Infographic design and the various types of infographics have come a long way since the early 2000s. While the internet once drowned in a wave of brightly colored content and borderline clipart cartoons, the design space has finally matured.
Creators now offer museum-worthy data visualizations and tasteful illustrations that bring a story to life.
The problem remains that we see a lot of brands stuck in a creative rut, creating the same types of infographics over and over. While having your own style matters, it becomes easy to get stale. If you want to continue to engage the people you’re trying to reach with quality visual content, mixing it up sometimes is necessary. Luckily, if you feel uninspired, we have plenty of suggestions to help you elevate your infographic design, challenge your creativity, and create truly compelling content.
What Makes Good Infographic Design?
Just because someone slaps some pictures and words together doesn’t mean they have created a great infographic. Good design is intentional. It is meant to enhance the experience for the people reading it from start to finish. If you are not sure if your design is up to par, there are three specific questions to ask yourself.
Does the infographic support the story?
Each data point needs to serve the narrative. An effective infographic does not just show data; it explains why that data matters. The best infographic design also reinforces the core story through every design element. You must consider color, type, hierarchy, and imagery. When the copy and the design work symbiotically, the infographic makes a stronger impact on the viewer.
Are you following infographic best practices?
Whether you are designing detailed data visualizations or a simple graphic for social media, applying strong design principles helps increase appeal. It improves comprehension and retention of the information. However, you need to understand how to design common charts and graphs and how to avoid the most common mistakes in infographic design.
Does the infographic reflect your brand?
Good branded content is consistent and easy to identify. Just because you mix up your design style doesn’t mean you have to stray from your core brand identity. An infographic example from a tech company should look different than one from a bakery, even if they share a similar infographic format. You need to make sure your infographics stick to your visual language while still engaging the reader.
No matter what infographic style you experiment with, hitting all three of these points is vital. But that doesn’t mean limits exist. There are all sorts of creative ways to transform your infographics from simple numbers to beautiful pieces of content.
How to Mix Up Your Infographic Design
If you feel ready to challenge yourself creatively, looking at various types of infographics helps. Here are several great examples of infographic design themes and specific functional types that can inspire your next project.
1) Line Art Infographic Style
Great for: Clean data visualization, simple illustrations
The number one rule for infographic design—and all content marketing—is that doing something small well beats doing something elaborate poorly. In a world of bright colors and elaborate data visualization, a simple line art infographic acts as a refreshing change of pace. If you are creating a small infographic series, telling a straightforward story, or trying to keep focus on key statistics, this old-school technique is a great option.
Infographic Example: This infographic design for Number26 features simple visuals that tell the story of the company’s first year.
2) Photography in Infographics
Great for: Adding human emotion, data visualization
Humans emotionally respond to other humans. Including photography that features people serves as a nice way to help the viewer connect or empathize with the infographic. But photography doesn’t always have to feature humans. In fact, it acts as a great way to add depth and texture to a design, especially when incorporated into data visualizations within the infographic.
Infographic Example: We collaborated with LinkedIn to create a photo-heavy infographic visualizing the perfect content marketing mix. Using food as a metaphor, we brought the concept to life through engaging and mouth-watering food photography.
3) Illustration Infographics
Great for: Character depiction, conveying abstract concepts or themes
There is a reason illustration remains so popular in infographic design. You can let your imagination run wild. You can create any world or theme you want. This serves as a great benefit when you want to stretch your creativity. It allows you to flex your skills, experiment with different infographic styles, and bring characters to life. A warning, however: characters can be the hardest thing to draw. If you feel a little rusty, go for simplicity, like the line art infographic style mentions above.
Infographic Example: As part of an ongoing series for Course Hero, we used heavily illustrated infographics to break down famous literary works. For this infographic, featuring The Iliad, our illustrations were inspired by Grecian art, reflecting the story through aesthetics.
4) Tactile Data Visualization Infographic
Great for: Bringing data stories to life more impactfully
Data visualization is great because it helps people “see” numbers more clearly. Unfortunately, infographic designers often miss out on the chance to really enhance data stories because they focus too much on crafting the same old boring charts and graphs. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, crafting data visualizations with real-world objects, then using creation tools like photography or animation to bring them to life, is a slam dunk.
