Make Your Infographics Count
January 10th, 2014 by
Infographics have been around for years. We have seen them in cave paintings and hieroglyphics. William Playfair was credited with the first area chart and pie chart in his 1790 book, The Commercial and Political Atlas. Over the years, we have pushed forward the design of learning concepts with the aid of images. This work has lead us to what we refer today as infographics.
If you haven’t been on Pinterest or read any major newspaper, you may be unfamiliar with the concept. An infographic is the process of using visual data to represent a complex idea in an easier to digest medium for the masses. You can’t get your PhD through an infographic, but they are handy at teaching you a quick synopsis of a subject.
The strength in infographics is found by following a few basic concepts:
Bring Multiple Ideas Together
The magic of an infographic is its ability to take a wide amount of information and consolidate it into a story that flows and ebbs. The beauty is in the point where all these ideas join to create a new message or way of looking at all those ideas together.
Be Understandable
When presenting new ideas and concepts, it is important that the viewer understands what the message is. Try not to get the viewer confused or use terminology that is way above their knowledge based. It is good to use this jargon, but remember to explain it in a way that your 80-year old grand pap may comprehend.
Less is More
When designing or writing for an infographic, it is important to remember not to bombard the viewer with copious amounts of data and figures. The idea is to keep the content flowing in a smooth way that is easy to understand and recall. Designers do this by narrowing the focus of an infographic into one main concept or story to gently guide the viewer into learning the message.
Be Welcoming
It is important to never be intimidating when designing an infographic. The message should never appear overbearing or intimidating. The overall goal of infographics is to be read and spread.
Eye Catching
The overall design of the infographic needs to be alluring for the viewer to want to read it. There is no sense in spending all that time researching, writing, and designing only to have viewers not be interested in what you have to say. It is important to make sure there is a visual hook that will pique the interest of any viewer.
All images in this post of the original work of Search Influence. Please give attribution if you should decide to share.
Monson, these images are insanely awesome. Thanks for the creativity and the content!
This is great! I love it. I think two of the key points you highlighted here work really well together. When you take “less is more” into consideration, you’re making your graphic more understandable for your viewers. On one of NPR’s Science Friday discussions they talked about how infographics are supposed to help us understand the data that we feel overwhelmed by. Thanks for the sharing!
http://www.npr.org/2013/10/18/237100766/making-sense-of-science-infographics
EYE CATCHING is right! These graphics are too cool, Monson.