Infographics are graphic visual representations of data and information. They are very useful when you need to explain complex information, numbers or data in quick and effective manner. Infographics can be pretty hard to design, so here are some great tips for creating effective infographics.
Also, there are lots of free infographics packs on the web, with different pre-made elements, such as icons, vectors, and more, but sometimes they lack quality. So if you need any help with starting to create an infographic, here are some infographic tools to help you out.
In this article, you’ll find some helpful tips for designing high quality, creative infographics.
1. Simple is better!
Make sure your infographic is not over designed. Its main goal is to deliver information quickly and easily. You have to keep it simple and effective. A crowded infographic won’t attract viewers. An infographic is created for the purpose of conveying a substantial amount of information in an easy-to-see and easy to discern way. Both its design and content must be easily scannable and detailed enough to thoroughly cover the topic which you’ve created the infographic on. A simple design will often work best for infographics as it makes it easy to present data and for the user to read through it. User friendliness should be your main concern here.
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2. Choose only one topic per infographic.
Your infographic will be effective only if it will answer one question. This way it will be visually clear and you’ll avoid any confusion. If you try to cram too much into the same infographic, it may lose the purpose for which it was created. Don’t try to do too much and stick to discussing only one topic at hand. Check out the example below, which covers just one subject – the psychology of color in design.
The Psychology of Color
The psychology of color is a very important element which is also commonly overlooked by some web designers. Colors do influence a website’s visitors. While we’re on that topic, you should be familiar with the psychology of color if you are trying to to get your visitors to act on something through your infographic, and in general, when you are creating your designs.
3. Research the topic thoroughly
Infographics’ main reason for existence is to give detailed information about a specific topic or issue. Don’t forget to give clear facts and figures and make sure they’re correct. Research carefully before starting to design an infographic. Always make sure the facts are right, as your aim is to give information. Take a look at the example below, which gives information about social media data and performance. It was very well researched!
This great infographic will teach you everything you need to know about tracking your social media data and performance. It will also give you some tools you can use to measure how effective and engaging your social media presence is. You can see that a great amount of research went into creating an infographic like that.
4. Have a creative and original design
Visuals are very important even if it’s a simple infographic. Use your creativity and create an appealing design. Choose carefully the typography, color scheme and layout in order to emphasize the most important parts. While there are some infographic templates available that will help you create infographics quickly, you may want to think about creating one from scratch, especially if the infographic is on a niche topic, such as trolls, as seen below.
This is an infographic that will teach you how to deal with internet trolls and how to handle them. It’s funny and creatively designed and featured a nice troll illustration at the top.
5. Use an attractive color scheme
Colors are very important when designing infographics. We touched on this topic in tip #2, however it’s important enough to discuss in greater detail here. Choose colors that have a great impact on the readers of your infographic. Do you want them to feel sad because of the findings in the infographic, such as an infographic created on endangered species or some other topic that should provoke sadness? Do you want them to feel shocked about the findings in the infographic – so shocked that they will immediately share the infographic with their friends on social media or on their own blogs and websites? Not all infographics have to be colorful though; choose what best suits your subject. A black and white infographic can work perfectly given the right topic.
6. Use short text
Infographics are all about visuals so be brief when using texts and get straight to the point. Information must be clear and the accent must be on the visual part of an infographic. Text should be used to support visuals and to make your information compelling, not the other way around. Don’t make your infographic text-heavy while using very little graphics. Also, make sure to choose the right fonts – headings should be easily visible and the main content should have a font that is easy to read.
What better way to showcase our point about using the right fonts than an infographic created on best fonts? In the example above, find out what are the top 10 fonts web designers love most and why! Learn how to choose beautiful, high-quality fonts for your inforgraphic as well as website.
7. Make sure your infographic is small in file size
Infographics with small file size are much better because they’re easier to download. This isn’t always easy to accomplish as the infographic is actually one huge image containing many graphics and a decent amount of text. Make sure you compress your infographic before distributing it, but in such a way that image quality isn’t compromised. It’s really important not to sacrifice the quality of the image because a fuzzy infographic will look unprofessional, dated and untrustworthy. If you are to choose between image quality and file size, of course always make sure the quality is there first, and then compress as much as you can without diminishing quality.
8. No legend.
Your infographic shouldn’t need a legend to be understood. Your explanation and data should be inserted right in the infographic so the readers won’t have to work hard to understand.
In the example above, you can see how famous logos were analyzed in order to discover what makes a good logo. All the information presented in the infographic is easy to understand.
9. Be Different!
Avoid using bar, line or pie charts as they have been overused in the past. Be original and unique! Try new layouts and other ways to group together the message you wish to communicate through the infographic. Try to use unique illustrations wherever appropriate. Play around with fun, cool fonts to make the infographic stand out. Create unique infographics and they will surely be a success and are much more likely to be shared.
10. Share the smart way
Make sure your infographic includes the following: copyright, source data (so anyone can check the facts), designer’s name (this way you’ll receive credit for it), original image/article URL. When you publish an inforgraphic, it’s a good idea to provide embed code that includes your link. Infographics can easily be shared without linking back to the author, and you don’t want that. You need to make sure that when your infographic is shared on other websites or blogs, you get a link back to your original page.
Creating infographics may seem like an easy task, but following the best design principles when doing your infographic design is always a good idea. Use this guide to create an infographic that will surely be a success.
The post Creating Infographics: 10 Tips and Tricks for Infographic Designers appeared first on Web Design Blog | Magazine for Designers.
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