Thursday, August 2, 2012

How to Design Enticing Infographics that Work


What are Infographics?

Infographics are web-friendly graphics that include bold images and text to convey a message, theme or to encourage others to research and learn about a specific topic. Many infographics contain facts, statistics and other intriguing and eye-catching information to stop people in their tracks when browsing online, promoting them to view the infographic for themselves.

Before Making the Infographic…

Before you make an infographic, it is important to determine what it is you want the image to say to others and how you want your audience to interpret and view the image as well. You should also view various infographics that are similar to yours to find color schemes and styles that are fitting for your own website, message, or the theme of the infographic you desire.

Write the Content

It is important to prepare the content before actually designing the infographic. Lists of facts are ideal when creating infographics. You can research online and find white papers, PDF’s, or informational videos. Based on that information, you write and determine the content that will be shared in the infographic, with links to sources.

Designing the Infographic

When you design your infographic, it is essential to make the text readable by choosing a print-appropriate font, such as Helvetic, Arial, or a traditional serif-type font such as Georgia. You can use downloaded fonts, but be sure to preview the infographic and test the infographic with friends and family for readability and how well the message is translated.
Choose only important bullet points to highlight in your infographic, such as main points you want to showcase and what you represent. Use bold graphics that are not extremely busy to keep people reading the infographic, rather than becoming distracted or moving on. Use bold text that is in headlines rather than adding paragraphs of text to keep the most attention on your graphic and its real messages (rather than filler). Remember, it is important to convey a specific message or opinion with infographics, so the easier to read and the simpler, the more viewers you will get.

Getting Others to Share the Infographic

Choose bright colors and modern graphics when you design the infographic to make your image eye-catching, causing others to stop and read the graphic themselves. Sharing the infographics are easy on the web than offline. You can`t print infographics the way you print business cards, because they have big dimensions and is hard to do it. So, the idea is to spread the word on the internet. Add text to encourage others to share by describing a goal of the infographic or why it is necessary and important to share with others, as this will help to get strangers involved with sharing your message to their own families and friends. Make sure you add a box at the bottom with the HTML code that people can copy and paste to share the infographic on their site and social media channels.
Anybody can easily write and submit an article, they are a dime a dozen. A good infographic can set you apart from the crowd and command more attention and readers. If you are going to spend the time to create an infographic, it is important that you do it right to make it worth your time!

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