Infographics remain one of the most effective forms of visual content for capturing attention and conveying information. By transforming complex data into colorful, eye-catching graphics, infographics make learning about almost any topic more engaging and enjoyable.
However creating a compelling, high-quality infographic from scratch requires strategy and skill. This step-by-step guide will teach you how to make an infographic that educates and engages your target audience.
Whether you’re looking to design infographics for your business, blog, classroom, or personal projects, follow these best practices for infographic success.
Table of Contents
Before diving into how to make an infographic, let’s start with the basics:
What is an infographic?
An infographic is a visualization that presents information, data, statistics, process flows, hierarchies, timelines, or any concept in a graphic format. Infographics combine data visualizations, illustrations, text, and design elements to communicate complex information quickly and clearly.
Well-executed infographics transform dry, text-heavy topics into an easily digestible visual medium. Complex concepts are simplified through creative visual metaphors and eye-catching presentations.
The use of color, layout, icons, typography, and graphical styling makes infographics more memorable and shareable than paragraphs of text or a spreadsheet of data alone.
Benefits of Infographics
When created correctly, infographics provide many benefits:
- Simplify complex information and large datasets
- Grab the viewer’s attention with visual interest
- Improved comprehension and recall of key points
- Highlight important statistics, facts, and takeaways
- Enhance content with visual storytelling
- Present dry subjects in a more engaging, enjoyable medium
- Are highly shareable on social media, websites, and elsewhere
- Establish thought leadership and authority on a topic
With these perks, it’s no wonder why infographics continue to be a popular content format for brands, publishers, educators, and bloggers who want to attract and inform an audience.
Now let’s get into the steps for how to make your infographic.
How to Make an Infographic in 8 Steps
Follow this proven eight-step process to develop stunning, high-quality infographics from start to finish:
Step 1: Define Your Purpose and Target Audience
Just like any content project, begin by defining your goals and ideal audience. What information do you want to convey, and who do you want to consume it?
Aligning these elements will inform the entire creative process of crafting a relevant, effective infographic.
Step 2: Research and Gather Information
Conduct thorough research on your infographic topic using reliable data sources. Gather the key facts, statistics, information, trends, and supporting points you want to communicate visually.
Organize your research into a content outline to map out what will appear in the final infographic.
Step 3: Brainstorm the Visual Concept
The visual metaphor is key to an engaging infographic. Brainstorm creative ways to visualize dry facts and data using illustrations, icons, timelines, process flows, graphs, maps, etc.
Sketch some rough concepts to get your visual thinking flowing.
Step 4: Write the Infographic Content
Write out all text content that will accompany the graphics, including headers, subheaders, captions, callouts, and body text.
Ensure the writing is succinct, conversational, and explanatory. Let the graphics tell the core story.
Step 5: Wireframe the Layout
Map out the structure and arrangement of graphic and text elements in your infographic using a wireframe.
Determine the flow, sections, visual hierarchy, and use of space. Plan an organized, logical layout.
Step 6: Design the Visual Elements
This is where the creativity comes in! Design the data visualizations, charts, illustrations, icons, themes, and graphical styling in a way that creatively conveys your information.
Maintain visual consistency and effective use of color. Design with your brand identity in mind.
Step 7: Assemble the Infographic
Compile all text and graphic elements into one cohesive infographic using design software. Maintain organized sections and a clear flow from one concept to the next.
Review the layout across multiple screen sizes for responsive mobile optimization.
Step 8: Promote and Share Your Infographic
Publish your infographic on your blog, website, and social channels. Promote it through email marketing and paid ads.
Guest post it on relevant sites. Make it easy for viewers to share and embed the graphic.
Following this strategic process will help you produce stunning infographics that inform and engage every time.
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Infographic Design Tips and Best Practices
Beyond the core steps, applying these visual design best practices will elevate your infographic quality.
- Use high-contrast colors for text legibility
- Limit your color palette to 3–5 complementary colors
- Establish a clear visual hierarchy through size, color, and space
- Align elements for organized sections
- Use bold headers and text styling for scannability
- Employ motion graphics, like animated GIFs, sparingly
- Showcase statistical data by designing minimalist charts and graphs
- Maintain white space and make strategic use of negative space
- Use font pairings of sans-serif and serif fonts
- Make key text highly shareable by designing it independently
Keep these tips in mind during the design process. Now let’s explore the essential tools for bringing your infographic vision to life.
Infographic Design Tools and Software
You don’t need fancy design skills to create stellar infographics. User-friendly design platforms provide infographic templates, icons, fonts, graphics, and intuitive creation tools.
Here are the best infographic-making tools for all skill levels:
- Canva: free and paid plans. Easy drag-and-drop. Great templates.
- Piktochart: intuitive editor. Animated infographics. Free trial.
- Venngage: customizable templates. Infographic widgets. Free to start.
- Visme: Diverse templates and assets. Animation tools.
- Infogram: Interactive charts. Flexible templates. Flat monthly fee.
Many other software options exist for designing infographics. Evaluate them based on ease of use, available templates, and assets, adaptability, and learning curve.
Effective Infographic Examples and Inspiration
The best way to master infographic design is to draw inspiration from outstanding examples. Take cues from these impressive infographics:
Study how the world’s top brands and publishers leverage data visualizations, engaging graphics, brilliant layouts, and visual metaphors to create infographics that inform and connect with readers.
Conclusion
In closing, infographics represent an invaluable content medium for simplifying complex stories, research, statistics, processes, and ideas into compelling visual formats.
By following the step-by-step guide covered in this article, anyone can learn how to make an infographic that effectively builds brand awareness, establishes thought leadership, and engages audiences on key topics.
The strategic use of data visualizations, pleasing designs, brilliant metaphors, and succinct text transforms dry subjects into highly shareable, consumable content.
Put these infographic tips and best practices to work for your next visual content project. With the right strategy and tools, you can craft stunning infographics that inform, educate, and convert readers.