Infographic Example: We collaborated with Turbo Tax to explore cigarette tax. Using the physical objects to visualize the data made for a more powerful piece.
5) Isometric Infographic Design
Great for: Adding depth, visualizing ecosystems and structures
With isometric illustration, you dip your toes in the 3D world. This lets you experiment with depth and perspective in a way that isn’t possible with traditional 2D illustration. This helps create a richer visual experience that serves as a great treat for the viewer. That said, isometric data visualization is generally not recommended because it can misrepresent the data if not handled carefully.
Infographic Example: This Lucidworks infographic uses isometric illustrations combined with 2D visualization to support the core story: bias in data science.
6) Animated and Interactive Infographic
Great for: Social content, blog posts, any opportunity where you need to grab attention
One of the best things about the evolution of publishing platforms is that infoGIFS—animated infographics—can be published anywhere and everywhere. This brings infographic design to the next level. It lets you create eye-catching pieces that add another layer of storytelling to your content. An interactive infographic invites the user to click, scroll, and engage, turning passive reading into active exploration.
Infographic Example: We helped Incapsula bring survey data to life through an animated infographic that gives a behind-the-scenes look at a website.
7) Explorative and Flowchart Infographic
Good for: Detailed data, decision-making content
Guiding your readers through your infographic design in a logical flow makes sense. However, not all infographics require that prescriptive storytelling. Things like a detailed flowchart infographic or detailed static visualization provide a unique experience. The viewer gets to explore the info they find most interesting. They can navigate through the content based on their answers or goals.
Infographic Example: This Star Wars- themed infographic explores the universe’s best vacation spots through a detailed flowchart and plenty of isometric illustrations.
Exploring Functional Types of Infographics
Beyond visual style, the functionality of the graphic matters. When determining the right infographic for your project, you must consider the information you have and the goal you want to achieve. Then you can experiment with style. Let’s look at several key functional types.
The Timeline Infographic
A timeline infographic is essential when you need to display chronological events or the history of a company (e.g., if you want to show how a product evolved or how a trend developed over the years). It arranges information in chronological order, allowing the viewer to walk through time visually. Using a timeline infographic simplifies complex history into a digestible journey, and you can use icons or illustrative markers to highlight major milestones on the timeline infographic.
The Comparison Infographic
When you need to show the difference between two concepts, products, or ideas, comparison infographics are incredibly effective. A comparison infographic typically splits the canvas down the middle, using a “versus” format to highlight pros and cons to help the reader make a decision quickly. Whether you are comparing features of a software or regional trends, comparison infographics organize the data so the contrasts are obvious. This is why they are so popular for product comparisons.
The Process Infographic
Process infographics are designed to break down a complex process into manageable steps. If you are creating a “how-to” guide or explaining a workflow, a process infographic is the tool for the job. (A recipe, a user manual, or an onboarding flow all benefit from this format.) You can use a process infographic template to ensure the flow remains logical, along with numbered lists and directional arrows to guide readers. By simplifying a complex process visually, you reduce the cognitive load on the reader.
The Statistical Infographic
Presenting statistics can be dry if you only use text. Statistical infographics take survey results, demographic data, and key statistics and turn them into compelling visuals. A statistical infographic puts the focus heavily on the data point itself, often using large, bold fonts for numbers and accompanying them with icons. This infographic type is perfect for visualizing survey data or research findings—ideal when you have a lot of numbers to share.
The Informational Infographic
Sometimes you do not have hard numbers, but you have a new concept to explain. Informational infographics are text-heavy but use design to break up the reading experience. An informational infographic summarizes a blog post or explains a specific subject in depth, using descriptive headers and icons to keep the reader moving down the page. Unlike data visualization-focused pieces, informational infographics rely more on layout and typography to keep the eye moving. This infographic type works well for explaining organizational structures or summarizing key points from a longer report.
The List Infographic
People love list infographics, as they are easy to read and highly shareable. A list infographic takes a standard listicle blog post and revitalizes it. Whether it’s “10 Tips for Better SEO” or “5 Ways to Cook an Egg,” a list infographic provides a quick, scannable resource. Each point in the list infographic usually gets a dedicated icon and a brief description, making them helpful pieces of visual content for social media channels.
