Infographic
What is an infographic?
An infographic presents information, data or a process visually — text, illustration and diagram together — so that a relationship becomes obvious faster than a paragraph could make it. It works when there is a real dataset or sequence behind it; without one it is decoration that costs a designer a day.
When it is worth making
An infographic earns its cost when there is something to show that words handle badly:
- A comparison of numbers: prices, sizes, results before and after.
- A process in steps: how a product is made, how a service runs from enquiry to delivery.
- A structure: what a product is made of, how the parts of a system connect.
- A change over time: a year of sales, ten years of a market.
It is not worth it when the message fits in one sentence. Then the sentence is clearer, and it is also what search engines and AI assistants can read.
Example
A manufacturer of insulation boards explains on its product page, in four paragraphs, how much heat a house loses through its walls, roof, windows and floor, and how much each board saves. Visitors spend an average of 40 seconds on the page, and few reach the end.
The same numbers become one graphic: a house in section, with the commonly quoted shares of heat lost in an uninsulated house (35% through the walls, 25% the roof, 15% the floor, 15% the windows, 10% draughts) and, next to each, the saving in euros a year for an average home. The paragraphs stay below it as text. Time on the page rises to nearly two minutes, and the graphic is reused in a brochure, on a trade fair stand and in three social posts.
Why it matters for a business
A good infographic makes in seconds a point that a paragraph needs a minute for, and it travels: people share a clear picture more readily than a page of text, and other sites link to it as a source. One piece of work also serves many formats, from the website to a presentation, print and social media.
Two things decide whether it pays back. The data behind it must be real and sourced, or the graphic is decoration. And the text must stay on the page as text: search engines and screen readers do not read the words inside an image, so the image needs a description and the key numbers need to be written out next to it.
What to ask
- What one message should someone remember after looking at it for five seconds?
- Where do the numbers come from, and is the source written on the graphic?
- Will it be read on a phone, where a tall, narrow layout works better than a wide one?
- Are the key numbers also written as text on the page, with a description of the image?
A good infographic starts from the data and one clear message; the layout in the brand’s colours comes after. That is how we make them in our graphic design work.