Biju John
Short for “information graphic”, these little visual texts are designed to summarize and present complex information, knowledge and data. They might be posted on a wall, be printed in a magazine or textbook, be a feature in a magazine or, increasingly, spread online. Some brilliant designers work on creating infographics, and the best examples of this text type are almost works of art in themselves. Once you’ve studied the key features of infographics, try your hand at analyzing one or two of the samples below.
Infographics: Sample
Elements
What are we going to include and observe?
- Audience: Normally infographics are designed to reach as wide an audience as possible. As always look out for technical language that might indicate a niche audience.
- Simplification: The main purpose of infographics is to simplify complex knowledge or data. Look out for all kinds of simplification techniques including summary, bullet points, images with captions and more.
- Illustrations: If the oldies are still to be believed, a picture is worth a thousand words and nowhere is this more true than in infographics. Icons are simplified mages that symbolize certain ideas from the text.
- Copy: Infographics are multimodal, meaning there will be some brief text included. Look out for headlines, labels and snippets (brief chunks of text).
- Structure: good infographics are little visual narratives that tell a simple story, so look out for structural elements that help you decode the sequence of events.
- Design: infographics are supposed to be eye-catching. Color, typography, font and other design features should combine to help you get information and also engage your interest.
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