An infographic is defined as a visual representation of information or data. In practice it can be a static image displayed on print items, websites, social media or animated into fairly complex explainer videos. In today’s media saturated world people don’t have the time or inclination to read reports or long paragraphs of text. Half of our brains dedicated to visual function and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

 

We are wired for visuals and as Big Data is becoming more critical in business the best way to communicate that data is by turning tables into visuals, statistics into videos, and reports into presentations. Researchers might be experts at the methods, but skilled designers will know how best to communicate the information clearly, concisely and creatively.

 

I’ve seen infographics produce excellent results in a marketing context through content we’ve created for Newcastle-based charity Compassion Australia. Infographics were excellent in explaining the independent research findings on the effectiveness of Compassion’s global child-sponsorship program in a way that not only made a very lengthy (but positive) report highly engaging, it also achieved excellent sponsor retention.

 

At Strategic Minds we’re also creating infographic content for Australia’s leading research firm McCrindle who really excel in data and research visualisation. We are in agreement with McCrindle’s belief that symbols are universal while languages are not; that pictures and not statistics connect across the generations; and that “What gets visualised gets understood.