If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I love infographics. They’re a great way to quickly communicate ideas to readers with pictures, charts, graphs, and colors instead of a long blog post.
Well-designed infographics are:
- Easy to read and understand
- Visually engaging
- Easy to share
I like infographics so much that I’ve made them a regular item on my blog; I feature a new infographic every Tuesday.
When DigitalGov announced their Infographics: Stories from an In-House Gov Design Team webinar, I registered so I could learn about different infographic use cases.
And I hoped to pick up some tips for designing better infographics.
The presenters for the webinar, Federal Trade Commission user experience designers Jessica Skretch and TJ Peeler, shared their best practices and lessons.
Here are my takeaway tips:
- Don’t illustrate something that can be easily understood in words. Use infographics to explain a complex process, emphasize key points, or highlight an achievement
- Look for opportunities to add clarity.
- Ask a lot of questions. You need to understand the goals of the infographic. Sit down with the subject matter expert (SME) to learn as much as you can so you can offer great design solutions.
- Brainstorm many concepts, go with your strongest concept. Start sketching ideas with pencil and paper, bouncing ideas around.
- Test and iterate. Show your infographic to someone who doesn’t know the subject or topic. Does it make sense to them? Is it clear? If not, refine and test again.
- Remember it’s a partnership between a designer and subject matter expert. You need both to create an effective infographic.
- Don’t leave users at a dead end. What do you want the user to do after they’ve read the infographic? Include calls to action in your infographic. Consider adding a short URL for users to learn more about the subject and engage.
- Chunk your infographic. Mix and match different graphs, charts, pictures to make it easier for users to scan. Also consider how your infographic could be organized into sections. You, or your readers, may find it useful to promote sections of the infographic.
- Design in vector. It’s easier to resize. Export as PNG or PDF to post online. The Federal Trade Commission rarely posts an infographic by itself, there’s usually a blog post that accompanies the infographic.
- Think about how people will view your infographic. Will it be viewed online? In a print report? Or included in a press release? Be prepared to produce different formats (perhaps PowerPoint, or something else)
Bonus Tips
The Q&A after the presentation was filled with lots of great questions from what tools to use (pencil and paper, Adobe Illustrator) to how much time it takes to create an infographic.
Here’s a few more tips to consider for your infographics:
- Make sure the topic is good for visualizing. Is the message worth your time (and the subject matter expert’s time)?
- Consider whether you’ll need to update the infographic. Depending on how the infographic is used (is it for consumers?), you may need to update it next year, or every year with current info. That may influence your design decisions.
- Include sources for infographic. Add sources in the footer or section where the data is referenced.
Have any tips for creating better infographics? I’d love to hear about them, share your tips in the comments.
