Infographic design for your business

Humans now have a smaller attention span than goldfish

The average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds, in 2013 this average has dropped down to only 8 seconds (Source). It’s easy to see the rapid change in the way we digest and view information just by looking around and seeing everything swipe quickly through their newsfeeds on facebook. Or shortening phases into small digestible acronyms. (TGIF am I right guys!?).

8 seconds isn’t long to communicate to your audience the large amounts of information you may have, which is when a well designed infographic can come in handy.

You might be thinking, what is an infographic?

Basically an infographic is an image that makes it very easy to people to take in large amount of data without having to read paragraphs of text or look at huge spreadsheets full of figures. A well designed infographic should take away all the legwork for your customers, so they can understand exactly what you’re trying to tell them in a short space of time. It summarises your data with graphics.

A very basic example of this is if I wanted to find the closest Commonwealth Bank ATM near my current location. Without the help of an infographic this would take the form of a listing all the commonwealth ATM’s in australia. If I wanted to find an ATM in surry hills it would take me ages to go through this list, find the ones closest to me and then actually figure out how to get to one. A better way of displaying this data would be to plot these locations on a map, I can see those closest to me, the address and even zoom in to see exactly how to get to them.

It seems so simple in hindsight, because this is an expected feature of any bank website. And it can be that simple for you as well.

Check it out for yourself

Have I already lost your attention? Check out this infographic that sums up the information below!

What are the benefits of infographics?

The old saying pictures speak a thousand words holds to this day, and this isn’t a new thing. Infographics have been around since the 1600’s when Christoph Scheiner published a book with diagrams to demonstrate how the sun rotates around the earth.

But in modern times infographic design can have a much bigger effect on your business and how well your customers are understanding the information they need.

• Infographics are a great way to present a large amount of information
• They are very easy to share which makes them a great social media marketing tool
• They can increase visitors to your website
• Increases the level of engagement with your customers
• Makes your complex information easy to understand and digest
• Increases the links to your site which is great for SEO

What do you need from me to be able to quote on and design an infographic?

There are 5 basic questions that will need to be answered before quoting on a infographic design as each one can differ completely in terms of complexity and purpose. There is an example answer for each question in italics.

1. What is the main purpose of this infographic or what do you want it to achieve?
   To quickly communicate the large range of services we offer.
2. Is there a particular point figure or quote you want to focus on?
   That last year our quality of customer service was rated 97% and has been increasingly significantly over the past 10 years. 
3. What data or information do you want the infographic to be based off? This can come in many forms – the more information you can provide the better as we can always cut it down if needed.  The information provided does need to be 100% correct, as its very difficult and costly to change once the design process has begun.
   Please find attached a comparison excel spreadsheet with all our products and their features.
4. Is there anything in particular you want to include?
   Yes we would love to include a map of Australia if possible as well as our brand font and colours. 
5. Where will the infographic be used?
   Mainly these will be used on our website but we would also like to include them on our latest brochure. 

What’s the process for creating an infographic?

1. Once we’ve received all the details above we can provide you with an accurate quote on the cost per infographic.
2. We’ll begin the interpretation of your data and roughly sketch what we’re thinking for each one and send this over for you to take a look at.
3. Taking on board the feedback you provide on the sketches the design phase will begin.
4. Once designed the infographics will get sent over for approval or feedback.
5. Once approved the files will be sent over in the necessary formats and if your website was built by ClickersOnline we’ll even load them into your site for you!