Create a Clutter-Free and Clean Infographic

So much information yet such little space in an infographic. How can you plug all of your data into one visual? Let us help.

Hello world! I’m Mike Ploger here with Visme, the ultimate infographic building tool that can display your information in ways that you never thought before. 

There’s no secret that today, infographics are a much more influential medium than straight text. People not only remember infographics more, they share infographics more as well. 

Did you know that people do 323% better when following instructions with illustrations? That is insane! 

However, I’m not here to preach why you should be using infographics, but rather help you decipher the most efficient way of using them. Shall we?

1. Choose the Right Layout

Now, choosing the right layout entirely depends on your information. This is why it’s crucial to go through a data beforehand and decipher which points you feel are the most convincing. 

Keep your data focused on one point that you’re trying to convey. And while it’s not pure text, you want to build your infographic like a story. Determine your end goal first then find where you want to begin before filling in the meat of your infographic. 

Now, there are a wide variety of infographic layouts to choose from as you can see here, but luckily we have this infographic to help. This will take you on a journey asking simple questions before answering what layout is best for you. 

Are you comparing two or more things? Are dates involved? Do you have a handful of statistics to share? Dive into this flowchart and answer the yes or no questions to help you find that perfect layout. 

2. Focus on Key Points

When you build your infographic, you must simplify your information. If your research is a page full of texts and data, all that text and data isn’t going to fit on another page with added visuals. 

Take a minute and go through your information and highlight which points are vital for getting your point across. 

If you provide a lot of imagery in your text, that’s something that can be reduced and taken out since you’ll be adding these visuals later on. Find facts and statistics and simplify your wording to make it short, yet easy to understand.

3. Use Plenty of White Space

Did I mention simplifying your infographic yet? Yes, of course! And utilizing white space is another route to take to do just that. 

This infographic here had just one main point to get across. 21% of workers named loneliness as one of their main on-the-job issues. It’s easy! But if it wasn’t short and simplified, I’d spend far too much time on just that one piece of data. 

Now, sure, the infographic seems like it’s a little bit more empty, but that’s okay. It’s not a bad thing to have what it’s called white space around your information. 

This is just that unused space around the object in a visual. It can be any color or background element you’d like, the trick is with white space, you’ve got to find that right balance of empty space to information. 

While you don’t want an infographic to be cluttered, you also don’t want it to be almost entirely blank. Try using shapes, lines, or dividers to help break up the different elements in your design. 

4. Create Good Contrast

Depending on where your infographic will be displayed, you may need a sure fire way to grab your viewer’s attention. Creating strong contrast may be the best way of doing so. 

Choosing the right colors for your infographic is nothing to take lightly. Take some time and find contrasting colors for the elements in the forefront and in the background of your design. 

Here, we have an example of poor contrast. The background color too closely resembles the colors of the numbers counting the remote work trends. 

But if you take the same information but with a lighter background, more contrast than the numbers, you have an effective color scheme. 

Now, if you’re struggling to choose a good background, here are a couple tips. 

First, choose a background that goes with your theme or business colors. Keep it all relevant. Don’t go off the rails. 

And secondly, if you’d rather use an image than a solid color as your background, make sure it doesn’t make the infographic feel too busy. Blur the background image to help the text pop. The last thing you want is for your information to be too difficult to read. 

5. Properly Align Text and Objects

Properly aligning the elements in your design is key. It’s the same as having a clean home versus a sloppy mess. It’s much more appealing for your visitors. 

So, let’s start with your objects. These are your icons, charts, scraps, any visual element. For objects of the same size or with flat edges, make sure you use edge align to ensure they are all on an even playing field. 

And for objects of various sizes like what we have here on the bottom, use center align to ensure the middle of the icons all matched up. 

And when it comes to your text, there are a number of alignments you can choose from to accomplish a clean design. As you can see, you can use left, center or right align to be effective. Just ensure you find balance with your text and design elements. 

6. Replace Text with Icons

Remember when you simplified and minimized your information earlier? Well, I mentioned how you might have some imagery in your data and now it’s time to put that to use.

Take it out of your text and use it as an icon in your infographic. This will make for a much more engaging and impactful design while saving on space. 

One way to incorporate icons is by pairing them with names, titles or subheadings. Place an icon next to a heading to help get your point across as you see here. 

Another tip is to take advantage of icons when creating a list infographic. Typically lists are more boring. So, spice them up with a few images for added effect. 

Whatever icons you use, stick with the same style throughout your entire infographic. Don’t have one cartoon and then one realistic visual. Pick one or the other for all of your icons. 

7. Visualize Your Data

Now the most important part of any infographic is visualizing your data. If your research is filled with numbers and statistics, don’t just type that out. Turn it into bars, charts and graphs. This will help your viewers better understand the impact of your research. 

Shameless plug here, but Visme does have all the tools, gadgets, widgets available on our website to make visualizing data easy. It’s what we specialize in. You can choose your colors, styles, values, you name it with a few easy clicks. 

We have 44 different types of charts and graphs for you to choose from so your infographics will never get old. Also, you can even directly input an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet if you’ve already collected your data that way. 

I promise, Visme makes your design struggles disappear. 

8. Achieve Visual Consistency

Alright, my last tip for creating a clutter-free infographic is to ensure that you achieve visual consistency throughout the entire image. 

What do I mean exactly? Your fonts should all match, your colors should pair well together, your icons should be the same style, everything in your infographic should flow seamlessly. 

If there’s something that makes you stop in your tracks and question why it’s there, take it out! Everything should have a purpose in your infographic. 

It all falls under visual hierarchy and not long ago, we highlighted 11 visual hierarchy principles that everyone should consider when creating the next great visual. 

Now, the only thing left for you to do is get to work! Don’t hesitate to come back through this video a few times as you proceed in your infographic design process. 

If you’re going to create an infographic, you want to make sure you do it the right way. Once again, Visme helps you do just that. Not only with our videos but with the tools on our website. Check out Visme.co to get started designing infographics the easy way. 

Hey! Thank you so much for watching. I hope we were of some help and if so, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel where you will find even more videos. Good luck on your journey! For now, I’m Mike Ploger with Visme, helping you Make Information Beautiful.