5 Tips for Creating an Infographic that Will Stand Out from the Crowd

Infographics are everywhere. They’re often used in content strategies where information and data needs to be read, understood and processed quickly and as such, they’ve been firmly implemented in numerous marketing campaigns for a variety of different industries and sectors, and for good reason.

Often used as either a standalone content piece or to go alongside a particularly long article in order to pick out and summarise the key pieces of information, infographics play an integral role when it comes to conveying facts and knowledge in a clear, concise way. But what exactly is an infographic, are there any advantages to using them and how could you go about creating one that’ll stand out from the crowd?

What is an infographic?

An infographic is a visual representation of information, facts, data and knowledge. They’re used as a fun, creative way of getting information across as quickly and as simply as possible. 90% of the human brain will absorb knowledge and data visually and so infographics will utilise this in order for us to clearly understand and absorb knowledge that’s conveyed via the infographic.

There aren’t many rules to follow when it comes to creating infographics, the main thing is to keep the information concise. After that, you can be as creative or as professional as you like. If you’re trying to get information across to school children, then perhaps make the infographic bold and colourful. But if the infographic is for use in an office building, then it would be better to keep to neutral tones and a clear, crisp design. Either way, let your creative juices flow.

What are the benefits of an infographic?

There are many different benefits to using an infographic over other forms of information distribution. In addition to having free, creative reign over the content you’ll be producing, some of the other benefits include:

• Infographics provide a visual guide/aid that can be used and understood by everyone
• Complex information, topics, data and facts can be simplified and conveyed at once
• Knowledge retention would be greatly improved if we relied purely on infographics
• It can provide businesses with an opportunity to align and assert brand image
• They can help to improve employee satisfaction
• Infographics can engage easily distracted readers and those with shorter attention spans

5 tips for creating an infographic that will stand out

As previously mentioned, there are no rules to creating an infographic as it allows us to be as creative as possible, regardless of the information that will be conveyed on the infographic. However, there are some tips for producing an infographic that will stand out from others out there, such as:

1. Choose one goal

It’s important that you keep the information focused purely on that one topic. Try not to deviate from the goal at hand and ensure the knowledge conveyed is clear and concise at all times. It’s also important that you don’t try to include lots of information at once, just pick out the key bits and stick to those. Doing lots of research around the topic at hand will help with this.

2. Use graphics

We absorb information effectively when it’s presented to us visually and using graphics is a great way to ensure this. Instead of using graphics to complement the text, it should really be the other way around. Text should be used to go alongside the graphics so as to prevent too much emphasis being put on the words, as this isn’t the purpose of an infographic (as the name would suggest).

3. Choose a colour scheme

Choose a colour palette that aligns with the topic and the audience at hand. Although there’s no limit on the level of creativity when it comes to producing an infographic, it’s important that you don’t go over the top with lots of bold and bright colours that don’t really correlate with each other or the topic you’re writing about. Unless the audience calls for that, or if you’ve got a brief that needs to be followed, then steer clear of doing that when creating your infographic.

4. Keep it short

The information conveyed in an infographic should be kept short and sweet. Those passing by the infographic, or scrolling past it online, should be able to skim read the information on it and still understand the premises and process the data that’s being conveyed. The reader should be able to come to a conclusion in as little as 8-10 seconds when casting their eye over an infographic.

5. Think about placement on the page

If information needs to be read in a particular order, then place them horizontally on the page. Our brains will automatically follow information from left to right, so that’s naturally where our eyes will go and start reading from. The placement of the information is just as important as the graphics or colour scheme you use.