communities.