Infographics are popular lately. And rightly so. They have the ability to convey a lot of information in one powerful swoop. By visually engaging your customers through graphs, charts, and diagrams, you can inspire and educate your customers
on the latest technology, service, or product of your company. It is also an excellent method to show how you measure up to your competition. When the information is displayed with clarity, accuracy, and efficiency, it can have a lasting impact. Memorable and credible. Expressing a sense of confidence about your product or service.

First Step: Analysis of the Data
When I am faced with a cognitive art problem the initial action is the dissection of the data. The primary examination breaks down into three attributes:
1. The quantity of information: data density
2. The quality of information: data hierarchy
3. The value of the information: data virtue and data characteristics

With infographics it is imperative to narrow the information down to only mandatory components. You must take into consideration the level of expertise of the audience while eliminating any superfluous information. This strict filtering will lead to clarity, accuracy, and efficiency.

A Few Tips to Enhance Clarity, Accuracy, and Efficiency
Beyond good design, techniques can be employed to optimize communication. Here are a few.

1. Assume Your Audience Knows Nothing
One of the most primary forms of infographics is the direction map. What holds true for developing a good map holds true for the most complex of graphics. Approach the problem as if the viewer has never traveled to this location, both literally and figuratively. Below is a map I did for a wedding announcement. Even though the map was accompanied by written directions, the goal for any map is to be attentively executed and written instructions become supplementary. What information you select to include, and not include, is critical. Give the viewer major landmarks, but leave out the small arteries of the voyage. If you give the audience too much information, they become overwhelmed and overly occupied in the processing of the information. If you give them too little information, they will become lost and mentally adrift.

This map needed to show a vast area while still conveying certain details. That problem was solved by displaying both a macro view and a micro view of the location in one plat by using a “bubble” to deliver the micro information. This technique allowed for major arteries to be displayed in the macro map, while simultaneously presenting key landmarks within the micro bubble. This efficiency results in a clear, compact solution.

2. Apply Symbology that is Universal
Using universal themes assists people in processing the information, as well as engaging and relating to the graphic. This past month I worked with Green Empowerment on their fall newsletter. They needed an infographic on biodigesters; simple enough for the novice to understand while pleasantly representing a chemical process that begins with that tricky subject of animal manure. By employing familiar and friendly icons of the pig and cow the source of the manure is immediately recognizable, but in a lighthearted way. By using amiable symbols the graphic becomes approachable and welcoming.

3. Unity Leads to Clarity
In the Analysis of the Data graphic shown below, “data” is represented consistently throughout the image with the same symbol, a square. By presenting the square in a uniform fashion it allows the individual to focus solely on deciphering the characteristic changes of the symbol and the meaning of those contrasting attributes. An efficient implementation of the design elements simplifies the content for the viewer to process.

Editing, That Very Important Stage
Eliminate all of the excess information that clogs the arteries of delivering the message. You want to engage your viewer, but too much frosting is not a good thing. There is time to use color, and there are times when the message is more powerful when delivered in black and white. Bringing the content down to its bare essentials doesn’t make it dull, it enables clear and effective communication. Clarity always trumps adornment.