10 Clear-Cut Tips to Design Infographics that Don’t Hurt the Eyes

Being able to properly communicate messages and information in a creative way is the goal of everyone who creates and uses infographics. Regardless of whether it’s for business purposes, for school requirements, or for important personal endeavors, utilizing infographics can be a very efficient technique to present what you need and want others to know. 

As its name implies, an infographic contains information and graphic elements that make comprehension of complex topics possible and that make discussion of basic subjects exciting. For sure, it’s very useful in several ways, however, its advantages can be maximized if and only if the infographic is designed in a really pleasant way. What does that mean?

Because an infographic is composed of connected segments, it must not be messy and misleading. It is both textual and visual, so there’s a lot of tendencies for it to become overcrowded, thus ineffective. When making infographics, always highly regard the comfort and convenience they will give to readers and viewers. Will they make people stay until the end of your content? Or will they leave to find a better infographic? 

To help you learn this, below is a list of 10 clear-cut tips to design infographics that don’t hurt the eyes! Yes, the focus is on what the naked eye sees because remember, imagery is a powerful factor that determines whether readers will read the text in infographics or not.  

1 – GO FOR SIMPLE. 

Knowing that you are about to create an infographic, you should always think first and foremost about how it can become easily understandable. Your goal is for the audience to acquire the details they need while having a beautiful visual experience. 

Truly, both are important but never let them clash and get chaotic. If you want to succeed in working on both the text and the graphics, go for simple. This is especially when you know that simple is really the best for your brand. 

No, it’s not being lazy or unimaginative because simple is actually impactful. Simplicity never goes wrong when it comes to graphic design. It’s neat and uncomplicated. It enables you to make difficult topics appear easy to learn. 

When you think too much about difficult and diverse styles and patterns for your infographics, you might end up making the final design confusing as well. If you want something above simple, still, it would be aidful if you begin from simple, and from there, you can add the stuff you wish to include.    

2 – MAKE SURE THE DIMENSIONS ARE APPROPRIATE.  

One of the things that proficiently make a certain infographic click-worthy for most people is its dimensions. Long, short, wide, and narrow — all these have a huge, obvious difference among dissimilar infographics. The audience won’t ever want to view infographics that at first sight looks like a sure stressor because their dimensions are less than suitable or are much more than what’s fitting. That’s why you should make sure the dimensions are always appropriate.  

Yes, infographics should be big, but don’t go too big if you don’t want to overwhelm readers. Long lengths are also easy to abandon because needless to say, they already tire out people just by looking at them, especially when they are text-rich. It’s hard when viewers always need to zoom in a lot to read what’s written; eventually, they will decide to look for a better-sized infographic. 

Moreover, consider that the infographics might be or will necessarily be resized at some point. In that case, readability might suffer. To prevent that, again, choose the best dimensions and the best font styles and sizes too.

3 – USE THE POWER OF WHITE SPACES.

Ask an expert graphic design agency, and you will know how white spaces are so significant and so valuable when it comes to design in general.

Although people love to see colorful visuals because they are catchy and most lively, the eyes need a balance on what they see. White spaces provide comfort and rest to your eyes while you are being carefully escorted in exploring the infographic’s content. They are like pit stops on the busy highway of infographics. Use the power of white spaces!

4 – CHOOSE EASY-TO-READ FONT STYLES AND SIZES.

Everyone knows how font styles and sizes are the chief features of text inside infographics. 

Oftentimes, you don’t really need to be bothered about font styles because the simpler, the better. The objective in choosing them is getting the most easy-to-read ones, so you don’t dare to pick overly stylish font styles unless they are needed to match themes and unless they are for title headings and designs only.

Talking about their sizes, you know that they should be readable any time of day. Too little will hurt viewers’ eyes; even if they zoom in, they get annoyed. Too big might be overpowering other important elements and texts, making viewers miss the most essential details. Go for just right! 

5 – MINIMIZE THE NUMBER OF FONT STYLES.

