Today’s post examines the various elements which goes into a good infographic. There are three main guidelines we want to highlight:

1. A great infographic is a focused message with a catchy title.

To capture the attention of your audience, make sure you have a focused message first. Then, think of a title that evokes the curiosity of your readers. One approach of writing an interesting title would be to answer a question that bothers your target audience or addresses their various pain points.

Here is a great example of an infographic by Samuel Windsor, on men’s dress codes. This infographic addresses the pain points of men: “we don’t really know how to dress so what should we do?”–

Clearly, this great infographic works because it addresses a “how-to” question, asked by many clueless males. The “essentials” box is also written with just three-pointers so that those are easy to remember.

After viewing this infographic with clear instructions, there is no way why your readers won’t like your brand better! Classy graphics make life easier for your readers and tell a meaningful story.

If your infographics give instructions, keep words to the minimal, and use a clear font that is easy to read.

2. Use well-designed graphics and restrict your colour palette.

In general, refrain from using more than three main colours in your colour palette and try to use complementary colours so that infographics look better to the eye. Limit the infographic width to the standard size of 735 pixels, and don’t create infographics that are too long–those take forever to load, and is too hard to read! As a rule of thumb, keep the height below 4000 pixels.

It is important to use well-designed graphics so that your infographic look professional and clean. It is also important to convey just one clear message at a time, that is obvious in one glance. Don’t try to be ambitious to convey various messages all at once. Compile interesting data or some relevant concepts or guidelines, and condense all of them succinctly into one image.

Usually for infographics, less + compelling is better than more + confusing. The latter is information overload!

3. Last but not least, remember to use reliable and focused data.

There are data and numbers everywhere on the web. What is crucial is not the quantity of numbers and statistics used on the infographic, but the meaning and interpretation of these data.

Remember to fact-check before publishing these data and representing them on your infographic. For instance, ask yourself, are these data from reputable sources? Your infographic is likely to be shared amongst networks related to your topic, so don’t compromise on the reliability of your data, for it affects your reputation.

Also, please do not overload your infographics with too much data! Only use relevant data that you think might interest your reader. The idea here is not to convey a message that you know a lot; rather, it is to convey a message that you want to give immense value to your readers in a method that is simple and easy to understand. Clarity, simplicity, and usefulness are key.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s post on what makes a great infographic. Have a great week ahead!