Tips For Creating Infographics

For my J452 Strategic PR Communication class we needed to create an infographic for an assignment. I started thinking about what I wanted my topic to be about and I immediately thought of my interests. I really enjoy learning about the food and restaurant industry, so I thought what would be a better way to display information about restaurants than bringing awareness of how restaurants can utilize social media.

Infographics can be beneficial to a wide audience. People want information quickly and that’s what makes data visualizations so valuable. Infographics can convey complex information in a short amount of space. Bright colors and captivating visuals keep your audience engaged rather than a boring paragraph of text.

Here are some of the tips I learned when creating my Infographic:

·      Display More Visuals Than Text: One of the most difficult parts of making an infographic is trying to display a large amount of information in a small space. Visuals and symbols help your audience better understand what you are trying to say. It is must easier and faster for people to process pictures than a large block of text.

·    Remember You’re Telling A Story: Try organizing your data and visuals in a way that tells a story. It can be a narrative form such as a timeline or stating a problem and then listing what the solutions can be. Don’t make your viewer crazy trying to understand what your pictures mean.

·      Show Your Creativity: There are many different types of ways to display data through visuals. You can now move beyond a simple bar graph created on Microsoft Excel. Instead, use different shapes to display various types of statistics. On my infographic rather than using a simple pie chart I placed a pie chart inside of a plate because I am discussing a statistic about the amount of consumers using Facebook to search for restaurants.

·      Simple Is Better: Having white space on your page is not a bad thing. Less is definitely more when it comes to design. Having a minimalist theme will be easy on the eyes for your views. Using too many colors, crazy fonts and symbols can make your reader feel overwhelmed and not want to read your data visualization.

·      Get Inspired: If you are feeling hesitant about creating your first infographic, feel free to look online at other data visualizations that could inspire you.  There are also some great online resources such as The Noun Project or Font Squirrel that allow you to download free fonts and symbols.