Why You Should Be Using Infographics
Why use infographics?
In the midst of today’s screen-heavy world, we may feel ourselves gravitate to a book, pick up paper and pens or fiddle with the lego that the kids left all over the floor. I find this extremely fascinating on a human level, it seems like our bodies are telling us something. Perhaps there is a small child still inside of us that wants to colour, paint and build straight from our imagination. That connection with the arts is deep down inside of us, and hasn’t been able to express itself with the 100s of Zoom calls and notifications.
We get SO much information thrown at us before our mid-morning break that I think it’s appropriate to bring back nap-time from our kindergarten days as adults. It’s extremely stimulating, and finding the calm amidst the storm is so important, especially today.
That brings me to infographics. What are they? By definition: “Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.” Which may lead you to say, they are pretty pictures among the text, so what?
We are storytellers
I could pull several examples to explain why us earthlings are great storytellers. From early illustrations in caves, to radio, books, movies, and television. The popularity of podcasts in the last 10 years has skyrocketed. We are humans that love to hear stories of other humans. We use those stories to relate to when we are hurting, motivate us when we are feeling lazy, or even to give us advice on a problem we are tackling. Point is, we are emotionally driven and what best represents emotions in my opinion? Art, in any of its forms. Music, theatre, painting, drawing, or sculpting.
So when we are tasked to read, write or create a presentation for work, we may have a feeling of dread. It’s one medium, words. (Don’t get me wrong authors, it’s an art form too!) You may feel “What’s the point in me writing all this, no one is going to read it, or even care!” That mature, professional work mindset is just no fun. Imagine if we could write a project report as if it was a novel or add images that captivate its reader. Heck, I would totally read the waste management report of any town if that were the case!
While we may not get the thumbs up from your boss on writing how the trash compactors are dragons in disguise, we could still have that kind of play with infographics. We can work with the information right down to its core purpose, and create something beautiful for the audience it is specifically for.
We are visual creatures
We LOVE pictures, why do you think a social media platform like instagram is so big? As cliche as the saying may be “a picture is worth a thousand words” it still rings true. We’ve all turned into scroll monsters on our phones, going through multiple feeds and accounts viewing images quickly and mindlessly. Sometimes we scroll past a picture that just stops us right in our tracks. It could have been the colours, the imagery, the words...something stuck out that made you stop.
Infographics have this power, and now more than ever in the world of social media. People are reading headlines instead of whole articles, or sharing an image they connected to after two seconds of looking at it. From my marketing training 5 years ago, I was told we are in a goldfish society. Meaning our audience has the attention span of about 2 seconds. (If that was 5 years ago, maybe the attention span is now .47 seconds!) So it is now more important than ever to make sure your message gets out there clearly, quickly and effectively.
Open the thought dialogue for a deeper understanding
One exercise that I have taken part in recently really opened up my mind to how important visuals are to our communication. We were in a small group of 5, and we all listened to the same politician’s speech. We were then told to draw a few visuals that represented how we interpreted the speech. We shared our images, one by one and it was incredible to see the similarities but also the differences in interpretation. But after everyone had a chance to share, we all walked away with an understanding and gave that speech a deepening meaning.
While some infographics can look like pie charts and bar graphs, some lean more into the fine art side of things. This is likely done on purpose for you to interpret it on your own, versus the next person. They would have a different perspective, which can be welcomed in the correct circumstance, and it would open a dialogue for that particular issue. Context is extremely important when it comes to infographics, and it should be thought through before adding it to a body of work.
Ready to add more visuals?
Next time you have a giant 5000-word report, think about that inner-child who is looking to colour outside of the lines. Could some of the concepts be explained in a visual format that could make the report easier to digest? Could adding purposeful visuals increase the interest, readability and retention of the information? Maybe art after all isn’t just something that is hanging in a gallery somewhere!
Still not sure how to start? I’d love to go over your next project with you and see what we can create!
laurahanek@swoopmedia.ca
