Why Infographics Need Quality Content

We’re in an age of infographics; you can’t visit a popular website of any genre without coming across one. While the huge demand for infographics has led to an increase in volume of the innovative learning tool, it’s also caused a downsizing in their overall quality.

Every graphic designer thinks they can make the next viral infographic, but it takes real effort and thoughtful execution to make one that stands the test of a reader’s scrutiny. Infographics have to be engaging, visually appealing, and highly informative if they’re going to be successful.  If you think you have a great idea for the next best infographic, you might want to take heed of these tips before you send your proposal to a graphic designer.

Choose your topic wisely

As you well know, successful infographics pair easy to understand visuals (pie charts, bar graphs, whimsical drawings) with well researched data in order to inform readers on a subject that needs to be addressing. The infographic essentially offers a long, detailed answer to a question that’s been asked over and over in the blogosphere or through other forms of media.

So if you want your infographic to take off, you need to carefully choose the topic. It needs to be something that many bloggers and comments touch on from time to time, but something that hasn’t been discussed in any detail. A fashion blogger might create an infographic that details the evolution of some universal apparel trend that’s gone unnoticed among other bloggers, for example. Your infographic should be designed to answer the question that’s been on everyone’s mind, one that no one has had the courage (or forethought) to answer.

Cite everything

When I read through an informative infographic, one that makes me utter “I didn’t know that” out loud in disbelief, I expect to see a bunch of sources backing up the data. When I see the sources in a footnote at the bottom of the infographic, I get that warm feeling that I just learned something new that I can use as a talking point with my friends later on.

When there aren’t any citations, I tend to doubt the credibility of the infographic. And when I do that, I start questioning the credibility of the blog that posted the infographic, and I start to wonder if the blogger in question just posted it to boost his readership.

Infographic citations are just as important as grammatical sentence in blog posts: the reader might not always notice it when you have them, but they’ll definitely let you know when you don’t. If some statistic can’t be backed up by hard evidence, don’t include it in your infographic!

Punchy and clean design elements

The best infographics out there combine clear and citable statistics with equally clarifying graphics meant to enhance the dry facts and figures. The graphics in an infographic serve as the vehicle for communicating all the information you want to relate, so it’s best to make those images as clean and bold so as to catch and keep your reader’s attention. That means avoiding clutter, whether that means too many charts and cutesy figures clustered around each other or huge paragraphs of text breaking up the consistency of your design. That also means including charts and graphs that don’t require a physics degree to figure out, sticking to layman’s terms and figures.

What are some of your favorite infographics out there? Do you have any guidelines for choosing the topic and design of your own infographic? Let me know!

Image Credit: Suat Eman