Yes, Infographics are a great way to spread your message both online and offline. We have already discussed the benefits and ways of promoting static Infographics. But today we want to discuss the problem of choosing an appropriate topic for an Infographic.
It appears that not all topics may be equally suitable for this type of graphics. So let’s name them, find out why they are tough for Infographics and talk about possible solutions of visualizing such topics.
The most common point of the critique of many Infographics is the lack of data viz. Without a proper data visualization it ends up either with a lot of text or a lot of icons, or both. Well, sometimes it is still fun to look at such an Infographic, it can be colorful, nicely designed and eye-grabbing, but very probably it will be far less efficient than a really well-visualized, “true” Infographic.
The practice shows that not every idea and topic has a type of data that can be converted into charts, graphs, etc.
The first topic that can ruin your Infographic is “timeline” or “a history of”… You may be surprised (because there are so many Infographics-timelines) but it is really so. Even though some timelines and histories may be relevant and very interesting, but when they dominate or become the entirety of the Infographic, it is a problem. Unless you get creative with it, your Infographic will look like a combination of text and some accompanying icons and imagery. Not at all a real data viz! The solutions here would be the following:
1) Try to re-imagine the timeline / history and include primarily visualizable data – some stats. This way your Infographic-timeline will serve a dual purpose – as a history and a collection of statistical data.
2) If you include a “traditional” timeline, don’t let it be the sole component of your Infographic – include some true data visualizations before, after or on side from your timeline.
3) For the superb results, be creative and use the opportunity of creating a very special design for your timeline. For example, if your Infographic talks about the history of Formula 1, why not to use a route or a bolide shape for the timeline?
The next topic that can ruin your Infographic is “Top ##…”, “# Ways to do…”, “# Reasons for…”, etc. Even though it may be a great model of conveying some strategies, tips and ideas, usually it is an opinion-based information. And most often there won’t be a lot of hard data related to these. So your Infographic has all chances to end up as a simple list of 10 / 20 / 50 points… Sadly, it is not a true Infographic that is enough engaging and informative.
This format is often used to excessive branding, which is in general another “No-No” for Infographics.
The solution in that case will be finding stats related to different points, making them visual and including them into your Infographic. Try and you will see a significant improvement!
It is definitely not an exhaustive list of difficult-to-visualize topics. You may come up with many other sub-topics that can do a bad job for Infographics. However, in this article we have tried to mention the major ones and provide you with some possible solutions of “saving” your Infographic. Also we don’t want to say that the discussed topics make Infographics automatically bad. Not at all as there are some very good examples disproving our words. But generally Infographics talking about the “History of…” or “Top #…” topics are done poorly. So either try to avoid these topics or hire real Infographic design professionals who will use all their creativity to design a true Infographic for you.