Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
© 2016 Cardiff Metropolitan University 1
Effective Infographics
Effective Infographics
InfographicsInfographics offer a concise and engaging way to communicate ideas and tell a story.
A well-designed infographic is able to summarise complex information and provide an easy-to-understand overview of a topic.
Why use infographics?
Tell a story – infographics combine images with (minimal) text to convey your message, ideas or findings.
Summarise “heavy” topics – infographics can present complicated, “heavy” topics in an appealing format. Using images is often more memorable, interesting and thought-provoking than text.
Authoritative – infographics are based on data; facts that add authority to your message. Shareable – a common reason for creating infographics is to share your ideas as widely as
possible. Infographics are designed to be visually appealing and therefore particularly suited for sharing through social media.
Planning your infographicBefore you begin creating your infographic, it is a good idea to plan the purpose, content and design of the infographic. The following steps can be taken when planning your infographics:
Objectives - decide what you intend to achieve with your infographic. What is the key argument you want to present? What do you want your audience to take away from your work? Try to distil your objectives into a snappy title or headline that will draw your audience in.
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 2
Objectives Audience Plan Content
Plan Design
Effective Infographics
Target audience - who are you trying to communicate your ideas to? Are they specialists in the field? Or is it intended for a more general audience?
Plan content – plan the key messages that you wish to include in your infographic. If you have not compiled the content (e.g. statistics, conclusions, references), then you need to do so at this stage.
Plan design – how will you layout the infographic? Where will you place your graphics? What colour scheme will you use? Will you incorporate any additional design elements, such as logos? Using Adobe Spark will help you design an effective infographic.
Design principles behind effective infographicsGood infographics should adhere to these key design principles:
Keep It Simple – your infographic should be clear and relatively simple. Focus on your core message and remove elements that distract from that.
Consider the “signal-to-noise” (Reynolds, p. 134) of your infographic. The signal is the message you are trying to convey to your audience. Noise is anything that prevents that message from getting through; it could be too much text, too many graphical elements or a lack of “whitespace”.
Be graphical – it may sound obvious, but ensure your infographics are graphical. Use graphics to hook your audience in. Images are more interesting, memorable and thought-provoking than text, so minimise the use of text.
Data driven – base your infographic on data to add authority to your message. Use figures, charts and tables to display that data an appealing way.
A concise story – tell your story, but keep it brief. Focus on your intended audience and distil the key messages that you want to share with them.
In addition, these general visual design principles are always important when communicating visually:
Contrast – “our eyes are drawn to things that stand out, so designers use contrast to focus attention.” (Duarte, 2012)
Contrast can be achieved in many ways, such as font formatting (e.g. bold and narrow) - but having a good colour contrast is especially important. Choose foreground colours (e.g. for text) that contrast well with the background colour. For example, dark blue on grey or yellow and black.
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 3
Effective Infographics
Alignment – in a well-designed visual, no elements should look they are placed randomly. Each object on the infographic should be aligned with others. Adobe Spark will help with alignment: dotted alignment guidelines appear when objects are aligned.
Whitespace (negative space) – give your content “room to breathe”. Incorporate enough whitespace (sometimes called negative space) in your infographic to ensure it does not look too crowded.
Unity - unity means creating a design where all elements fit together to form a cohesive whole. Unity can be achieved by using consistent fonts, colours and image effects. In other words, use a scheme of colours, fonts and effects. Adobe Spark templates are designed to be cohesive and unified.
Using Adobe Spark to design infographicsAdobe Spark provides a convenient way to design infographics. The templates available generally comply with good design principles and can be customised easily.
Cardiff Met students can access the premium version of Spark by following these instructions:
1. Go to spark.adobe.com2. Click Log in (top right)3. Choose Log in with your school account4. Enter your Cardiff Met email address. E.g. [email protected]
Choosing a templateSpark can be used to create a range of images. Type “infographic” into the template search box to find templates that are suitable for creating infographics.
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 4
Effective Infographics
The layout, design and images can all be customised so it is not essential to pick the “right” template at this stage.
Adding contentClick on any placeholder (text, image or icon) then use the toolbar that appears above it to edit the content:
Customising and adding contentThe panes on the right of the screen allow you to customise the content you have selected. They are context-sensitive, so with text selected you can set text formatting options.
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 5
Effective Infographics
To add additional content, use the Add button at the top of pane. Remember not to add too much content (maximise the signal-to-ratio).
Changing the design options for the infographicTo change design options for the entire infographic, deselect all elements (by clicking on the grey area of the canvas) then use the pane on the right to change these options:
Template – choose a new template (essentially, start again) Design – keep the content but choose a new design Colors – colour scheme for entire infographic Layout – change the positioning of elements Resize – resize the graphic
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 6
Effective Infographics
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 7
Effective Infographics
Downloading and sharing infographicsThe Download button in the top-right of the screen allows you download an image of your infographic. PNG format is the best choice as it is of higher quality than JPG.
The Share button allows you to share directly to social media, or invite others to collaborate with you on your graphic.
References and attribution
Duarte, N., 2012. Do your slides pass the glance test? Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/10/do-your-slides-pass-the-glance-test [Accessed 30th January 2020]
Reynolds, G., 2012. Presentation Zen. 2nd ed. Berkley: New Riders
Cover image
Zeevi, D., What makes a good infographic? Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dashburst/8448339735 [Accessed 30th January 2020]
© 2020 Cardiff Metropolitan University 8