You may be tempted to use all the nice fonts you’ve seen, but keep in mind that you should just choose 1 to 2 (or sometimes 3) from them. You cannot use them all because as much as possible, minimize the number of font styles in your infographics. Why? Some font coordinations work with compatibility while others don’t. The latter forms tangles and disarrays in infographics. Select only the most needed, most inevitable, perfect fonts for your branding. 

6 – CONTROL YOUR COLOR PALETTE.

When it comes to graphic design, colors are top-ranking segments that can make visual content, such as infographics, succeed or fail. They succeed when you get the right colors and quantity of colors thereof. In contrast, they fail when you thoughtlessly appoint colors, and even more when you do the same to the number of colors.  

Control your palette. Avoid using too many colors. Take a look if the hues you are opting for the match each other. Make infographics not just visually captivating in colors but also and above all, perfectly mixed.  

Practice combining colors by using premade palettes and themes in various graphic design platforms or those used by a professional graphic design agency. 

7 – EMPLOY VARIOUS TYPES OF DATA VISUALIZATION.

Infographics are incomplete without data visualization, like maps, charts, illustrations, and diagrams. These are the ‘graphics’ in ‘infographics’. Don’t you agree? 

Employ various types of data visualization to exhibit information in a more interesting way. Even when the subject is technical and perplexing, these visual aids can grab and retain attention. They can also help reduce the difficulty of learning or at least the fear of difficulty. 

As much as possible, use different representations for different sorts of data. This will avoid exhausting designs and attention spans and will keep viewers engrossed.

For location-based figures, use maps. For time-related topics, use timelines and flowcharts. If the topic contains comparisons and brief break downs, diagrams, like the Venn diagram, are useful. Check out charts, such as pie, donut, bubble, and bar charts. Graphs, tables, and more exist too.

8 – INCLUDE ICONS AND PHOTOS.

Don’t miss entertaining your audience with meaningful photos! They are not just decorations but also explanation add-ons, allowing you to make people enjoy and understand the information better. Moreover, through photos, you can prompt emotions and actions. 

Similarly, icons are helpful as they can replace texts. For example, you want to put your contact details in the infographics. Instead of putting the whole phrase “phone number”, just put a telephone icon. Quick, easy, and cute!

9 – VALUE ALIGNMENT.

Symmetry is a must-have in infographics! Text and images must be aligned as they should be. Value alignment because it organizes elements for that clean and clear visual appearance. This is extra vital for minimalist designs!

10 – SMOOTHEN THE FLOW OF GRAPHIC ELEMENTS.

As stated earlier, an infographic is composed of connected information. The linkage is made inviting and clear by graphic elements, like graphs, charts, photos, and more of the previously mentioned data visualization tools. But bear in mind that what completes the infographics’ efficiency is the flow of these graphic elements, which are relative to the text.

Smoothen the flow of these elements to help the audience navigate confusion-free through your information and graphics. Do it like you’re a tour guide making their trip a whole lot better and remarkable!

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INFOGRAPHICS THAT WORK! 

Businesses from one industry to another are taking advantage of infographics’ amazing functions. Institutions and advocates of various fields — be it medical, educational, commercial — are loving how infographics allow them to give announcements, share aims, help people, and ask for assistance from people too. Individuals, such as students, artists, and content creators, are also meeting their great boons to comply with school requirements, nurture their hobbies, or make a living. 

All in all, these prove how infographics still exist, and they exist productively. Good infographics still gladly exist. Because of more and more improvements in design skills, tools, and methods of creating infographics, they are better than ever before. 

With the right design choices, considering your audience among all the manifold aspects to take note of, you can surely make an infographic that pleases the eye. Of course, it also pleases the heart and mind as it shares relevant and helpful information. Don’t forget these friendly tips, and you’ll definitely waste no effort and time, and you’ll produce good, better and the best infographics out there!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Ann Pore is a writer, an events host, and a voice-over artist. Quality and well-researched writing is her worthwhile avenue to enlighten and delight others about things that matter. She is a daytime writer for Orion Creative, a digital agency, and design studio in Sydney, building greater possibilities for brands and businesses of all sorts. Nicole graduated Cum Laude from De La Salle University-Manila, the Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts.