What's the fastest way to learn how to create infographics

A well planned infographic can be successful even when the design is poor!

One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is thinking that a strong graphic design will make up for a weak infographic structure. They often hire a designer and give them the responsibility for research and planning. The result is a beautiful infographic that’s profoundly boring and virtually useless.

Of course, if the design is so bad that you can’t stand to look at it, then that’s a bad sign. So it’s worth investing in quality design -but this is of secondary importance to planning the piece well.

A well planned infographic with an excellent design is almost guaranteed to succeed, so, let’s look at how you should outline your new infographic.

Here’s an overview of the process:

1. Write a short and powerful title

When you write infographic titles, you have to forget what you know about writing headlines and titles for articles. For infographics, the title should be more like the title of a novel or film.

Films and novels have short titles that are emotionally charged. They create a sense of intrigue and mystery. When they’re well written, they tell you exactly what type of story you will be reading, often in 4 words or less.

Here are some examples of extremely well written titles from films:

• Star Wars
• Taxi Driver
• Kung Fu Panda
• Around the World in Eighty Days

When you read these titles, you get a very good idea of what the story will cover. If you love animals and martial arts, you know you’re going to enjoy Kung Fu Panda. If you hate sci fi, you won’t enjoy Star Wars.

Books and films are sold on the strength of their titles. Sometimes people take the time to read reviews or watch the trailers -but most of the time, it’s the title that sells the show.

You need to apply the same thinking to your title. You only have a tiny space to write your title, so make it count!

Fortunately, because your infographic tells a story, it will be very easy to come up with a suitable title.

2. Work out the structure of the story

A story is made up of pieces that go together one after the other, and form a whole. In away, every story is a journey from the beginning to the end.

When it comes to an infographic, your story will be made up of a number of points that lead to a conclusion. And if you want to capture your reader’s attention and motivate them to take action, there’s a very specific formula you need to satisfy.

I’m talking about the AIDA formula. AIDA stands for:

3. Pick out 6 to 10 data points to support the story

4. Now work out the visual theme for the infographic

Finally, you need to decide on a visual theme that will tie the infographic together and unify it. The last thing you need is a jarring collection of unrelated images. Instead, you want graphics that complement each other and convey the story. At the same time, your choice of visual theme can magnify the emotional impact of your story.

Start by identifying the overall mood of your infographic.

Then choose imagery that represents the ideas you want to convey, while evoking the mood and emotional points.

For instance, let’s imagine our site is all about cloud computing. We want to create an infographic about how large organizations are wasting money when they build expensive server rooms. They only need the computing power at peak times, but they have to pay for the equipment all the time.

Our reader profile tells us that our target audience worries about cutting costs. But they’re also worried that they can’t reduce their IT expenses without losing the ability to deal with the busy times.

Our focus is on cutting costs, but we’re also aiming to trigger the emotions of anxiety. We want to transition from anxiety to a calm feeling of hope at the end of the article.

As for imagery, the idea that springs into my mind is that of a fierce monster eating the money. So why not turn a server into a monstrous furnace, that gobbles up money? It could have a mouth full of flames instead of teeth. This works well for me, because people have to go to great lengths to keep servers cool and ventilated. So it isn’t a wild stretch of the imagination to imagine one as a furnace.

This would be the dominant image. Now the other images used throughout the infographic would be chosen to support the metaphor. And, as the story unfolds, the terrifying monster would eventually be defeated and replaced with a calm scene with clouds (because the solution is cloud computing).

Now, just by glancing at these images, you get the overall arc of the story - you understand the point we’re trying to make, without words or supporting graphics. And you get the emotional triggers from the beginning. With the rest of the infographic, we’re going to support these points with hard hitting visual facts.

After planning the infographic to this degree, you’re ready to hand it over to your designer with precise instructions. This allows them to focus on their own skill set, and produce a powerful and effective infographic.

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I hope this helps? If not, please leave a comment and tell me how I could have been more valuable to you.