Guide
How to make an infographic that people actually read
Most infographics fail for the same reason: they try to be a poster and a report at once. This guide walks through the process we use, in order, and the decisions that matter at each stage.
1. Write down the one question
Before anything else, write a single sentence: the question a reader should be able to answer after ten seconds with your sheet. "Which of the twelve beachfront restaurants opens before 8am?" is a question. "Restaurants in the area" is a topic, and topics produce shapeless graphics. If you cannot compress the purpose into one sentence, you have two infographics, not one.
Decide the audience in the same breath. A sheet for staff can assume vocabulary that a sheet for the public cannot, and that single choice controls how much explanatory text you need later.
2. Gather more facts than you need
Collect roughly three times the material you expect to use, and record the source URL next to each fact as you go. Retrofitting sources afterwards is where errors creep in — you remember the number but not where it came from, and the temptation is to keep it anyway.
Favour primary sources: the agency that publishes the statistic, the company that sets the price, the regulator that writes the rule. Note the date of every figure. Half of what makes an infographic wrong is not a false number, it is a true number from four years ago.
3. Cut to the load-bearing facts
Now delete. A letter-size sheet comfortably holds one headline claim, three to five supporting sections and perhaps a dozen data points. Anything beyond that shrinks the type until nothing is readable. Ask of each fact: if I removed this, would the answer to my one question change? If not, it goes.
Group what survives into three to five clusters and name each cluster with a plain-language heading. Those headings become the visual structure of the page.
4. Choose the shape before the style
The structure of your content dictates the layout, not the other way round. Sequences want a timeline or numbered flow. Comparisons want a grid or a table with visual weight. Parts of a whole want a single proportional chart, not five pie charts. Geographic data wants a map. Pick the shape that matches the data, then decorate.
Establish a reading path: one clear entry point at the top, then a deliberate route down the page. Readers scan in a Z or an F. Put the answer high and the caveats low.
5. Design for the smallest viewer
Assume your sheet will be seen at thumbnail size on a phone before anyone opens it full screen. That means a headline readable at 25% zoom, high contrast between text and background, and no critical information carried by colour alone. Test by shrinking the image until it is two inches tall — whatever is still legible is what most people will actually read.
6. Attribute, date and sign it
Every serious reference sheet carries three things in its footer: where the data came from, when it was compiled, and who made it. Sources give a sceptical reader somewhere to go. A date lets them judge freshness. Attribution means that when the sheet is screenshotted and shared — and it will be — it still points home.
7. Export for the medium
For print, work at 300 DPI at the physical size you intend: letter, A4 or 11×17 tabloid for wall use. For the web, export a compressed image plus a text version of the same content — a picture is invisible to search engines and to screen readers, so the words need to exist somewhere as words. For handouts, a PDF with selectable text beats a flattened image every time.
A short checklist
- · One question, answerable in ten seconds.
- · Every number traced to a dated source.
- · Three to five sections, no more.
- · Layout shape matches the data shape.
- · Legible at thumbnail size.
- · Sources, date and attribution in the footer.
- · Print export at 300 DPI; web export with a text equivalent.
Related reading: infographic design tips and how Ai-infosheets works.