What is infographics

The term “infographics” means any presentation of information using graphic means. It can be anything: a picture, graphically designed texts, a diagram, a table, etc.

If any graphic element can be considered an infographic, how is it different from any image? The main difference is in the prefix “info”, which makes it clear that information plays a key role in infographics. Each element is a complete source of data, not a decoration.

Infographics allow you to convey the necessary information to users and make it extremely clear.

Why do you need infographics?

This data presentation format simplifies the work and provides several significant advantages:

• Infographics allow you to convey more useful information per unit of time. Those who listen will not have to waste time analyzing the letters. Everything will be conveniently organized graphically. Apple uses this in its presentations, showing all the key features of the product with one slide.

• Infographics help viewers remember information. Images are perceived better by the brain. Therefore, more and more companies are using minimalistic but colorful infographics to communicate with customers.

As a result, we have a practical and vivid format that simplifies the perception of information.

What types of infographics are there?

Variations can arise depending on which profession the infographics are used in. The reason for the infographic is also important. What message needs to be conveyed to the person and what goal is pursued by the one who delivers it.

Pictures can help in sales, advertising. Various kinds of combined schedules are used in business, in particular at meetings, etc. So there are enough areas of application for infographics. Let’s consider some of them in more detail.

Marketing

Marketers are increasingly using this presentation format to:

• Show potential buyers the achievements of the business in the most visual way. Think of the presentations from Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple, and other chip makers. They seize the opportunity to show a slide with a curved arc going upward to indicate the increasing performance of their products.

• Quickly communicate the necessary suggestions and additional information during webinars and other online meetings.

• Make “simplified” posts on social networks to show everything important, without forcing the user to go into comments, scroll through the carousel, and even reveal the caption to a picture on a conditional Instagram.

Analytical

Despite the name, not only analysts use this presentation method. Infographics have started to be used by developers, writers, and freelancers of all sorts. And it’s all about the ability to fit any type of data into one slide.

You can talk about your career to attract potential customers or give them more food for thought as they decide who to turn to for help.

You can decompose the process of developing a new product or implementing a new functional component of an existing application.

In general, everything that requires analysis from those who sees the infographic is sent here.

Business infographic

This can include any slides, graphics, images and text, the presentation of which allows a business to make money. Things to try:

• Invent your own unique style to represent your brand and showcase it through infographics.

• Briefly talk about the success of the company in order to present yourself in the best light in front of partners.

• Demonstrate the main ideas and directions of business development through social networks.

• Show the history of the company’s development so that potential customers and partners are imbued with confidence in it.

• Make the presentation of new products more interesting.

News

Some news outlets use a graphical display format to summarize the news of the current day, week, or month. Usually the slide is designed into a kind of digest that helps those who want to keep abreast of events, but are not ready to analyze all the news materials.

Also, news publications with the help of graphic presentations in a minimum number of slides cover major events, speeches of public figures, etc.

State

Government organizations are increasingly using infographics as a way to communicate with citizens.

For example, statistics on the incidence of coronavirus are often presented in the form of infographics, in which the authorities are trying to clearly show what the infection is fraught with and how to protect against it. This also includes the demonstration of criminal statistics.

In the West, regional authorities use infographics to demonstrate the interests of residents, demographic characteristics, gender distribution, etc.

More examples of infographics

One simple leaflet can provide more meaningful information than a large essay. This is, of course, a wild exaggeration, but charities do create many elementary slides that convey important social information.

Infographics are also used for entertainment purposes. For example, you can use it to talk about how to make sandwiches correctly.

Disadvantages of infographics

This format of presenting information is more expensive than text. It is expensive to format the text beautifully, and converting it into a visual and informative slide is even more expensive. You will have to competently combine pictures, choose fonts and their sizes. This will at least require an artist or a designer. The team also needs a creative person who can come up with an original concept and a specialist who knows how to work with the audience.

There is a category of people who consider any colorful design of data to be frivolous content. Therefore, it is important to understand how your target audience perceives such presentations, so as not to “alienate” them from themselves.

Also, infographics cannot be used in those areas where accurate and detailed information is required. The very style of data presentation requires you to focus on key details, that is, on the exclusion of a large number of particulars. This makes the slides sketchy and generalized.

How to create your own infographic?

The principle itself is clear without additional explanations – we open the graphic editor and draw up the information in the chosen style.

Here are some important tips for making your infographics high quality:

• Don’t go overboard with text. Try to make an infographic without any text at all, so that it is clear what you want to say without it.

• Explain in text details that cannot be expressed graphically. Don’t miss out on critical moments for style or minimalism. The usefulness of the slide is more important than its appearance.

• It is also impossible to overdo it in the other direction. Too many visual elements can distract from the essence or completely complicate the perception of information.

• Work with contrast. All elements should be equally easy to read.

• Whenever possible, use icons that are already in use and are easily associated by people with certain entities. Talking about Wi-Fi? Use the recognized icon for this technology, rather than invent your own.

Infographic apps

You can draw your presentation in any application you like. Sketch, Photoshop or Pixelmator …

But if you are not a designer and you don’t have one in mind? It doesn’t matter, there are a couple of software solutions.

• Visme is a popular presentation and infographic creation utility. Its developers are tasteful people who have added a lot of beautiful templates to the service to quickly create interesting and visually pleasing slides.

• geneal.ly is another multitool that allows non-design people to create beautiful presentations, graphs, diagrams, tables, and other data presentation options.

• Canva is a renowned service that distributes a large number of stylish and user-friendly templates for creating quality infographics, presentations, and more.

On this we will finish. Now you know why you need infographics, how they are used in business and how you can quickly make a picture without spending a lot of money on a designer or artist.