The Geographic or Map Infographic
If your data is tied to specific locations, a location infographic or map infographic is necessary. Geographic infographics visualize data across regions, countries, or cities—perfect for showing regional trends, voting patterns, or demographic data spreads. You can also use a heatmap style or place pins on a map infographic to indicate density or specific occurrences. This visual representation helps people grasp spatial relationships instantly.
The Resumé Infographic
For job seekers, standing out is hard. A resume infographic transforms a traditional CV into a visual document, highlighting skills, experience, and timelines using charts and icons. While you might not send a resume infographic to every employer, it is a fantastic asset for a personal website or LinkedIn profile. Just ensure the infographic resume remains readable and not overly cluttered with graphics.
Selecting the Right Data Visualization Infographic
Data visualization is the backbone of many infographic types. Choosing the right chart is crucial.
Using Bar Graphs and Line Graphs
A bar chart or bar graph is often a good starting point for comparing quantities across different categories. They are easy to read and familiar to everyone. Line graphs, on the other hand, are the go-to for showing trends over time in a timeline infographic or statistical infographic. You should use line graphs when you want to highlight the rate of change.
Pie Charts and Hierarchy
Pie charts are often misused. You should only use pie charts when comparing parts of a whole, and ideally with fewer than five segments. If you have complex data, a pie chart might clutter the design. Hierarchical infographics, with visuals that show the order of importance, often use pyramid charts or treemaps. Hierarchical infographics help the viewer understand the structure and weight of different elements within the system.
Tips for Creating Infographics That Stand Out
Creating infographics that are visually appealing requires attention to detail. Here is how to ensure your infographic design shines.
Master the Creative Process
The creative process starts with a solid brief. You need to know the target audience and the key messages before you open any design software. A good infographic summarizes complex information, so you must distill that information first. If you skip this step, even the best infographic design will fail to communicate effectively.
Use Customizable Templates Wisely
If you are not a professional designer, a process infographic template or other customizable templates can save you. However, you must customize them. Change the colors to match your brand. Swap out generic icons for colorful icons that fit the specific topic. Customizable templates are a starting point, not the finish line.
Focusing on Visual Communication
Visual communication is about clarity. Use visual cues like arrows and lines to direct the eye. Make sure your illustrative icons are consistent in style. If you use flat icons in one section, don’t use 3D icons in another. Consistent graphic elements create a cohesive look. Bold fonts should be used for headers to create a clear hierarchy.
Avoiding the Bad Infographic
A bad infographic is cluttered, confusing, or misleading. To avoid creating a bad infographic, give your design whitespace. Do not cram every single data point into one image. If you have too much data, consider breaking it into a series of infographics. An effective infographic knows what to leave out just as much as what to include.
Improving Your Content Marketing with Infographics
Infographics are a powerhouse in content marketing. They are shareable, linkable, and easy to digest. Here are some of the best ways you can apply them.
Repurposing Content
You can turn a popular blog post into an engaging infographic. You can take a whitepaper and create a series of statistical infographics or a list infographic. This allows you to get more mileage out of your research findings. An infographic that summarizes the value of the longer piece can also act as a hook for the reader.
Enhancing Presentations
You can also use infographic elements to create presentations. Instead of bullet points on a slide, use a mini process infographic to explain a workflow. Use a comparison infographic to show why your product wins. When you create presentations with infographic design principles in mind, you keep the audience awake and engaged.
The Infographic Poster
Print is not dead. An infographic poster can be a great asset for internal communications or valid educational materials. The design principles for an infographic poster are similar to digital, but you have to account for high-resolution printing and physical read distinctions.
Conclusion: How to Improve Your Infographic Design
To stay ahead of the curve, experimenting with your content—both in the infographic type you make and how you present it—is crucial. If you are looking for more tips to mix it up, there are plenty of resources available.
- Try these 16 ways to come up with great infographic ideas.
- Follow data visualization design best practices.
- Get our best tips for making great infographics (based on the 4,000 we’ve made).
- See 9 infographic design examples that will leave you inspired.
- Check out these simple infographic tips to get more traffic.
Above all, remember: Whether you need a complex data visualization infographic, a simple list infographic, or a comprehensive interactive infographic, getting the design right is the key to success.
(If you still need a little help with your infographic design or creating infographics that convert, we would love to work together.)
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