Over the last decade, an infographic is a term that we have been hearing a lot. The go-to marketing tool of the decade, this helps to share information easily. Most people nowadays just want to save their time. Nobody wants to use up an hour of their precious time to read a long article, instead, prefer to look at an infographic and get the basic idea behind it.
The popularity of infographics was seen only in recent years. Starting from school classrooms to marketing for business these can be used everywhere. You must have seen even small businesses these days are using this to market their products.
Almost all of us have a vivid childhood memory of visiting the doctor and seeing an infographic wherein several information was given and shared regarding the clinic. But, if you are still not able to get a clear idea of what these are we will break it down for you in this article.
Well, it might seem like a tricky word often confused with data visualization, visual content and information design, these are all different things. The word infographic can be broken down into two parts.
The first is “info ” which comes from information and the second is “graphic ” that can refer to a visual or an image. This has been defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a visual representation of information or data”. Still, if you want to get a clearer picture we can define an infographic as an engaging way to combine charts, imagery, and text which enables the viewer to understand it. Any sort of data is represented properly and can show a lot of content quite clearly.
A viewer can process information easily if it is well represented and tells a story and that is exactly what infographics do. An infographic is concise and eye-catching and can hold the interest of the reader. Any mundane topic can be made visually exciting by using infographics. The use of different elements like colors, icons, images, fonts, and illustrations work in a combined manner to explain your topic easily.
Every person is visually attracted to an infographic that is unique, exciting, and engaging. Therefore, if you have made up your mind to include infographic content as a part of your strategy to achieve some predefined goal, we will guide you through some of the important things that one must keep in mind. To begin with, we will talk about the importance of infographics.
Infographics are very crucial to increase the effectiveness of your content. Let’s look at a few points on why you should use infographics.
Spice up any boring text by using an infographic and make it a fun experience for the viewer. When any viewer sees images, colours, fonts, illustrations and any other content, it automatically engages them.
Remember how as kids before going to the exam hall we would just revise by seeing the “points to remember” section? Of course, we do. Many people tend to forget that text that they have read but can clearly remember what they see. So, to give a quick idea of what is written, an infographic works best.
Using your logo and creating an infographic helps to boost your brand awareness. The visually appealing nature of an infographic can convey a strong message about your brand and reinforce it.
Visuals can help to simplify or break down a complex process and explain it better. Many audiences can just simply visualize the process by looking at it.
When infographics are used in your website and shared across other platforms then they help more and more people to be linked to your site. Because it is shareable many people will come to visit your site for more thus increasing traffic and helping in search engine optimization.
We will give you a quick idea of where an infographic can be used.
If you own a business or have a brand and want to make people follow you, then use infographics to create an impact. Infographics can be used by marketers to drive interest among people, advertise your achievements and new products or services, or summarize important points, send a message across and create awareness. You can also create handouts and leaflets using infographics to send your message.
Any government can use infographics to share data about their party or results from the census. They can also use it to showcase their good work to boost campaigns.
Conveying the right information easily to students can be done through an infographic. From sharing tips to lessons infographics help a lot of people within a short period and make their experience memorable.
To make the clients aware of the work being done, consultants use infographics. They can deliver proposals and progress reports to presentations all by using an infographic.
These organizations can use infographics to raise awareness about the causes and issues they are addressing. Apart from that, it can be used to portray results and information also.
For an entrepreneur who is just starting, infographics serve as a way to reach the audience and promote their business. An infographic plays a very important role in highlighting their success and history.
We will now know the various elements and the different types of infographics.
Infographics are made up of visual content and knowledge elements. The visual elements are made up of colours, graphics and icons. While the content elements are made up of time frames, statistics and references and the knowledge part include facts.
Different types of infographics –
There are three categories of infographics in general.
It is a very interesting way to make people understand the concept. It is the usage of charts and graphs to represent data.
It helps the viewer to easily understand the message behind it. This type of infographic is considered as a “true ” infographic when used appropriately.
This is different from data visualization as it gives concepts and information featuring process, anatomy, chronology, or hierarchy. Information in the form of timelines, flowcharts, and organizational diagrams gives the content a different outlook which can not be possible with text.
Publications have featured infographics from so many years. But the style and type have changed. Using bars, lines, pie charts, illustrations are forms of editorial infographics. Not only publications it has also spread to commercial sectors, where this is used to bring attention to their site.
This was all about the elements and types of infographics.
Next up we will discuss how to create an infographic –
If you want to create infographics that are informative and engaging at the same time we will guide you with it. Let’s dig deep to know about each step.
Delivering a great infographic needs to have both of the components I.e. the graphic and information on the point. When planning to create an infographic visualize the audience with whom you want to see the infographic. This gives you a clear idea of how to present the content.
After you have picturized the style of your informatic by keeping the audience in mind the next step is to create an outline of your goals and plans that will enable you to make a fantastic infographic. Highlight your goals or in simple understanding what you want your viewers to see which is the takeaway. Followed by this you have to determine how your content should look, which includes the title, headers, subheaders, facts, text, points etc. Infographic design is important. Also, formulate some notes to help you ahead.
Data collection is very important as data will be the main reason why people will view your infographic. You can do this either from a third party data or through your data. Make sure to credit sources if using third party data.
Correctly presenting your data in a visually appealing way makes a reader’s job easy. Any data that is cluttered and not nicely presented might not develop an interest in the viewer. You can use nice fonts and colours to highlight prominent messages in your infographic design . Pie charts, graphs, pictograms, area chart timeline, tables, flowcharts, Venn diagrams, mind maps are all ways to properly place data and allow the reader to do the rest by exploring it themselves.
For the type of data set content to be presented properly, you must choose the right template. However, if you want to create from scratch you can build your layout or design. But, always keep in mind to pick the style that fits your content based on its structure and style. The right infographic design can do the magic.
Keep your text simple as they are necessary for your infographics understanding. Choose the right font, alignment, and colors. To maintain the interest add headers, list elements, icons, shapes, etc. Maintain the proper alignment. Select colours to differentiate as well as link different and similar elements respectively.
Let us now look at some infographic examples that can give you some cues and inspiration to make one by yourself.
What makes a successful infographic?
Creating the best infographic for your business might seem tedious at first but by using our services at OFFEO you can create the best infographics within very little time.
With our wide selection of hand-picked templates and ideas for you, you can either choose to use it or start from scratch. From changing colors, fonts, and styles to adding images you can jazz up your infographic to be the best. There are a lot of designs that you can select and you do not need prior design experience for it. Select from the latest design trends and then customize it accordingly. You will get the best infographic. Just save it and you are ready to go!
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