As attention spans decrease and more people have access to faster internet, it’s more important than ever to communicate quickly and effectively. When consumers are looking for information, they want it fast. You can make them skim through text to get it or you can present it with an infographic.
“Infographics take numbers and complex data and make them more accessible by visualizing them,” says Tony Power of Alcolock. “It’s easy and inviting for readers and effective for communication.” With a graphic, viewers can compare and contrast data points easily. They can get in and get out with the information they need without wasting any of their precious time.
Maybe you’re publishing data you’ve gathered and you want to spread it as far as possible to educate people, or maybe you’re just trying to produce engaging content for your own site. Follow these easy steps to put together your infographic and get your content out there.
Pick Your Topic
The first step in creating your infographic is choosing the subject. Even if you already have something in mind, it’s best if you can narrow it down and focus your infographic on a very specific question or goal. What are you trying to educate people about?
Before they try to interpret the graphic itself, viewers will see the title and make a snap decision about if they’re going to look further. The topic needs to be clearly and narrowly defined so that viewers know exactly what they’re going to learn about if they dive into the graphic. You can include secondary information and graphs that complement the primary question well, but you need to have a focus first.
Gather Information
Once you have your topic or question to explore, it’s time to learn how to make the infographic. You need hard data such as records, surveys, numbers and more. This where you find information that answers the central question. It may take some significant research, but it’s worth it to find reliable and accurate data to rely on for your graphic.
Make it Visual
Now look over your data and consider your central goal or question again. What type of graph might work best to illustrate your data and show viewers what’s so significant about the data? If you’re comparing numbers over time, a line graph might work best. Pie charts work well when you’re comparing parts of a whole. If there are certain key statistics that don’t even need a chart, leave out the chart. Highlight it by putting the number in the graphic with clear, bold text.
Find Templates
Now that you know what you need for your infographic, you can set out to find the perfect template. There are countless web platforms out there that will help you plug in your data set and put together your infographic. Visit a couple and look through their options until you find a graphic template that fits your needs perfectly.
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