I used Canva to create an Infographic about the Foster Care Child. Canva is a fairly robust web tool which allows for users to create visuals and graphics within minutes. There are templates for infographics, cards, banners, social media posts, and many more styles. Here is my short review of Canva.
Overall Impression
Canva was initially very attractive. The page design inspired me to explore and click. I felt safe to interact with the features on this website. The variety of templates is impressive and fit with my expectations of modern graphic art design.
Best Features
I think the best features are within the editing page for a graphic or document. The formatting options are intuitive and mirror other programs I already use, such as Microsoft Word. You can also insert elements are infographic style, like pie charts and line graphs. You can edit the charts and give statistics a new visual meaning. The editing screen appears to the left of the graphic editing area and is simplified to allow easy interpretation by user. No unnecessary Cognitive Load, here.
Also, there are icons and vector images of hundreds of items. This is helpful when describing outcomes or statistics that are powerful but boring in text. Adding a visual follows graphic design CARP principles to enhance learning.
The Struggles
Just as with other web tools, it is difficult to determine exactly how to use the tool sometimes. Finding those graphs is difficult. I had to search for “bar graph” in the search box on the editing pane to the left. Another struggle I have had with Canva is imported images were dull in color compared to the original files. Lastly, the layering is difficult when you have text, images, and labels in one layering area. I have not found a good layer selection method within Canva. It could be something they could add or for which a tutorial would be helpful.
Recommendation
I recommend Canva. It is free and you can save and export your graphics easily. Everything is saved on my Canva account, so even if I lose the image file for my instructional lessons or projects I can easily retrieve them and re-export from the Canva web platform.
Check it out – www.canva.com.
I produced an Infographic using Canva. The project can be viewed here.
