Infographics are a memorable way to convey information while keeping people entertained and engaged. A well-designed infographic will showcase your creativity and the authority you command in your field. It will catch people’s attention and get shared via email, blogs, and social media platforms, driving more traffic to your website.
To get a sense of how to design a powerful infographic, let’s look at some of the strongest examples from the past year. The following are five of the best infographics of 2016:
With this infographic, Quill.com shows that you can do something interesting and creative even with a topic that most people agree on and seem to know a lot about. (Because who would object to the idea that vacations are necessary?)
Their infographic is rich with statistics on how vacation days go unused and what the consequences are. But it doesn’t drown people in numbers and facts. Each bit of information is paired with a bright, lively and simple image that helps get the point across immediately. They take a well-known topic and portray it with real substance broken down into bite-sized chunks.
2) 12 Classic Sauces and How to Make Them
Infographics are an excellent medium for how-to guides, recipes, and other instructions, as you can break a task down into steps and pair the information with a striking image.
One thing that works so well about Quid Corner’s list of recipes for classic sauces is the way they match their color scheme to the beautiful, mouth-watering photos of each sauce (e.g. the tomato gets paired with red, the bread sauce with yellow). This helps create natural divisions between each recipe featured in the infographic.
The use of photos is also a reminder that infographics don’t have to rely on cartoon-like visuals. You can use any sort of image, including gifs and other animations.
This infographic from DesignMantic is a striking example of how to create coherence using a simple concept everyone knows about – in this case, the alphabet. Each letter comes to represent a different design principle (such as ‘S’ for symmetry), with the letters themselves providing an illustration of the principle. For instance, the ‘U’ for unity is made up of puzzle pieces joined together.
Anyone could have made a list of these principles in plain text, in alphabetical order, but it wouldn’t have had this kind of resonance, with the visuals and text working together beautifully.
4) 2016 Cybersecurity Skills Gap
Created by ISACA, a nonprofit that works on developing best practices for information systems, this infographic is a striking example of how to present information at varying levels of detail.
People who are just glancing at the infographic will understand the main point immediately. If they choose to skim, they can quickly pick up some of the salient facts. And if they want to go deeper and find out more information, they can peer at the sources listed in smaller, unobtrusive font at the bottom and make note of the ISACA website.
5) Leveling Up
This infographic is an excellent example of how to present a ton of complex information in a compact way while also telling a story. In this case, the story is child development, starting from birth and going to 69 months. It’s depicted with a waterfall effect, showing accumulating skills that are kept visually distinct with a certain color scheme; each color represents a different general area of development, such as language or social skills. Carefully placed text acts as guide posts.
What kinds of information do you want to convey with your infographics? Don’t hesitate to contact usfor design ideas. We can help you realize your vision and produce beautiful, memorable content.
