What’s Information Design? And Why Should You Care?

If you do any type of promotional work, you’re in sales. Selling yourself often implies building a trusting relationship specifically tailored to an audience. When you communicate the benefits of your product or service, it’s important to be persuasive in order to make a lasting impression. That’s where information design can provide the visual snapshot you need to tip the scale in your favor.

So Why Is Information Design So Important?

Data by itself often needs visual perimeters to be understood. Information design is the practice of presenting information to users in a way that’s structured, accessible, graphical, and clearly understood by the viewer.

This is especially true when presenting numbers or educational instructions that needs to follow a certain sequence. Information design offers the solution by combining complex data with visual graphics to simplify the message that’s delivered—but with thoughtful interpretation.

Did You Know Viewer Engagement Increases With Visual Graphics

Given you have seconds to capture a viewer’s attention . . . it’s the visual graphics that make a huge impact on viewer engagement. The reason why is directly related to using colors and shapes to add interest to complex data. This provides enough curiosity where information is key to peaking a viewer’s interest.

Think about financial documents. If you were to present financial statistics in words and numbers to inform a client you can save them money; would it really be persuasive—probably not. But add visual graphics—like a pie chart or bar graph—and suddenly those financials statements make more sense. Therefore, information design elevates statistical data.

When using charts in this way, keep the following graphic elements in mind:

• Keep fonts simple (don’t use fancy fonts) so data is easily read
• Use distinct colors with a mix of warm and cool tones to enhance a chart
• Label clearly what the data represents and use a “key chart” if necessary

When information is organized graphically, it makes a huge difference. Likewise, when visual graphics are added to the content viewer engagement increases dramatically. Similarly, if you’re interested in increasing Web Readability with your content, the tips shared in 5 Tips To Support Reading Web Content provides suggestions on how you can captivate your audience.