Infographics are a fantastic tool that help illustrate data…
From a first glance, they allow a reader to instantly get the feel for a subject. More indepthly, they help highlight key information and transform any subject into an enjoyable and easy-to-digest visual that can be used to educate an audience on any topic.
But, are they really effective? Believe it or not, there truly is a science behind why infographics perform better than text alone. 90% of all information that is transmitted to your brain is purely visual. What’s more, humans are known to process images 60,000 times faster than basic text which is why infographics grab and maintain attention.
So, you’re reading to make an infographic of your own but aren’t sure where to start? First, determine the subject matter and identify who the audience will be. Answering these two key questions will help you understand the best way to deliver your key messages.
Read on to learn about our top five tips for making an impact with your next infographic.
Use Focused Data
An infographic covering five different subjects becomes difficult to follow and understand. The best way to avoid making your infographic overly-complex is to stick to the rule of “one topic = one infographic”. When working with numerical data, always provide context. If your reader doesn’t know what the graph is visualizing, the overall message of the infographic is lost.
Keep it Simple
When working with colours, always limit your palette. Working with too many contrasting colours can make the infographic busy and steal the show away from the message that you’re trying to convey. Keep it simple. Choose a colour theme of two to three shades and stick with it.
Pair your information with simple yet interesting graphics that directly relate to the data being shown. Also, when possible, always include elements such as graphs and charts to help further visualize the figures. Doing this will make your infographic stand out from the crowd. Separate each sub theme of the topic into its own section so it has its place to be in the spotlight and remember to give each area room to breathe. White space is your friend!
Tell a Story
Engage with your audience by using your canvas to tell a story. Lead your viewers through the infographic through a strategic order that flows well from one section to the next. Here are a couple of examples:
Is your infographic answering an important question? Lead readers through the answer from the most important element to the least.
Is your infographic explaining a process? Take your readers through it chronologically from start to finish.
Always be sure to organize your information in a way that will keep your readers engaged.
Keep it to a Reasonable Size & Length
Always be conscious of how large your infographic is and that the time you have with your audience in the world of social media is limited. For this reason, it’s important to strike a balance between being informative and being too detailed.
If your infographic is 20,000 pixels long, not only will it be difficult to keep readers’ attention, but graphic itself may become to large to embed in a page or difficult to share on social media. A good rule of thumb is to keep your infographic smaller than 8000 pixels long and under 1.5MB.
Create Supporting Content:
Just because your infographic can’t include all the data pertinent to the topic doesn’t mean your readers have to go without. To avoid posting a sea of text to social media, pair your infographic up with an accompanying blog post that goes into more detail when readers follow back to your website. Pairing your infographic with content is also very important from a search engine optimization perspective, as the supporting content will likely include the data, figures and keywords needed for a page to rank.
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Infographics are a great graphic tool for representing data and information clearly. Utilizing them properly will give your usually text heavy page a much needed lift of creativity.
Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear them.