Understanding The Power Of Infographics

In 2014, Vox, a viral site that specializes in explaining complex issues, showed charity donors that they had no idea what they were doing. The site published an infographic that depicted the difference between the causes that received the most donations and the diseases that killed the most people. According to the infographic, breast cancer received the most cash in 2011, picking up more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Heart disease was the third most popular cause with $54.1 million. A quick glance at the other side of the infographic though, showed that heart disease was by far the biggest killer in the US, responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths that year. Breast cancer, which received nearly five times the amount raised for heart disease, caused less than a tenth of the number of deaths. It was a pretty sobering depiction of the difference between interest and need. The image, made up of a series of simple, colored dots in different sizes, was shared more than 300,000 times after making its first appearance on the site, becoming the most popular infographic that year.

Infographics are a perfect format for sectors trying to communicate important but sometimes dry information. (Of the top 50 most shared infographics in 2014, fifteen were about health.) They turn numbers into images and use eyecatching colors and designs to broadcast a message. In an age of shrinking attention spans, they’re a hugely effective way for companies to educate and inform audiences.

They’re also less demanding than a block of text, faster than a video and they can be non-linear. Viewers can often skip around an infographic, pulling out the bits of information that they find most interesting. Like videos, infographics must tell stories but depending on the design, they can deliver data in a way that allows audiences to create their own stories.

Share The Story

They’re also shareable. Vox might have been the first to publish the Donate vs. Death infographic but most shares came after iflscience.com posted the infographic on its website. That shareability should be built in. Prominent share buttons are essential for unleashing the power of an infographic but they will only be used if the audience believes their friends would find the infographic—and the information it contains—enjoyable and useful.

That can mean following a few rules. Titles on an infographic work best when they’re kept short and snappy. Text has to be large enough to be read easily, which usually means keeping it concise in favor of large graphics. Data has to be both accurate and up-to-date; a pretty infographic design is worthless if the numbers it communicates are wrong or irrelevant.

And, of course, the infographic has to be branded. Vox’s infographic might have taken off when it was shared by iflscience.com but everyone who saw it on that site, and everyone who saw it after it was shared from that site, also got to see Vox’s logo in the bottom right corner.

Charity donors might not have known what they were doing but Vox certainly did.

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