Guidelines for Infographics Design

I often refer to these guidelines in my design work. The guidelines will likely adjust over time and with use, but I’m glad to have a starting place.

General design recommendations for infographics—

1. To make the infographic more malleable to learners’ needs and interests, incorporate reflection prompts and questions that encourage learners to tie the visual to their own personal meaning and relevance. In addition, when appropriate given the content and learning objectives, avoid using a visual structure that drives learners sequentially through the content; instead, design the infographic to allow multiple pathways so learners can be immersed in what is relevant to them.
2. The infographic approach is not appropriate for all messages, especially in educational settings where interaction is crucial for engagement, cognitive processing, and the achievement of learning objectives. However, an effective infographic may be a valuable component of a multi-strategy approach to fulfilling instructional goals. To avoid using an infographic approach when another approach would be more effective, first conduct a front-end analysis to collect necessary information about the content, learning objectives, learners, and context, and then select the instructional approach that best helps achieve the defined instructional goals.
3. Infographics are not simply information plus graphics. Instead, the design of an infographic is a narrative process that involves representation and interpretation to develop and convey an idea. Effective infographics rely primarily on visual elements and structure, as opposed to text, to convey content/messages. An infographic’s visual elements are not of a decorative nature, but used to deliver content vital to the representation and interpretation of the instructional message/narrative. It is necessary, therefore, to spend considerable time on the design and evaluation of visual elements to make sure they accurately convey the instructional message to the learning audience.
4. Effective infographics often have an unexpected element, such as the use of humor, metaphors, storytelling, or personal anecdotes. A front-end analysis—even if abbreviated given time and resource constraints—will provide information about the content and learners that can help in determining what unexpected element might be an effective aspect of the infographic.

Recommendations for the design of an infographic’s structure and form—

1. Effective infographics concisely stick to the equivalent of 1-2 pages; in other words, they are not multi-page handouts. Keep infographics to one page.
2. All elements of an effective infographic contribute to the delivery of the message. When designing an infographic, continuously examine the infographic to make sure that only essential content is clearly, precisely and concisely conveyed; frequent formative evaluations with learners who represent the learning audience can provide invaluable feedback to inform an necessary editing.
3. Effective infographics have clear titles, and quickly establish their focus and purpose (via concise text and the overall visual structure). Be sure to include a title that quickly establishes what the infographic is about, and if needed provide orienting text that helps learners understand the relevance of the infographic.

Recommendations for the design of an infographic’s content—

1. Effective infographics have a clear focus and purpose. Less effective infographics try to accomplish too many objectives in one message. When creating an infographic, make sure it is only addressing one learning objective (or 1-3 associated learning objectives). If the infographic is addressing more than one learning objective, consider creating multiple infographics—one for each learning objective—or using a different instructional approach such as a multi-page handout.
2. Because infographics are designed to be efficient visual representations of complex and/or dense content, it is easy to leave out content important to conceptual processing and understanding in favor of conciseness. However, if the content is inaccurate or incomplete, or irrelevant to learners, the infographic is less effective by default. Bottom line, the visual appeal of an infographic will not make up for “bad” content. Make sure that the content conveyed by the infographic is accurate, complete and relevant; conduct formative evaluations with content experts and learners who represent the infographic’s audience to verify that the content conveyed is appropriate given the learning objective and instructional goals.
3. Effective infographics include edited content that reflects the essence of the message. Less effective infographics include elaborative content that may be “nice to know” but goes beyond the scope of the infographic. Conduct formative evaluations with content experts and learners who represent the infographic’s audience to verify that the content conveyed is focused given the learning objective and instructional goals.

Recommendations for the design of an infographic’s visual elements—

1. The visuals used in effective infographics are relevant to the message. Less effective infographics include decorative visuals that serve as distractions to the message. Make sure that all visual elements are contributing to the conveyance of the instructional message and eliminate those that only function as decoration.
2. Effective infographics employ visual representations of relationships to convey content within context. For example, if the message of the infographic describes a sequential progression such as change over time, a linear structure is used to layout visual elements. Use a visual that illustrates (a) flow (e.g., flowchart) if you want to show process, (b) structure (e.g., hierarchical chart) if you want to show classification, (c) cluster (e.g., Venn diagram) if you want to show grouping relationships, (d) radiate (e.g., concept map) if you want to show connections between links and nodes, and (e) pictorial (e.g., road map) if you want to show realistic concepts, and (f) display (e.g., bar chart) if you want to show compare and contrast or cause and effect.
3. Effective infographics often use simple visuals as opposed to high fidelity visuals to maintain focus on important aspects of the message (unless the focus and purpose of the message calls for high fidelity, such as a detailed mapping and annotation of the human heart in preparation for a surgical procedure). Create efficient, precise, and clear visuals that support the instructional goals of the message, and eliminate details that serve as distractions from the primary goals of the infographic.

If you have recommendations for changes, please share them here. 🙂