Infographics: Horrid chartjunk or quality communication

Infographics continually appear across a wide span of websites. Design teams have embraced the trend toward infographics, but often misuse them by focusing on visual presentation rather than presenting information appropriate for the audience and content. The results are artful infographics that lack a clear audience or message. In addition, many of the infographic design guidelines seem to be based on posters. An analysis of a collection of infographics found they can be divided into four categories: bullet list equivalent, snapshot with graphic needs, flat information with graphic needs, and information flow/process. Only last three are appropriate for infographics. Several areas needing further research are identified: (1) how people comprehend the infographic and how they connect that understanding into the bigger picture, (2) better guidelines on when/how to create infographics, and (3) how to craft the content into an integrated presentation with text and graphics supporting each other.