The Internet is a very busy place and we are often trying to get someone’s attention.
Over the years, it has become clear that visual content is really quite eye-catching. It is also undeniable that infographics are .
A sample that today, infographics are the most shared type of content online:
For anyone who wants to create eye-catching content, designing captivating infographics should be high on their priority list.
Even if you’re not a designer, designing infographics has never been easier.
With an easy to use and user friendly infographic design, you can make amazing infographics that your audience will enjoy.
But let’s clarify one thing: and how is it different from other visual content?
After all, if we’re going to design amazing infographics, it would be very helpful to understand what exactly they are.
An infographic is any visual element designed to convey information, data or knowledge. Now, that means it can be a picture full of information and statistics; and that tells a whole story, like this one:
Or it can be a simple image showing a single point, like so:
However, just because something is an infographic doesn’t mean it’s automatically captivating and eye-catching. You will not achieve the interest of your audience, designing infographics that are messy, confusing or simply painful to look at.
When you start creating infographics, you should focus on making them original, engaging, and highly informative for your target audience. You can do this by knowing some of the best practices for infographic design.
Top 10 Infographic Design Best Practices
To create impressive infographics, start applying these 10 best practices for infographic design:
Although ten seems like a lot to remember, some of these practices will be quite intuitive, while others will give you plenty of examples to get the message across.
So let’s get started!
1. Use big headlines
When you design an infographic, the title should jump right off the page. In just a moment, readers should know exactly what the infographic is about.
It’s really important that your topic is immediately clear, so your audience will know that the infographic is about something they care about.
Here’s an example, from a large Ultimate Mats infographic title:
Looking at the infographic, it is very clear what the topic is. The large, bold font is very informative and easy to read. Whether the reader is viewing the infographic on a monitor, laptop, tablet, or even a phone, the large title font will be easy to see.
Another advantage of creating a large title is that it can be reused as:
- A featured image on your blog page
- Or a preview image in some social media post
In each scenario, the large font and accompanying clear images will ensure that the title is very easy to read and the theme of the infographic is crystal clear.
2. Use 3 fonts or less
When designing your title, you should always make sure the font is clear and bold.
Headings should be easy to read, and body text should be simple and readable. Having few font options improves your infographic, because if you use too many, it just hurts your entire design.
Preferably using three types of fonts for your infographic should be enough. Here’s a nonprofit infographic template from Venngage that only uses three:
Monoton immediately grabs the reader’s attention with its digital style (larger font in title); Oswald integrates the rest of the title font and duplicates it as a subheading font in the infographic; and Arimo is used for body text.
Well, now what happens if we use five fonts, for example? Here is the same infographic using five different font styles:
The main idea of the infographic is not clear and the general theme is not consistent. With additional font styles, the reader is distracted instead of interested.
The impact of the Monoton font is reduced, the overall theme of the design is interrupted, and the infographic looks somewhat cluttered.
So you should keep font options simple. You should strive to grab your audience’s attention with something unique and creative, but above all, prioritize clearly and cohesively.
Remember, if you feel like you need more variation or extra emphasis on certain parts, you can also animate or italicize the fonts you already have.
3. Create sections
It is very important to divide an infographic into sections, especially a long-form infographic.
By creating individual sections for each group of ideas or points, it becomes easier to “cut” the information to bring it to our attention and retain what we read.
You can create sections very easily using lines or colors. The team at WebpageFX have designed a truly captivating infographic on music and productivity:
Borders help to distinguish each section in the infographic, but they can also complete the dynamic layout of other images.
And even more important, it offers our brain a natural rest, making it easier to absorb information.
Using different colors in each section of your infographic is also a great way to distinguish them. This Oliver Wyman Health infographic assessing his health care predictions for 2017 does just that.
The infographic uses a fairly simple design, but uses different colors to effectively segment the information.
4. Incorporate a visual flow
Your design should stimulate the reader’s gaze to move through your infographic from the “start” to the “end”. You can achieve this using:
- A line that will guide you through each section
- Icons to create a ‘path’ that the reader can follow
- A design that stimulates movement.
Take a look at this infographic on attraction marketing from the Whole Brain Group:
The unique, bold line that encapsulates each individual point generates a sense of movement. Your eyes will naturally follow him, stopping at each point just as he appears there. The line is also predictable, instead of darting all over the place.
Icons can be used to stimulate visual “flow” in your infographic design just as easily. For example, this product design infographic template from Venngage uses icons arranged in a circle:
The circular, clockwise outline of the icons is easy to follow and causes the viewer’s eyes to move naturally from point to point.
The layout of your infographic also impacts how the content flows for the reader. This infographic designed by Column Five Media breaks down the costs of “good timing” based on popular song lyrics:
The infographic design guides your eyes from the title of the song, through the costs of things that have been mentioned in each song, to a grand total. Each song is analyzed with the same structure, which makes it easier to scan the whole image.
5. Use icons to communicate
A solid infographic maker is definitely going to supply a bank of thousands of icons, including line icons, flat icons, and illustrated icons.
Access to a wide variety of icons is useful in many ways. Icons are the perfect way to highlight your infographic design in seconds. With the perfect icon set you can:
- Highlight important information
- add structure
- Accompany a call to action
beautify points
Below is a snippet from a Copypress infographic on management. You’ll notice that the icons are paired with each individual dot to help emphasize them.
This will help the reader retain more information:
Add structure to the infographic
The icons in the infographic below create the illusion of two rows and add a sense of symmetry. The organization and structure imposed by the icons makes it easier to scan the information:
Accompany a call to action
The ‘No’ symbol is universal and in the infographic below accompanies this call to action (CTA) to stop pollution.
Without reading the actual infographic, the icon tells you about the theme or central idea.
Icons are very effective visual cues, highlighting points and helping readers remember key information.
Also, the icons allow you to add the touch of a professional designer, especially the flat and illustrated icons that were mentioned.
6. Line everything up!
Alignment in an infographic refers to how visual elements are placed in close proximity to each other. A poorly aligned infographic is going to look chaotic at best and will only distract the reader rather than inform them.
Alignment refers to the placement of your headings, the spacing between headings and body text, the spacing between sections, the length and placement of lines and borders between objects, the placement of icons, etc. .
When designing an infographic, you may be using an online infographic tool that has a grid feature. This feature helps you align your visuals consistently. This is what it looks like using Venngage:
The grid feature not only helps you align various visual elements, but also ensures consistent margining throughout your infographic.
As a general rule, you should keep at least 20 pixels (a square on the grid) away from the edge of the canvas.
7. Use negative space
Negative space is the empty space between the visual elements of any design. It is very important to balance the images of your infographic, so each section can stand out.
Without an appropriate amount of negative space, your infographic is going to end up looking cluttered and cluttered.
The health infographic below is a clear example of when negative space is used efficiently:
A generous amount of negative space in this infographic allows the reader to focus on each individual point.
If the small intro were to be sandwiched between the title and the icons, it would be ignored.
And if the illustrated icons were too close together, they wouldn’t have stood out.
8. Keep your graphics simple
With most infographic makers, you’re going to have access to dozens of different charts (that would be the point, after all).
With the click of a button, you can use a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, bubble chart, heat map, word cloud, icon chart, and more.
With so many options, you may be tempted to stick to graphics that look flashy or are typically…
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