How to build a human II

This week’s infographic is a new, improved version of my old How to build a human design. My goal for this project was to explain human embryo development in an engaging and informative way. I love image-based graphics like airplane safety information cards and IKEA construction guides, and I decided to emulate the style for this infographic. I wanted anyone to be able to understand the process from just the visual information on the page.

Although I added medical terms to each image caption, they’re meant as a supplement rather than a necessary part of the design. I think that including technical terms alongside visual information helps make the project useful to a larger group of people.

Readers with a background in medicine can look up the terms to learn more or use this as a study guide, and people without medical experience can still use the visuals to understand all of the anatomical changes.

It was great to get the chance to update something I made two years ago. The original illustrations were a little smaller than I wanted, and I focused too much on the animation. This new version is less colorful but I think it’s both more accurate and better designed. I re-made every one of the original drawings and added many more steps in the process. I also added a “finished product” image of an adult human, with help from stock reference images.

As with my other medical infographics, Dr. Arun Mathews, a Chief Medical Officer in Texas, fact-checked my work and suggested useful articles.

• Sources

• First Aid for the USMLE Books 1 & 2 (2015). Tao Le and Vikas Bhushan. © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. Embryonic folding and flexion of the embryo. Ben Pansky. Review of Medical embryology book. Sections on sperm, eggs, and fertilization. Molecular Biolgy of the Cell. 4th Edition.