The Information Designer’s Notebook

Hard-earned lessons from our notebook about information design and infographics. Hands-on, honest and condensed. ferdio.com/notebook

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Play, have fun

Information design is a serious communication discipline that requires both analytical, journalistic and statistic skillsets. But in the creative process, it is crucial to experiment and have fun in order to achieve remarkable and brilliant conceptual work. Genius ideas will only come if you truly manage to set creativity free. So go play, have fun.

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Avoid information overload

So much to say, so little space? For fear of leaving out important information, you run the risk of cramping too much information into too little space.

But the risk is that the more you add, the more difficult it will be for your audience to digest and to remember your key message. Trust that your main story is good enough and be critical as soon as your infographic starts to overload. Don’t hide your key message in a haystack!

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You are not looking close enough

In information design, the devil is in the detail. Small inaccuracies might make your designs completely misleading and impossible to decode. Have a closer look at your work. Your icons might be inaccurate, the scale of the graph misleading or the text might not match the visual. All details matter when you want to communicate clearly, effectively and convincingly. So have a closer look, be critical, adjust and refine.

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Nothing is for everyone

All communication has a target group, a specific audience. When working with information design, knowledge about your audience should inform the decisions you make regarding style, tone of voice, etc. Avoid trying to  communicate to everyone - that’s impossible. The better you know your target audience, the better you will be able to communicate.

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Use and exploit your basic visual toolbox

Data visualization is all about converting data into meaningful and effective visual representations. In order to do so, you need to become familiar with your toolbox of visual assets like size, color, direction, etc. Don’t use all at once but choose and experiment to find the most effective for the task.

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Avoid chartjunk

Chartjunk refers to visual elements in charts that are redundant in conveying information or even distracting to the viewer, making the chart more difficult to understand.

There is a fine line between when visual elements are helpful and beneficial and when they turn into chartjunk. Visual elements should always support the story and communication rather than disturb the message.

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Show what you say. Say what you show.

In information design, text and visuals are intertwined. The message should support the visual. The visual should support the message. This advice seems basic, but infographics often seem to fail in this regard. So ask yourself: Are your visuals and copy in sync and complementing each other?

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Think less. Sketch more.

The fastest way to test your idea is to sketch it. Test and qualify your ideas by visualizing them in rough sketches. Without a concrete idea on paper, it is often impossible to qualify the idea or make any decisions about it. Stop overthinking and think while you sketch.

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Leave out superfluous information

Data visualizations are often more complex than they need to be: A way to detailed axis, fine meshed grid lines that are unnecessary or additional technical details that just blur the core message. The more superfluous information you include, the harder it is to decode the information and the key message. Leave out all superfluous information and include only the information necessary or helpful for comprehension.

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Use common data visualizations for common understanding

Information designers sometimes tend to favor more exotic and artistic data viz types. Though this can be inspiring and useful, it is important to be aware of the readability and function of the chart types. Basic data visualizations like a bar chart or a line graph work because everyone knows how to read them. Choose the data viz type that conveys the message the best and the one that your audience will understand.

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Virality can’t be planned

You can’t design a ‘viral video’ . Your video might go viral, but it’s almost impossible to plan. You might be able to produce content that is more likely to go viral or plan a strategy that makes it more likely. But it is naive to think that we are in control of virality. Stop focusing on virality and start making great and inspiring content that matters.

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Your infographic is too text-heavy

Nobody wants to read an infographic that is text-heavy. It kind of ruins the whole point of having an infographic in the first place.

Aim to use as little text as possible. In most cases, the less text you need to communicate your message the better. If you feel like you need a lot of text to get your message across, it may in fact point to a problem with your infographic.

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Somethings are more important than others – Prioritize your content

The first thing to do with all your content is to get an overview. What is very important and what is less important? This basic prioritization is essential when scripting, sketching and designing. It sounds easy, but prioritizing is usually harder than it sounds. Making these choices requires a deep understanding of your content and the story you are trying to tell.

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Solve. Improve. Perfect.

When working with information design, the first thing you want to do is to solve your communication challenge by making your infographic understandable. That’s the foundation. Then you must make improvements to get your message across more clearly. After that, you can start to perfect your work. In other words: There are no shortcuts to perfection. Strive for the top, but always start at the bottom by solving your communication challenge.

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Chop your visuals into digestible pieces

Design your content and visuals as flexible as possible to create multiple visual stories from one core piece of content. One coherent piece of content, animation or complex infographic may consist of multiple visual stories that can often easily be chopped into small individual stories without losing its meaning. This way you will gain more from your content and you will be able to distribute your content more effectively to different channels.

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Use a three-part structure

Following a three-part structure is an effective way of structuring your infographics. It consists of an intro, a main event and a conclusion or call to action. The intro should contain all the basic information you need to establish to be able to comprehend the main event. The main event is the key message and the heart of the infographics. The main event should often be followed by a conclusion or a call to action that supports/underpins the infographic.

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Collect, sort, analyze, visualize

These are the most important steps in data visualization (in most cases):

Collect the data. Which data is relevant?

Sort the data. How is the data connected?

Analyze the data. Are there any significant patterns? What is the story?

Visualize the data. How do we visualize the story most effectively?

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