Infographics – making information more accessible (2/2)

Communicating information rather than driving sales

What if your aim is to impart information to an audience that isn’t particularly engaged? Or the data is technical, complicated or copious? The answer is often to simplify where possible and cherry-pick the most pertinent or surprising facts.

In a previous blog I talked about the quirks of designing for the public sector  and that the challenge of making information easier to ‘take in’ and comprehend is something I deal with a lot. Here are some approaches that I’ve used to highlight facts or tell a story:

1) Pull out percentages and enlarge for visual impact

 

2) Multiple symbols to represent quantities

 

3) Timeline

 

4) Maps

 

5) Icons/pictograms

Selling features and benefits

If you are a business selling products or services, differences can be distinguished by colour-coding or with benefits/features highlighted by icons. Using a table to compare costs, features and benefits is a popular and effective way for customers to decide which option they want.

Other things to consider

Getting through to your audience is paramount. Being more accessible and inclusive will help with this. I’m by no means an expert but areas to think about include:

• People with visual disabilities and low vision
• People with learning difficulties, including dyslexia etc
• People with limited literacy
• Different languages
• Being inclusive with gender, ethnicities

The UK Home Office put together a set of accessibility posters which are great resource.

Check out the previous infographic blog here.

If you have any infographic questions, feel free to get in touch.